In-Person & Online Talks

A personal and historical journey illustrated by family photographs from treasured albums, and some side by side comparison images from Dartmoor today.

This illustrated talk traces some of the key routes that offered safe passage across Dartmoor for farmers, wool jobbers and other merchants using pack ponies, tinners, peat-cutters, monks, sailors, the dead...and more. Based on a book of the same name by Eric Hemery (Emma’s grandfather).

Many villages on Dartmoor beat the boundaries of their parishes every seven years, just as others do around the UK. The roots of this tradition go back further than the Christian religion. And there are noticeable similarities with indigenous cultural practices in China, Australia, the Sierra Nevada, and more. We will explore the possible roots/inspirations for these traditions.

With 24 possible and reported stone circles, 60% of the UK’s stone rows, and many standing stones and burial chambers, Dartmoor's extraordinary prehistoric monuments invite more questions than answers. This talk explores context and the different archaeological and phenomenological theories about their existence and purpose.

Humans have manipulated Dartmoor to suit our needs for thousands of years. This talk focuses on the success and failures of some of the entrepreneurs quarrying for granite and china clay; streaming or mining tin, copper, arsenic, and silver; making ice, lime, glass and gunpowder; and digging peat. With just a few mines/quarries currently in operation, nature has swiftly taken back over the old sites so that’s it’s easy to miss them or not know they are there.

Inside every seemingly strange story of witches, black dogs, and ghostly happenings on Dartmoor is a small kernel of truth. What are the real histories or possible origins behind the devil at Widecombe church; Hairy Hands; Faithless Wives of Chagford; Hound of the Baskervilles; Bowerman’s Nose and Hound Tor; and more?

Click here to see Emma’s new Dartmoor Myths & Legends book.

Peat Cuts, or Passes, are unique to Dartmoor due to settlement locations, grazing patterns, historic domestic need for fuel and use in commercial enterprises, as well as sporting pursuits. Where peat had already eroded, artificial channels were carefully sited and dug to join up stretches of open and firm ground to enable safe passage through difficult terrain. These ancient tracks have mostly fallen out of use and into disrepair. This illustrated talk explores their context, uses and future prospects.

Dartmoor has been described as a ‘mother of rivers’. The copper-gold waters of this land have served as a life-blood to animals and people living and working here for thousands of years. This illustrated talk offers a virtual tour of some of the beauty, uses, history and stories associated with Dartmoor rivers and waterways.

Women have played an important and integral role on Dartmoor through the ages. Starting with the fascinating Bronze Age burial of a woman up at Whitehorse Hill, we will explore the lives of some of the many extraordinary women that have lived and/or worked here up to the present day. Emma will weave personal stories from her maternal family with histories and legends of famous Dartmoor women, farmers, archaeologists, authors, witches, wives, sisters, grannies, and more.

Join Emma to explore some of the possible inspirations and origins for Sherlock Holme’s most famous case, the 'Hound of the Baskervilles'. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited Dartmoor, and you can see many of the influences for his novel from real-life people, places and incidents.

Indigenous people around the world consider sacred the mountains, rivers, springs, and other natural features. Perhaps the extraordinary tors of Dartmoor were similarly revered before the building of stone circles and rows. We will explore the different shapes of tors, the stories associated with them, as well as the monuments that were built around them, some of which still exist to this day including Tor Cairns; Neolithic Tor Enclosures; deliberately Propped Stones; and more. 

Corpse roads existed all over Britain, and Dartmoor was no different. This medieval route was used by inhabitants of the ancient tenements in the central basin to carry their dead many arduous miles across the moor to Lydford, the former ecclesiastical capital of Dartmoor Forest. Join Emma on a photographic journey to explore the fascinating history, features, and changes of use along this ancient track.