Granny Val and the Spirit of Dartmoor
Emma’s grandmother, ‘Granny Val’, passed on her lifelong love of Dartmoor. This piece is Emma’s tribute to her memories, stories, and enduring connection to the moor.
Article (and related photographs) originally published in Dartmoor News (…)
I have many people to thank for my deep and enduring love of Dartmoor. ‘Granny Val’, who died last year at 95 years old, was one of them. My maternal grandmother used to tell me that she had ‘loved Dartmoor ever since the age of three’ when she remembers their annual visit to cousins in Chagford before moving here a few years later. Her grandmother Sarah’s cousins were George and LIzzie Endacott who built Teign Marsh house in Chagford – the one across the river stepping stones at Rushford Mill.
My grandmother’s photo albums are a treasure trove – not just for our family but also for lovers of Dartmoor. Each photo has been carefully stuck down and her mother Nellie or she noted each person’s name, place, as well as dates stretching back to the late 1800s. There are photographs of her grandparents, parents, aunt, friends, of my grandmother as a little girl, as well as her children and later generations enjoying themselves at popular spots across the moor. Generations of our family can be seen at a particular moment in time taking a walk together and then having a picnic if the weather was nice at places like Postbridge, Dartmeet, the Warren House Inn, Steps Bridge, Cranmere Pool, Scorhill, 'Hey Tor’, Belstone, Cawsand Beacon, Vitifer tin mine, Kestor, Hound Tor, Chagford, Fingle Bridge, Batworthy, and many more.
As a young woman, wife, and mother, Val supported her first husband and my grandfather Eric Hemery to set up a pony trekking and guided walk business 1952-8. Eric went on to write several well regarded books including ‘High Dartmoor’ which has been described as 'the bible for anyone who has the spirit of Dartmoor’. The guiding business started from Chagford and continued when the family moved to Moortown Cot on the farm of the same name between Gidleigh and Throwleigh. Thinking it would help attract more walkers and riders, they moved for a few years to the Widecombe home of the recently deceased famous Dartmoor authoress Beatrice Chase. As well as looking after her two young children, Val would drive horse riders' suitcases and packs from farm to farm across Dartmoor over the course of their trekking holiday. Clients stayed over and ate at local farms such as Headland Warren and Brimpts. Eric hired riding horses from Diana Coaker at Hexworthy whilst his daughter, and my mother, Sally would enjoy staying there through the summer to look after the horses and then ride out each day to assist with the groups.
I was very close to my grandmother and greatly miss her love, warmth, humour, intelligence, as well as fierceness! Incredibly lucky to have her as I grew into adulthood and mid-life, my memories of her are many. Related to Dartmoor they are her exceptional local produce cooking skills and picnic treats; swimming together in favourite river spots on the moor as well as in the sea; her love of song and ability to recite poetry she’d learnt as a child at school – often with a nature theme. My grandmother adored nature - I once asked her what she loved about it, and she replied ‘everything’. Her garden was an exquisite mix of landscaped beauty and wildflowers. She saved bread and fat scraps for the bird table and would tell us about the blackbird that came to sing to her every day. With a beautiful singing voice and love of music, one of her favourite pieces of music was ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams which seems so apt for our beautiful skylarks.
I remember how we roared with laughter walking up to Meldon one afternoon when she’d just started having to use a walking stick. She pretended to be a ‘little old lady’ and giggled whilst I supported her up the hill.
In her final years, she didn’t want to leave her home. So my last memory of a walk on the moor with her was driving up hill as far as I could so that she could get out, walk a few steps, and sit on a favourite granite outcrop. We sat together for a while and she named all the hills and tors around us, and noted the beauty of the light touching them. Whilst I walked on for a while, she sat looking out across the moor at all the places she knew and loved.
When she could no longer walk on the moor, I would come back and tell her about my days of exploring old and new routes, share photos with her, and ask her a multitude of questions about her life here, the people she knew, and places she loved. She told me how much she enjoyed it and was always so curious about everything. But I could also sense her sadness at no longer being able to go herself. In an acknowledgment of my grandparents’ inspiration, 'Dartmoor’s Daughter' was going to be Dartmoor’s GrandDaughter initially but it didn’t scan as well!
My grandmother used to sit in a reclining pink velvet chair in her lounge, and her favourite view was out of her lounge window up to Meldon, Nattern, Kes, Middle and Frenchbeer tors. There is a tree on the horizon that she said the shape of it reminded her of a crown. Her noticing of the little things, her deep appreciation and love of this wild, ancient, and beautiful landscape is what touched me then and touches me most still. And this is how I will most remember her. She’s buried in Chagford churchyard along with her parents, ‘Home at Last’.
