Photos From Dartmoor, Dartmoor Ponies and Scenery

[Broxandval]

Hi All
Val and I though we would share some photo's of Dartmoor, its famous ponies and veiws.
We hope that you'll like them
rgrds
broxandval
Picture number one. Dartmoor Pony at Princetown
Picture number two. Gotta scratch, Mother and foal
Picture number three. Two white Ponies rather pregnant and fit to burst
Picture number four .The infamous Dartmoor Prison, originally built by french POW's to house French POW's during the Napolionic war, but still in use today to house criminals (believe me when I say it was a step up from the Prison Hulk's moored on the Hamoes Plymouth, that the POW's were held in prior to it's being built) but it was built in a rather bleak and inhospitable place to deter breakouts and when the weather comes in, it is bleak on the moors, I know as we used to take trainee sailors up on them for 20 mile hikes across it but it make up for it when the sun comes out and the weather is nice (see next picture !!!......
Picture number. five One of the many Torrs taken on the move through car window, note the others in the background
Picture number six Welcome to Princetown

[Robyn]

Dave, didn't you say you didn't have good scenery there in the UK in the other post about photos? You were wrong. Those first three photos are beautiful.

[Broxandval]

Hi Robyn
Why thank you, Dartmoor is our own national Park here in the south west the last two photo's especially the Prison were posted to show how bleak (the Prison and the Torr's) the place can be and to put across just how hardy the Ponies actually are.
Picture the place shrouded in a thick mist with driving rain or on other occaisions
Blizzards (the reason we don't get snow very often here in Plymouth.
The ponies are rounded up once a year and some are sold at auction sadly due to the European Union insisting that all these ponies must have a type of passport (rather expensive to boot) to be paid for by the owners we have seen them sold for as little as 50p about half a Dollar US.
This was in an effort to cut down on the number of these passports thus saving the owners a lot of money before the rules were implemented by our Government (you can't really blame them!!!!.....)
People flocked to these auctions to help save them but sadly many didn't have a clue how to look after them and many suffered due to this until rescued by the RSPCA but you can only find so many homes for them (three were actually found abandoned on a local rubbish dump in a rather sorry state).
SO VERY SAD !!!!!!.......... Now the breed is suffering because of this and may at some stage in the future the pure bred Dartmoor pony may die out.
At least non have gone to France where they would end up on the dinner plate.
rgrds
broxandval

[Arey]

Great pictures Brox. Picture No. 5 really gives an idea of the size and emptiness of the moors.

[Broxandval]

Hi Arey
It may look empty nowadays but at one point in it's history it was a hub of industry and has been mined extensivly, quarried, had railway lines running across it etc, etc and is still used by the Army for live firing and full scale exercises.
rgrds
broxandval

[Arey]

Sounds like the Jersey Pine Barrens which were a major center of the iron industry until the industrial revolution started. Lots of towns and iron furnaces have vanished leaving nothing but slag heaps and cellar holes.

Last month while at a big chain book store I saw a magazine titled British Archaeology in the magazine rack, so of course I bought it. There was a lengthy article on prehistoric Dartmoor and the many sites on it. It also included recommended auto tours. It was interesting to read that Dartmoor was once agricultural land and heavily forested.

Arey

[Broxandval]

Hi Arey
You are indeed correct in what you say, another interesting thing about Dartmoor is the area's where the Military have their live fire exercises and exercises our troops are a bastion of rare fauna, insects, etc.
You wouldnt believe it would you? but it's true.
It is also covered in Prehistoric stone Monuments,standing stone circles etc not on the size of stonehenge but stone circles all the same.
The moor also acts as a major water source for Plymouth and Sir Frances Drake built a leet from the moor (supplying water to what is known as Drakes Reservoir here in Plymouth), it supplied Plymouth in "Queen Elisabeth I" time and it still survives to this day as do major stretches of the Leet.
As a matter of Fact part of it runs past the top of the Chairman of our Koi Clubs garden and an underground section used to cause flooding in cellar of a local pub (The Nowhere Inn) which we used to drink in and effected it so badly at times they built a new cellar above ground.
There are also marker stones marking it's route underground that can still be seen to this day
rgrds
broxandval

[Jayesh]

Lovely, pictures by the way. Here in London we have nothing like that.

[Broxandval]

Hi Jayesh
Your from the Big smoke wow, have been to London on many occaision's passing through to various base's in the past , last time I was there was around 10 years ago.
rgrds
broxandval