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<< Our Photo Pages >> High Moorland Visitor Centre - Museum in England in Devon

Submitted by Andy B on Saturday, 10 July 2010  Page Views: 7884

MuseumsSite Name: High Moorland Visitor Centre Alternative Name: National Park Visitor Centre, Princetown; Thornworthy Cist; Ter Hill Cross; Old Duchy Hotel
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.139 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Devon Type: Museum
Nearest Town: Princetown
Map Ref: SX59037348
Latitude: 50.544048N  Longitude: 3.990931W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

Anne T visited on 17th May 2019 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 3 Access: 4 Princetown Visitor Centre, second visit: We had arranged to meet one of Sandy G's intrepid Dartmoor Explorers here at around 10.30am, to have a final look around before starting our journey back home. . I confess to being really disappointed with this Centre as there was only the cast of a standing/inscribed stone and a prehistoric trackway. There were lots of information banners and photographs. The main entrance was really a shop front for cards, maps, books and guide books. I photographed the stone then we left to start the journey home. The centre was advertising an exhibition due to arrive shortly.

Anne T visited on 16th May 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4 Thornworthy Cist and Ter Hill Cross, Princetown National Park Visitor Centre: We had about 15 minutes before the centre closed on the Thursday, so we flew in with Dave Parks for me to see and photograph the Thornworthy Cist and the Ter Hill Cross. There was scaffolding around the back of the building, so I used this to step onto the weedy garden to photograph the cist slab from the top. By the time I'd taken some photographs, I was being ushered out of the garden as they wanted to close the centre for the night, but I was bid 'you are more than welcome to come back tomorrow if you can".

graemefield visited on 7th Apr 2018 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 5

AngieLake have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4 Ambience: 3.33 Access: 4.33

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by AngieLake : A modern replica of a pot from the recent Bellever hut circle excavations. Made by a local lady potter and displayed in the 'Going for Bronze' exhibition in summer 2010. (Vote or comment on this photo)
The High Moorland Visitor Centre (now renamed the National Park Visitor Centre, Princetown) is an ideal place to start your visit to Dartmoor. There is FREE admission to the Centre, where you will find extensive, modern, interpretative displays that provide wonderful insights to Dartmoor, its history, culture and wildlife, as well as a gallery with regularly changing exhibitions and a small auditorium where visitors are able to watch various short films about Dartmoor. There is also a prehistoric cist in the garden.

Situated in Princetown at the heart of Dartmoor, the Centre is easily accessible by road from Exeter or Plymouth and by public transport throughout the year. Princetown provides an excellent gateway to both the south and north moors for hill walkers and our Centre staff will be pleased to help you plan a suitable route.

The cist in the garden was originally situated below Thornworthy Tor, Chagford, close to Fernworthy reservoir and is one of two which were discovered within a burial mound in 1879. It was excavated by William Pengelly, a prominent Torquay archaeologist and geologist. Unfortunately it was ransacked before he completed his excavation, all that remained were some discarded beaker pottery fragments and a few flint tools.

Following Pengelly’s excavation the landowner donated the cist to the newly opened Torquay Museum which was run by the Torquay Natural History Society, both of which Pengelly had been instrumental in founding. Torquay Museum having rearranged their major exhibits no longer had sufficient floor space for the cist and it is now on loan to the Dartmoor National Park Authority and is situated in the garden at the back of the Visitor Centre.

For photographs of the cist in its original location see Thornworthy Cairn, SID 15453.

The visitor centre garden is also home to the Ter Hill Wayside Cross, recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 443316 and scheduled as Historic England List ID 1002618.

For more information visit the National Park Visitor Centre, Princetown website.
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High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : The fourth side of the Buckland Monachorum Stone (cast). An extract from the information sign reads: "The(se inscribed stones) commemorate important people and may have been visible reminders of ancestors, land-holding and boundaries. Many are found on early Christian sites. They are also found in South West Wales, the Isle of Man and Southern Scotland – all areas where Irish peoples settled aft... (Vote or comment on this photo)

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : Another side of the Buckland Monachorum Stone. An extract from the information sign reads: "In the region of Dumnonia (South West England) there are 50 known inscribed memorial stones. The writing on these stones is in a local version of Roman Latin, or in Irish stroke-writing called ogham and sometimes in both". The stone is dated from AD 450 to AD 700. (Vote or comment on this photo)

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : Another side of the Buckland Monachorum Stone. An extract from the information board reads: "The inscription reads: SABINUS FILI MACCODECHETI – the stone of ‘Sabinus the son of Maccodechetus’. The names of the son (Roman) and father (Irish) highlight the South West maritime connections in early medieval times with Ireland and continuing contact with the Roman world". (Vote or comment on this photo)

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : This is a cast of one of 50 known inscribed memorial stones. An extract from the information sign reads: "The original of this granite stone was moved to Tavistock in the 1800s, together with two other examples. It was first recorded in 1797 built into a smith by the entrance to Buckland Monachorum churchyard". (Vote or comment on this photo)

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : Part of a cast from the Shaugh Moor prehistoric trackway. Radiocarbon dates indicated usage around 1500BC. The information sign says: "The footprints show movement in both directions along the trackway. Footprints also include those of wild animals such as badger. Horse hoof prints are amongst the earliest evidence for the introduction of horses to Britain in the Bronze Age". (Vote or comment on this photo)

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : The back of the Ter Hill Cross. The repair to the shaft is visible by the join just under the arms; the granite sections are two different colours. There is a second Wayside Cross near the original location of this cross on the moor, but set in line with the path so it is not as visible.

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : Getting closer to the Ter Hill Cross, the repair to its arm (a large iron clamp) is highly visible. According to Pastscape, the shaft was also broken prior to the arm and also repaired with an iron clamp, but this is no longer visible. F.H.Starkey tells us "how a farmer at Sherburton in the valley of the Swincombe below took a fancy to this cross .. and however and removed it and set it up in his...

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : The original Ter Hill cross is placed at the back right hand side of the garden as you exit from the visitor centre. The information board says it came from SX 64036 70623; the Historic England record gives a slightly different ngr of SX 64121 70640. Removed from the moor in 1994 as it was being damaged by cattle using it as a rubbing post. A replica now stands on the moor in the original socket s...

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : Looking down on the large granite slab which would have covered/closed the cist.

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : I very cheekily used one of the scaffold poles to step upon onto the garden area (weedy, so didn't touch any plants or the cist) to photograph the cist from different angles. (4 comments)

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by Anne T : First view of the cist, walking through the back door of the Visitor Centre into the garden at the rear. Work was being done on the back wall of the building, which temporarily surrounded the cist by scaffold poles.

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by AngieLake : Another display board showing photos of the excavation of a round house at Bellever. Part of last year's 'Going for Bronze' exhibition.

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by AngieLake : One of the info displays showing the excavation of a round house at Bellever. In last year's exhibition 'Going for Bronze'.

High Moorland Visitor Centre
High Moorland Visitor Centre submitted by AngieLake : In the main permanent display area is a useful introduction to the splitting of granite by the 'feather and tare' method.

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 1.1km SW 225° Hart Tor North ring cairn* Ring Cairn (SX5819872694)
 1.3km SW 218° Hart Tor North prehistoric settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX5818572466)
 1.4km WSW 252° Meavy Head Settlement Ancient Village or Settlement (SX577731)
 1.5km ENE 74° Blackabrook* Cairn (SX60527386)
 1.8km NNE 13° Holming Beam Stone* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry (SX5947975229)
 2.0km ENE 69° Roundhill South West 2* Cist (SX60917414)
 2.0km ENE 69° Roundhill South West 1* Cairn (SX60927416)
 2.2km ENE 63° Two Bridges Stone Row / Alignment (SX610744)
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 2.2km E 87° Blakey Tor West* Cist (SX61247355)
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 2.2km ENE 63° Roundhill Summit* Cairn (SX61057443)
 2.2km SW 215° Hart Tor south row* Stone Row / Alignment (SX57687168)
 2.3km SW 216° Hart Tor north rows* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX57637169)
 2.3km E 86° Moorlands Farm* Cairn (SX6131273558)
 2.3km E 99° Crock of Gold* Cairn (SX61287306)
 2.3km ENE 65° Roundhill East (Devon)* Cairn (SX61167441)
 2.4km NE 34° Beardown Farm Cist (SX60407540)
 2.4km WSW 253° Walkhampton Enclosed Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX56747286)
 2.4km ESE 105° Royal Hill Summit* Cairn (SX61307279)
 2.4km SSW 213° Raddick Hill North* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX57657147)
 2.6km SSW 204° Raddick Hill Cist* Cist (SX57937116)
 2.7km NNW 330° Fice's Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SX5773075865)
 2.8km SW 222° Black Tor (Meavy)* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX5710271463)
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"High Moorland Visitor Centre" | Login/Create an Account | 6 News and Comments
  
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Ceremonial and ritual Dartmoor - new discoveries in an ancient landscape, 28th July by Andy B on Saturday, 14 July 2012
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County: Devon

Sat 28 July; 14.00

DNPA Senior Archaeologist Jane Marchand gives a fascinating talk about the recent discoveries at Tottiford Reservoir and the White Horse Hill Cist. Adults £4.00, children 14 & under free.

Location: High Moorland Visitor Centre, Tavistock Road, Princetown, PL20 6QF. Princetown is located in the heart of Dartmoor on the B3212 between Yelverton and Two Brdiges

Org: Dartmoor National Park Authority
Name: High Moorland Visitor Centre
Tel: 01822 890414
Web: http://www.dartmoor.gov.uk

Part of the Festival of British Archaeology 2012
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Cist in the garden of the High Moorland Visitor Centre by Andy B on Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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The best known cists are probably those to be found at Merrivale (NGR SX 55487476) at Drizzlecombe (NGR SX 59156721) and the cist which now can be seen in the garden of the High Moorland Visitor Centre. This cist was originally situated below Thornworthy Tor, Chagford, close to Fernworthy reservoir and is one of two which were discovered within a burial mound in 1879. It was excavated by William Pengelly, a prominent Torquay archaeologist and geologist. Unfortunately it was ransacked before he completed his excavation, all that remained were some discarded beaker pottery fragments and a few flint tools.

Following Pengelly’s excavation the landowner donated the cist to the newly opened Torquay Museum which was run by the Torquay Natural History Society, both of which Pengelly had been instrumental in founding. Torquay Museum having rearranged their major exhibits no longer had sufficient floor space for the cist and it is now on loan to the Dartmoor National Park Authority and is situated in the garden at the back of the Visitor Centre.
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Re: Art exhibition with Dartmoor theme by AngieLake on Saturday, 05 February 2011
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A little late now (it finished on 26 Jan) to advertise this one, but worth a mention because Carol Mullin painted a lovely interpretation of the twisted oak trees that are found in ancient Wistmans Wood near Two Bridges.
http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/aboutus/news/au-geninterestnews/carol-mullin-on-dartmoor
See the link for illustrations.
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Going for Bronze - Making a Reconstruction Bronze Age Pot by Andy B on Saturday, 10 July 2010
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Going for Bronze at the High Moorland Visitor Centre, 3 July to 29 September 2010 by Andy B on Saturday, 10 July 2010
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Going for Bronze at the High Moorland Visitor Centre

Learn about life, death and landscape on Bronze Age Dartmoor this summer at Dartmoor National Park Authority’s High Moorland Visitor Centre in Princetown. Going for Bronze, a major new exhibition, created by a partnership between Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery (RAMM) and Dartmoor National Park Authority, runs from 3 July to 29 September 2010.

Dartmoor is famous for containing one of the best preserved and most complete Bronze Age landscapes in Western Europe. This is made up of ceremonial and burial monuments, round houses and extensive field systems.

The quality of this preservation is partly due to the use of granite as a building material which is virtually indestructible, and partly due to the relatively non intensive use of the Moor in the recent past and today.

Consequently the imprint made by Dartmoor’s Bronze Age inhabitants on the landscape remains much as they left it over three and a half thousand years ago, whether this be a stone row leading up to a circular burial cairn, or one of the many thousands of Bronze Age homes (round houses) still set in its walled enclosure.

Trevisker ware is the most commonly found Bronze Age pottery, and belongs to a distinct south western tradition, dating between 2,000-1,000BC. The vessels are flat bottomed, fairly coarse and fired in simple bonfire kilns. They were decorated with impressions of plaited and twisted cord, or with impressed circles or slashes. They were used as domestic ware, containers and storage jars.

Learn about Bronze Age ceremonial places, burials, settlements and farming and the progression from using stone tools and weapons to the use of bronze.

Find out more about the discovery of a prehistoric ceremonial complex under the waters of a Dartmoor reservoir as well as the latest on the excavations of a round house at Bellever.

There will be a superb display of artefacts from RAMM and private collections including stone tools and weapons and some fine replica bronze tools and weapons.

A specially commissioned replica of the Hameldon dagger, possibly one of the most important prehistoric finds on Dartmoor will be on display here for the first time. The original, discovered in the late 1800s in a prehistoric burial mound, was destroyed during the bombing of Plymouth Museum during the Second World War. The original dagger had a bronze blade and an amber handle inlaid with gold pins.

Another special project, linked to the exhibition, has been running since the winter. The Trevisker project has involved local Dartmoor Potter Joss Hibbs who has been researching how a Bronze Age cooking pot would have been made. Joss has replicated the production process as well as the design of the pot which will also be on display for the first time during the exhibition. A film about the making of the pot has been produced and this will be screened during the exhibition. A short version of the film is also available to watch on YouTube (external link, opens new window).

A special programme of events and guided walks will run throughout the summer organised by RAMM and Dartmoor National Park Authority. A leaflet listing over 50 linked walks and events will be available from National Park Visitor Centres.

The High Moorland Visitor Centre is open daily from 10 am – 5 pm. Admission to the exhibition is free.

http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/au_g4bpr

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