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Dartmoor Trust

Supporting Dartmoor, its people and environment.

02/06/2026

The Dartmoor Trust visits Kelly Mine, Lustleigh.
On 10 May representatives of The Dartmoor Trust were invited to explore Kelly Mine in Lustleigh along with other interested guests. The mine is the only remaining site on the moor at which the visitor can witness the traditional methods of how mining was carried out in the years before mining ceased on Dartmoor. The mine site is now run by volunteers among them Bruce Boulton, author of the book Dartmoor Tin Mining, a publication supported by The Dartmoor Trust.
The visitors were led through the process once used in extracting micaceous haematite
ore (known as shiny ore) widely used in the manufacture of specialised paints, but in more recent times in the cosmetic industry. Still in the process of restoration the visitors were taken on a tour which led them through a visit to underground adits where the ore was extracted through the processes of crushing, refining and finally drying of the finished metal as had been carried out until the mine’’s closure in 1951.
The Kelly Mine Preservation Society now hold an annual open day along with regular tours for select smaller groups. Details can be found on their website at kellymine.co.uk

05/04/2026

💐 Happy Easter 💐

With our grateful thanks to all at Moretonhampstead Primary School ✨

How Phoebe the donkey got her name…

Phoebe is named after Phoebe Wortley-Talbot (1926–2009), whose generous bequest established the Phoebe Wortley-Talbot Charitable Trust to support projects on Dartmoor.

In 2023 the Trust awarded a grant to the Dartmoor Trust, funding a two-year artist programme celebrating the moor. Year 1 (2024) featured invited photographers; Year 2 (2025) worked with members of the South West Academy of Fine & Applied Arts. Both years ended with major exhibitions and publications.

As part of Year 2, the Academy and Dartmoor Trust ran an education project with Moretonhampstead Primary School. Under headteacher Alex Waterman and educationalist Nic George, the children designed a large-scale donkey model. Artist and sculptor Mairi Hunt painted it using their drawings.

The finished donkey — named Phoebe in memory of the original benefactor — was first shown alongside the children’s work at the Dartmoor exhibition in Neadon Barn, Manaton, in September 2025, and later at Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary. It now has a permanent home at the school on a plinth made by local craftspeople.

Donkeys have a long history on the moor as sturdy pack animals for farms and mining. Phoebe is a joyful, collaborative celebration of Dartmoor, art, and local education.

14/02/2026

Every act of compassion, every moment we choose to see the humanity in others, strengthens the bond that holds us together. And when we step outside together, when we let nature be our common ground, we remember the simple truth: we all belong to each other, and to this earth we share.

Fernley Heath Collection
1970s

11/11/2025

11 November 1918, the WWI , signed by the Allies and Germany in a railway car in Compiègne, France, came into effect and hostilities ended at 11am, “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”

1914-18 war soldiers, including some from South Tawton
South Tawton Collection

King George V laying a wreath on the coffin of the Unknown Warrior at the Cenotaph before its burial in Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day, 1920

At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in #1918 , the guns fell silent along the Western Front, marking the end of the Great . Germany signed an unconditional surrender through the Armistice, bringing a close to four harrowing years of unprecedented bloodshed that claimed tens of millions of lives. It was heralded as “the war to end all wars,” yet has tragically proven otherwise, with conflicts continuing to scar the world.

Today, on this solemn day, we pause to honour every man and woman who has sacrificed their life in war and peacekeeping—from the trenches of the First World War to the battles and missions that followed—and all those who still serve our nations with unwavering courage. As Laurence Binyon’s poignant poem “For the Fallen” reminds us:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Lest we forget

09/11/2025

Approximately 11,600 men and women from Devon lost their lives during or as a result of serving their country in the First World War.

This figure is commemorated on the Devon County War Memorial on Cathedral Green in Exeter. The figure reflects the significant sacrifice made by the county, with nearly every parish in Devon having a war memorial dedicated to its fallen.

The primary county regiment, the Devonshire Regiment, alone suffered around 5,787 dead across its many battalions that served in various theatres of war, including the Western Front, Italy, Macedonia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

After the Armistice of November 11, 1918, which ended World War One, the country experienced an unprecedented wave of commemoration due to the loss of approximately 722,785 soldiers, most of whom were young and unmarried, shifting much of the mourning to parents and communities. At the local level, communities across Britain and Ireland formed committees to fund and erect tens of thousands of memorials through public subscriptions and private donations, with the majority of stone structures built by the mid-1920s and continuing into the 1930s.

Mr Nick Hewitt creator of the National Inventory of War Memorials: “They were seen as members of the community first and soldiers second”

1WW Crediton War Memorial unveiling
May 16th 1923
Tony Clark Collection

Dedication of the Lustleigh War Memorial ,1922
Lustleigh Collection

Dedication Of The Princetown War Memorial
November 12th 1921
Tony Clark Collection

Chagford War Memorial
Dedicated In 1928
Boddy Collection

The Cave-Penney Cross Memorial, erected 1918.
Sherwell Down, Dartmoor.

Ivybridge War Memorial
Dedication September 22nd 1922
Evans Collection

DevonshireRegiment “The Devons” Parade on Angel Hill
Tiverton, 1914
Tony Clark Collection

Devonshire Regiment group
India
Circa 1915
Tony Clark Collection

Devonshire Regiment men employed in forestry:
‘Devon Knuts in the Forest’
Circa 1915

Newly enlisted volunteers “Pals” of The 8TH Devons billeted at Dawlish, 1914
Tony Clark Collection

30/03/2025

With love on Mother’s Day 🌷🩷🌷

“The Light Gatherer”
by Carol Ann Duffy

When you were small,
I gathered light for you—
caught it in jars
like fireflies,
tipped it over your cot
so you’d sleep
in a glow
I’d made from scraps.

My hands were sieves,
sifting the day
for what could hold you—
a laugh, a song,
the warm edge
of a shadow
I’d wrestled still.
Each night
I stitched stars
into your ceiling,
my needle
a promise
you’d never know
how dark
it was to carry
the sun for you.

08/03/2025

🌹Celebrating International Women’s Day 🌹

Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. International Women’s Day has been around for over a hundred years, as have many of the issues still impacting women’s advancement. Since 1911, IWD belongs to all who care about women’s equality.

1: Mrs Rawle, Devon Women’s Land Army WW1
2: Mother and Child, Stiniel Farm near Chagford, 1985
3: Marjorie Taylor, 1929
4: Mrs Courtier, near Mortonhampstead, 1910
5: Mrs Jakeman making lace, 1880s
6: Patience and Faith Lowe, Devon Women’s land Army WW1

14/02/2025

💗What better a date to announce the addition of the exquisite Fenwick Collection to The Dartmoor Trust Archive! This truly remarkable collection consists of 216 glass plate photographs, capturing the essence of the Fenwick family from the late 1800s through to the 1920s. Each image is a window into the past, offering a vivid and often intimate glimpse into the lives, landscapes, and legacies of this fascinating Dunsford family. We couldn’t be more delighted to be able to share these historical treasures with you, today. Click the link in our bio to discover more about the Fenwick Collection 💗

01/01/2025

Ring Out, Wild Bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

~Tennyson

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Manaton
Newton Abbot
TQ139UY

Website

https://dartmoortrust.org/

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