Dartmoor Devon. Widecombe-in the-Moor, featuring St.Pancras Parish Church, the "Cathedral of the Moors."
Commentary.
Probably derived from “Withy-combe” or “Willow Valley,”
Widecombe-in-the-Moor epitomises the remote upland villages of Dartmoor.
Renowned for its annual “fair” and the accompanying folk-song, “Uncle Tom Cobley and All,” this scene, including the grounds of the Parish Church of St.Pancras, otherwise known as “The Cathedral of the Moor,” due to its disproportionate size, in such a small and under-stated village, is so typical of this moorland landscape.
Widecombe Valley crowded by broadleaf trees gives way to the green patchwork of pasture for sheep and cattle, embroidered and edged by the ever-present tall Devon hedgerows and trees.
Steep lanes climb steadily in gentle undulations between the “Tors,” at the highest points.
From one to two thousand feet up, depending on aspect, the green swathe of fields, in turn, transforms into the reddish-brown bracken and heather of the high moorland.
The yellow of dense Gorse is also clear to see.
This almost tan-brown and purple autumn carpet contrasts sharply with the broken, shattered, grey piles of granitic boulder called “Tors,” that peak on the horizon.
Many visitors and locals scramble to these other-worldly, jumbled, irregular stone piles, from which, miles of sweeping moorland, fades into the distance.
An awesome and spiritual place that stays long in the memory, none more so, than when the mists descend and the legends and fears of “the Great Swamp,” as the locals often refer to it, become very uncomfortably tangible!!!
Dartmoor Devon. Widecombe-in the-Moor, featuring St.Pancras Parish Church, the "Cathedral of the Moors."
Commentary.
Probably derived from “Withy-combe” or “Willow Valley,”
Widecombe-in-the-Moor epitomises the remote upland villages of Dartmoor.
Renowned for its annual “fair” and the accompanying folk-song, “Uncle Tom Cobley and All,” this scene, including the grounds of the Parish Church of St.Pancras, otherwise known as “The Cathedral of the Moor,” due to its disproportionate size, in such a small and under-stated village, is so typical of this moorland landscape.
Widecombe Valley crowded by broadleaf trees gives way to the green patchwork of pasture for sheep and cattle, embroidered and edged by the ever-present tall Devon hedgerows and trees.
Steep lanes climb steadily in gentle undulations between the “Tors,” at the highest points.
From one to two thousand feet up, depending on aspect, the green swathe of fields, in turn, transforms into the reddish-brown bracken and heather of the high moorland.
The yellow of dense Gorse is also clear to see.
This almost tan-brown and purple autumn carpet contrasts sharply with the broken, shattered, grey piles of granitic boulder called “Tors,” that peak on the horizon.
Many visitors and locals scramble to these other-worldly, jumbled, irregular stone piles, from which, miles of sweeping moorland, fades into the distance.
An awesome and spiritual place that stays long in the memory, none more so, than when the mists descend and the legends and fears of “the Great Swamp,” as the locals often refer to it, become very uncomfortably tangible!!!