Thorncombe lies in a very beautiful part of West Dorset, bordering Devon and Somerset.
It falls within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) . The Parish is over
5,200 acres in extent and is principally agricultural land.
Fields tend to be small and hilly with ancient hedgerows, while the access roads
to the village are very narrow lanes, shaded in summer by tall trees including oaks,
beeches and sycamores, and fringed with primroses, bluebells and cow parsley.
The parish of Thorncombe is rich in a wide variety of wildlife. There is a mixture
of arable farming and pasture, with wide hedges - many of which have been dated to
hundreds of years of age. Many hedges support mature trees, especially oaks, and
there are several pieces of woodland and copses in and around the village.
There is a healthy range of habitats, ranging from damp, boggy ground near the rivers
Synderford, Axe and Blackwater that surround the area, to sunny pastures and to the
high downland of Blackdown, providing suitable environments for a wide range of indigenous
plants and flowers and supporting healthy populations of insect-life.
Deer are commonly seen in the fields - and gardens- as are rabbits, squirrels and
other small mammals. Many badger setts are clearly active in the area.
Bird life is exceptionally rich, with common visitors to bird-tables and gardens
including great-spotted woodpeckers, green woodpeckers, treecreepers, nuthatches,
siskins, jays and flycatchers. There are nesting buzzards in the Dungeon woods close
to the village centre. Herons are frequently seen flying over and visiting ponds
and lakes. Pheasants are bred for shooting so are also very common.
Chard Junction Nature
Reserve
We are very fortunate to have a brand new nature reserve on our doorstep. The reserve
at Chard Junction Quarry, grid reference ST 345045, has been developed by Dorset
Wildlife Trust. In the far west of the county, close to the Somerset and Devon borders,
it provides a much needed haven for wildlife as there are no other nature reserves
nearby. The community reserve, which has not seen any quarrying for many years,
contains important wildlife habitats, including woods, ponds and establishing grassland.
The reserve is in the southern part of the quarry, which is no longer used by site
owners Bardon Aggregates. The owners have worked closely with Dorset Wildlife Trust,
Somerset Wildlife Trust and Thorncombe Village Trust.
Volunteers from the area gave up their time and energy to cut back brambles and gorse,
make paths and benches, hang gates, lay down walk-ways, put up fencing and erect
information boards. The work is on-going, and more volunteers would be welcomed with
open arms…. Read on and see photos of the Reserve
ONCE UPON A THORNCOMBE ROAD (picture above)
The network of footpaths which criss cross our parish are an important part of Thorncombe’s
historical heritage and are clues to reconstructing its foggy past by linking fragments
of evidence from various sources and as W.G. Hoskins, the father of contemporary
local studies recommends, using your eyes.
The track linking Sadborow to Saddle Street was once one of Thorncombe’s roads.
It is recorded on the earliest ordnance survey map of Dorset (1). England’s southern
coastal strip was mapped in 1806 by government surveyors in fearful anticipation
of the Napoleonic invasion and marked the birth of the ordnance survey maps we use
today. The purpose of the 1806 map was to identify thoroughfares of potential strategic
use for military purposes. The track is also clearly marked as a side road on the
1811 OS map which indicates that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, if not
for several centuries before, what is now a bridleway and part of The Monarch’s
Way was once a well used local thoroughfare (2).
Starting opposite Sadborow Pound you can still follow this historic byway today.
Notice the width between the ruts, possibly made by cart wheels and more recently
worn away by tractors and agricultural machinery. Circumstantial evidence suggests
that it was part of Thorncombe’s original road network and may have been used by
drovers. Their job was to herd cattle and sheep to market from other parts of the
country. Hired by farmers, they were responsible for ensuring their charges arrived
in tip top saleable condition. The trade was at its height between the seventeen
and nineteenth centuries as the population increased, particularly in towns and demand
for meat and bi-products such as wool and animal hides grew. There was a small weekly
market in Thorncombe until 1773 and an annual six day fair starting on Easter Tuesday
but it is unlikely that the weekly market was sufficiently significant to attract
large numbers of cattle from other parts of the UK.
The coppiced tree lined parallel tracks running alongside Horseshoe Road and elsewhere
in the parish are said by some to be indicators of farm animals being herded through
the parish to be sold at local cattle markets (3). As they still do today, farmers
have been breeding, fattening and selling sheep in this valley for centuries. The
state of the roads and the extent of the traffic was such that alternative routes
away from main thoroughfares for sheep and cattle were essential to ease a herdsman’s
progress,
In 1808 Charles Vancouver in his General View of Agriculture of the County of Devon
describes the parish roads around Axminster as, ‘very indifferent, nay very bad indeed.’
He comments on the ‘height of the hedge banks, often covered with a rank growth of
coppice wood, uniting and interlocking with each other over-head’ and complains that
‘gangs of pack horses’, the precursor of the dreaded white van, either block the
road or go at such a pace downhill they force the unfortunate traveller into the
hedge.
Continue along the track towards Saddle Street, to just above the self catering
units at Yew Tree Farm. The track links to a footpath which travels north-east down
into the valley. The path crosses the River Synderford into the water meadow; a natural
resting place for man and beast with a dependable supply of drinking water and grazing.
It then climbs up through Causeway Farm to Causeway. This road which hugs Blackdown
Hill links to the main Crewkerne/Lyme road providing easy access to the regular
weekly cattle and livestock markets at Crewkerne, Axminster, Bridport and beyond.
(Walk 4)
Another clue to the track’s possible use by drovers are Scots pine trees, still
growing along the Causeway and clearly visible across the valley. Like holly or
hollin, which often still marks the crossing of footpaths on old field boundaries,
these easy to spot trees are also ancient waymarkers. Natural regenerators, these
venerable trees appear to be ancient survivals of a world where few people could
read and write, besides which there were few accurate maps until the first ordnance
survey. Groups of Scots pines planted at the top of farm tracks are said to have
been a sign to a drover that he could rest his valuable charges overnight and find
hospitality in the farmhouse (4).
References:
1. http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/ordsurvdraw/
2. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/
3. Bonser, K., (1972), The Drovers …, Newton Abbot, Country Book Club
4. Mabey, R., (1998), Flora Britannica, London, Chatto & Windus
EVE HIGGS
November 2012
For a more detailed account see also Higgs, E. (2012) ‘A Thorncombe Bye-Way: An investigation’,
in Bliss, J., Jago, C., and Maycock, E., (eds.) Aspects of Devon History. People,
Places and Landscapes, Exeter, Devon History Society, pp. 149-165.
