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Wigford Down

Wigford Down has the remains of an extensive Bronze Age field system. The fields are enclosed by low stone walls between which are interspersed groups of huts and a number of reaves riss cross the site. Wigford is also a very pleasant place to walk on a sunny day. The grassy surface is pleasant to walk on and the view are extensive especially those looking down over Plymouth some eight miles away. Dewerstone Hill has the remain of an Iron Age hillfort. To complement these remains there are a lot of industrial remnants to see especially in Dewerstone Wood and near to Shaugh Bridge.
Park at Shaugh Bridge car park (SX 534635) and take the path leading up behind the old drying kilns. This takes you NE across West Down, through the pleasant North Wodd to emerge beside the Plym river on a grassy sward just below Cadover Bridge. Cross the bridge and walk leaft up the gentle slope of Wigford Down. In a SW direction this takes you to Dewerstone Hill from where there are splendid views. Then walk down through the Dewerstone Wood where there are plenty of paths that will take you back down to Shaugh Bridge.
This is a pleasant and almost easy walk suitable for families on a sunny afternoon.
 
The car park near to Shaugh Bridge - SX 534635. There are ruined kilns behind the cars - used to dry clay that was transported via a set of tunnels from Shaugh clayworks some 2 miles upstream.
Walking over West Down at SX 541637. On the left side you can see part of Dewerstone Wood.
A view of the Dewerstone from West Down. The Dewerstone is popular with climbers and is also the source of a Dartmoor legend - Dewer the Demon Huntsman who together with his wisht hounds haunts Dartmoor at night in search of human prey. The unfortunate victims are lured to the top of the Dewerstone and from there they fall to their doom.
The trees of North Wood at SX 545640. We're walking over a half buried clay pipeline.
A half buried clay pipeline beside the track in North Wood. This is how the clay slurry was transported down from the clayworks to the drying kilns near to Shaugh Bridge.
Beside the Plym at SX 552644.
Walking up to Cadover Bridge. Hemery writes that Cadover may derive from the old word 'Caed' meaning 'place of a battle'. There are not that many crossing places over the Plym so this crossing would have been an important place in past years and it is conceivable that conflicts arose as a result.
The downstream view of the Plym from Cadover bridge at SX 555646. This is a popular place to picnic and on a sunny April day in school holidays there were a lot of people around.
One of the flooded clay settling pools that Shaugh china-clay works used to use.
A cairn on Wigford Down at SX 546651. Originally this cairn would have been huge - maybe a bit like Eastern Whitebarrow over the other side of the moor - but nearly all the stones have been taken for Victorian road building.
One of the markers to be found on Wigford Down.
Cadworthy Tor - an unmapped but rather beautiful little tor at SX 543642. Great views over the Dewerstone Gorge,
The rocks on top of the Dewerstone Plateau at SX 538639
This is the enclosed area of the Dewerstone Iron Age hillfort. Despite it's excellent vantage point this was a small hillfort with unremarkable defensive walls.
A Dewerstone memorial to Noel Carrington who died in 1830 - one of Dartmoor's romantic poets.
The extensive view from the Dewerstone Hill. This is something like what the inhabitants of the hill fort would have seen. On a smaller scale this is like a Devon version of Mycenae where the citadel is set back some miles from the sea but the hinterland is clearly visible.
This cable brake drum was used by the Dewerstone granite quarry to ensure that trucks laden with granite went downhill with their weight hauling up empty trucks back uphill. The quarry was active in the mid 19th century.
The disused tramway along which trucks for the granite quarry came up and down - SX 537643.
Some of the blocks of granite that were left behind after the Dewerstone quarry ceased work. A tramway used to run along this path.
Beside the Plym just before it meets the Meavy at Shaugh Bridge. Taken at SX 535637
 


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