Sherlockian Sojourns – Special #5: 'Return to the Moor' - Part Two

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Day 3: Buckfastleigh & Ashburton

 

‘The train pulled up at a small wayside station and we all descended. Outside, beyond the low, white fence, a wagonette with a pair of cobs was waiting. Our coming was evidently a great event, for station-master and porters clustered round us to carry out our luggage.’   [HOUN – Chapter 6]

 

Checking out of my accommodation, and catching a bus a few yards from the previous day’s bus stop, I made my way to Buckfastleigh, and the South Devon Railway.  A branch line from Totnes once passed through Buckfastleigh and ran on to Ashburton. Therefore, this is the station at which Watson and Sir Henry would have alighted to be taken to Baskerville Hall. It certainly would offer relatively easy access to the moor via one of the many lanes wandering vaguely northwards. This is also where Holmes and Watson would have met Lestrade.

I caught a train to Totnes and back, pulled by a steam locomotive. Due to social distancing, I had an assigned seat, and there was much less milling about on the platforms. However, I still managed to get some photos.

 

Leaving the station, I made my way to ‘The Valiant Soldier’, which was an active pub until it closed in the 1960s. It has recently been opened as a museum, giving visitors a glimpse of the past.

 

My next stop was via a footpath which started with a long climb up a set of wooden steps, then a long walk through woodland. Eventually I reached Holy Trinity Church, primarily a Thirteenth Century building but it has a Fifteenth Century nave  (Graveyard #4). Opposite the church porch is the sepulchre built for Squire Richard Cabell III (1622-1672), an unprincipled squire, nicknamed ‘Dirty Dick’. Various malicious stories abounded about him. The most famous of these was that one night he accused his wife of adultery, and following a struggle she fled to nearby Dartmoor. However, Cabell recaptured her, murdering her with his hunting knife. The victim’s pet hound was then supposed to have exacted revenge by ripping out Cabell’s throat, and some say that its anguished howls can still be heard. This legend has clear parallels to the legend of the death of Sir Hugo Baskerville (who was even a Royalist) related to Holmes by Dr. Mortimer in HOUND, which also involves a chase onto the moors and the ripping out of a man’s throat. (In reality, Cabell’s wife actually outlived him by some fourteen years, but the legend persisted nevertheless).

Cabell’s notorierty has led to the sepulchre being blamed for the various misfortunes that have befallen the church. It has also been suggested that the heavy tombstone enclosed therein was intended to prevent his ghost from escaping to Dartmoor and riding to hounds. Children were also dared to put their finger in the keyhole of the tomb’s lock on pain of the Devil biting it ! The tombstone has been damaged through past acts of vandalism or black magic rites, and is now safeguarded by an iron grille. Another local legend concerns the ghost of a weaver who lived in nearby Deancomebe. Unquiet, the weaver’s spirit sat at its ghostly loom until a priest threw a handful of soil from the churchyard at the ghost which immediately turned into a black hound. The hound was given the task of emptying a pool in the adjacent Dean Burn, using a nutshell with a hole in it, and the pool has been known ever since as Hound Pool.  

 

Continuing on for half-a-mile, I picked up a bus into Ashburton, alighting opposite The Old Exeter Inn, one of Britain’s oldest pubs, built in 1130 to house workers building the nearby St Andrew's Church. Local legend has it that Sir Frances Drake was a regular patron (and appears in mural form on the side of the building), as was Sir Walter Raleigh who was arrested at the Inn before being imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1603. More recently (and relevant to today’s quest), the Inn states that Conan Doyle was a regular client when writing HOUND.

 

 

The Church was my next port of call, in whose graveyard Henry (Harry) Baskerville is buried  (Graveyard #5). It was he who was the coachman in 1901, who drove his master’s son, Bertram Fletcher Robinson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, around during Conan Doyle’s research trip to Dartmoor in June of that year. Henry shares his name with the new Lord of the Manor in the novel, and he received a first edition of HOUND from BFR in 1902. It was inscribed 'To Harry Baskerville from B Fletcher Robinson with apologies for using the name !'  Henry worked for Fletcher Robinson’s family for twenty years until 1905, when Emily Robinson (BFRs’ mother) was admitted to Springfield Nursing Home in Newton Abbot. He then moved to Ashburton where he worked for a further fifty-two years for an influential local family called Sawdye. The graveyard also features another familiar name – ‘James Mortimer’, a former local headmaster, who gave his name to the local doctor in HOUND who first brings the legend of the hound to Holmes’ attention. However, I was unable to find his grave despite precise directions, with a fallen cross probably his memorial.

Walking down West Street, I passed ‘Dorncliffe’, 18 West Street, where Harry Baskerville lived from 1931 until his death in 1962, aged 91. 

 

However, it was to another local pub, that I was making my way – ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ (formerly The Royal Oak) in East Street. Unfortunately, due to staffing problems, it was not open that day

Instead I continued up East Street reaching a building with a golden lion over the doorway. This building is notorious for being the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party until 1999.

 

 Returning to the bus stop  I then caught a bus to Exeter Bus Station, where I checked into my new accommodation, only a few steps from the bus station.

 

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Day 4: Lynton

 

‘A number of monthly magazines were coming out at that time, notable among which was "The Strand,". Considering these various journals with their disconnected stories it had struck me that a single character running through a series, if it only engaged the attention of the reader, would bind that reader to that particular magazine’.   [ACD - Memories & Adventures, 1924]

 

Catching a train from Exeter St Davids, I made my way to Barnstaple, where I caught a bus to Lynton. A short distance from the bus stop was the Old Station House, the terminus for the former Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B), which was founded in June 1895, with George Newnes as the first Chairman of the Board. Newnes’ company, George Newnes Ltd, published several well-known magazines such as ‘The Strand Magazine’, ‘Tit-Bits’, ‘The Westminster Gazette’, and ‘The Wide World Magazine’, all of which featured stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with ‘The Strand Magazine’ being the first publication of all the Sherlock Holmes short stories.

In September 1895, construction of the station began and Lady Newnes cut the first sod. The line was opened on 11^th May 1898, with Newnes and his wife arriving at Lynton on the first official L&B train, where they participated in the official opening ceremony. The line quickly became famous for its scenic beauty and unusually narrow gauge. Conan Doyle was a frequent rail passenger and it is probable that he used this station for a visit to the town in September 1902. 

 

A fifteen minute walk took me into central Lynton, and Lynton Town Hall, where following their participation in the opening ceremony, Newnes and his wife were driven to in a horse-drawn carriage, and where Lady Newnes laid one of two foundation corner stones for the Town Hall  (located either side of the main entrance). Newnes gifted the building to Lynton and Lynmouth in honour of his son, Frank Hillyard Newnes, who had recently come of age. The building took two years to complete, at a personal cost to Newnes of some £20,000. It was officially opened by him on 15^th August 1900 (there are two dedication stone also located either side of the main entrance). Alighting from his carriage, Newnes was presented with a silver key bearing his coat of arms. He unlocked the main door, then stepped inside, appearing a few minutes later on the balcony to take the cheers of the crowd. After making a short speech, he turned to the Chairman of the Council, and handed him the keys to the building. The building houses a permanent exhibition devoted to Newnes, and two busts of him – a bronze one on an outside niche; and a marble one given pride of place on the main staircase. The latter was a gift from the local people, and was unveiled at a ceremony held on 6^th September 1902, at which Conan Doyle delivered the main dedication speech.

Making my way into nearby woodlands, I reached the ruins of Hollerday House. During 1890, Newnes purchased Hollerday Hill with a view to building a home there. The work was supervised by a local builder called Bob Jones. The construction of the approach road began in May 1891, and eighteen months later work began on the house itself, with all works completed by the end of 1893. From then on, Newnes and his family spent each August, September and Christmas there. It also appears that Conan Doyle stayed at Hollerday House during his visit to Lynton in September 1902. During the summer of 1909, Newnes became seriously ill with diabetes, and died at Hollerday House on 9^th June 1910, aged 59. Due to the substantial debts left by Newnes, his family attempted to sell the property, but due to failing to attract any buyers, they shut up the house, selling the furniture off at auction. On the night of 4^th August 1913, the building caught fire and could not be saved. Although there was ample evidence of arson, the culprit has never been identified. Opposite the ruins there are information boards with details about Newnes and Hollerday House. At this point it started raining, but luckly I was under cover.

  Retracing my steps to the Town Hall, I continued on to Lynton Toy Museum, which houses a great display of toys, games and action figures ranging from the 1960s to 1980s and is the result of many years collecting by the owners, Tony and Lorraine Bennett. No Sherlockian toys, but a nice smattering of 'Doctor Who' toys. The attached shop sells lots of second-hand toys and games with lots of vintage items.

A short distance down the road was Lynton United Reformed Church. At the end of the Nineteenth Century, the existing Lynton Congregational Church near the bottom of Sinai Hill was considered too small and inconveniently sited by many worshippers. In 1903, Bob Jones offered a plot of land in Lee Road upon which a new church could be built. Members of the congregation approached Newnes for some financial assistance with the project. With characteristic generosity, and in memory of his father, the Reverend Thomas Mold Newnes, he paid £1,500, not only for the site to be enlarged, but also for a far more imposing building than was previously planned. The Church opened in August 1904, with the opening services being taken by the well-known London-based preacher, the Reverend Reginald John Campbell, who was presented with a new motor car following the service by Newnes for his pains.

 

Further down the road was the Old Cemetery, Longmead (Graveyard #6), where Newnes’ body was conveyed to from St. Mary’s Church (Lee Road) where his funeral service was conducted by the Reverend C.E. Treadwell (Vicar of Lynmouth) and the Reverend E.H.L. Jones (pastor of Lynton Congregational Church).

Next stop was the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway, a water-powered railway was designed by civil engineer, George Croydon Marks, who provided the required engineering expertise. Its construction was financed mainly by his business partner, George Newnes. Construction started in 1887. A cutting was excavated in the limestone cliff to form the track-bed and three bridges were built over it to carry existing cliff paths. Progress relied entirely on manual labour. The railway was completed in February 1890, and continued to glide up and down the 862 foot length of track; from Lynton at the top of the cliffs to Lynmouth nestling at the foot of the cliffs 500 feet below; providing tourists with stunning views of the North Devon Coastline. There is also a no smoking/vaping sign with a familiar silhouette.

 

All sites visited, I caught a bus back to Barnstaple, and then a train to Exeter St Davids. On my way back to my accommodation, I passed Higher Barracks. Constructed during 1794 (and now developed into residential properties) for the cavalry in response to a perceived invasion threat from France, Conan Doyle visited here to see his brother Innes during February 1897. He may also have shown the building to Jean Leckie during a visit to Exeter in around August 1902.

 

 

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The next day I made my way home, via Bath, visiting a street used in ‘Sherlock: The Abominable Bride’ and ‘Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’ a newly opened immersive visitor attraction based on another Victorian Gothic Novel just up from the Jane Austen Centre.