Information

• Distance: 2 miles, walked by Keith Ryan and transcribed by Simon Avery
• Grade: Gentle
• A GPX route of this walk is available: Download GPX
• Directions to Car Park
• What Three Words robes.dusts.mass

Map

Introduction

The Ten Commandments stone is a piece of natural granite that has been cut and shaped and engraved to show the ten commandments, plus an eleventh!

This walk starts with a gentle uphill route along some nice granite walling with some good views to the North to the Tor where the stone is to be found. The return route takes in some relatively unknown Welstor Common Rifle Range, dating back to 1861 and pre-dates the much larger training range to the East.

Leave the car park across the road to the Southwest

Boundary Stones

EPB stands for Edmund Pollexfen Bastard, Lord of the Manor of Buckland in the Moor.

He is also mentioned on the cross at Buckland Manor and several other nearby stones. These were erected to mark the boundary of Buckland Manor in 1837, a year before his death.

A = Ashburton, B = Buckland. Also has EPB roughly carved on one side.

The old (left in this picture) and new boundary stones, marked A, B and EPB as above.

The Welstor Newtake wall behind was built in 1771 to enclose open moorland for grazing. We keep it on our left all the way to Buckland Beacon.

Historically, on Dartmoor, “newtakes” were enclosures of common land for agricultural purposes, and also to exclude others from grazing it. This practice often led to conflict between commoners who held rights over the land, and the landowners who erected these walls.

Devil’s Hoofprint

This interesting little copse looks like it may have been planted to shelter a house at some time, but no such remains are known. In any regard, it is a nice place to rest on a summer’s day.

Sheep creep

The Ten Commandments Stones

Reaching Buckland Beacon, we pass by on its left side and find the commandment stones laying open like the pages of a book.

The stones were commissioned by William Whitely of Wellstor, Lord of Buckland Manor, in 1928, in celebration of the rejection by Parliament of a proposed new Book of Common Prayer that was deemed “too popish” by many.

There are two dates on the stones: 15th Dec 1927 and 14 June 1928, that are the dates on which the revised book was rejected.

When it was realised that there would be room to spare, the third verse of the hymn “Oh God our help in ages past” was added to the second stone.

There are 1,547 letters on the two stones and, due to weathering, the stones have needed to be recut several times, sometimes highlighted in black paint to aid legibility. This recutting is known to have happened in 1995, 2009, 2017 and most recently in 2020 as part of the “Moor than Meets the Eye” project.

Lefthand inscription

Righthand inscription

The Jubilee Stone

Jubilee Stone inscription

Views from the beacon

The Grey Mare

This stone has been known as the “Grey Mare” for at least 150 years and mentioned by William Crossing, but may even have been known by that name as far back as 1593 – Crossing’s Guide to Dartmoor. Also Mike Brown (2001) Guide to Dartmoor

Welstor

Welstor Common Rifle Range

The building above is shown in the 1886 OS map at the top right corner, titled, “Targets”.

The rest of the range is shown down the lower-right edge of this 1886 OS map which clearly defines the 200, 300, 600 and 800 yard firing positions that would have fired upon this target. Note: These firing positions are not at all obvious and they were originally probably little more than low earth banks for the men to lie down to aim from.

One supposes that wooden or canvas targets were raised above it, with the stone structure providing shelter for the range operators.

Devon & Dartmoor Heritage “Rifle Range on Welstor Common” includes: “A rifle range was established on Welstor Common in 1861 for use by the Ashburton Rifle Volunteers and represents the earliest recorded military training within the Rippon Tor PAL (Premier Archaeological Landscape). It continued in use until at least 1886 when depicted on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map, but by the time of the Second Edition (1905) it was absent, although William Crossing refers to it in his 1912 Guide to Dartmoor.”

There is a World War 2 Rifle range nearby on Halshanger Common. (It is the massive brick structure you may already have seen on this walk a mile or so to the East)

• Heritage Gateway page for this quarry

Welstor Common rifle range page states: The target storehouse/shelter with its massive stone wall facing the firing lines. This rifle range was created in 1861 for the use of the Ashburton Rifle Volunteers. It was in use until about 1900, the 1905 OS map does not record it. There is very little evidence on the ground with the exception of this structure which was near the west end of the stop butt. There is a partially collapsed corrugated iron roof inside. the small quarry to the southwest appears to post date the rifle range.

Ashburton Golf Course

From 1910 to the mid 1920s, this was the home of the Ashburton Golf Course - although no sign of it remains.

“On Wednesday 16th February 1910 Mr J T Barker presided at a meeting in the Market Hall to discuss and consider the proposed golf club for Ashburton. The chairman stated that a committee had already been appointed to try and find a suitable location for the course and as a result a large portion of land on Welstor Common had been obtained. It had been generously offered by Mr Parnell Tucker at a nominal rent, he was also willing to erect a clubhouse which could also be rented. The area had been inspected by several experts and a professional all of them were strongly in favour of the location.”

Note that the hanger is wedged in with iron feathers, showing it predates the more modern epoxy method of fixing which has been more generally used since the 1980s

Parking is usually to be had at Cold East Cross - marked with a yellow cross on the map.