At last, an opportunity for me to visit Dartmoor, where Tom and Effra struggle against nature and human obstacles to get back to Bathsua. This is part of the second book in the Tom Tyler series. It is called A Bag of Blood and Bones and follows Tom and Effra as they get caught up in the Parliamentary army’s victorious march into the west while Bathsua prepares to leave old England and emigrate to a new colony in New England.
My daughter and I had a great weekend scouting the eastern side of Dartmoor so that I could reconnoitre the ground, check what I’ve already written and, hopefully, describe the journey effectively in the novel.
I have not spent time walking on this side of Dartmoor before. I was interested in the clapper bridges near to Scorhill Tor and Kestor Rock. These are small, rock bridges built in the middle ages to help carts get over the streams in their way. The stone circle at Scorhill will get a mention in the book and I walked from there up to Rippa Tor, which is much less impressive than Kestor Rock.
The weather was kind to us, but that was a mixed blessing as I don’t make it kind to Tom and Effra! On the second day we discovered Sharpitor, Harston Chest and Hunters Tor, on the ridge above Lustleigh Cleave. The ridge is a great position from which to get an inkling of the difficulty in moving through this sort of terrain four hundred years ago. In my reading about Moretonhampstead, I learned that it wasn’t until 1815 that the roads around it were good enough to cope with wheeled transport. 170 years’ earlier, there would have been more woods and moors and fewer roads and tracks and people. This made me wonder if the clapper bridges were built to cope with sledges, rather than wheeled carts.
We even discovered a castle in the neighbourhood. Bovey Castle, though, was built at the turn of the twentieth century and would not have been part of the landscape in Tom’s time. It may be, though, that there was a nearby manor house, and I may be able to conjure this into an enemy stronghold. Anyway, we spent a very pleasant couple of hours relaxing at the Castle in its current guise of a 5-star golfing hotel.
A Bag of Blood and Bones will be out soon. Look out for it!
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