Kings Tor From Foggintor Dartmoor Devon
by Richard Brookes
Title
Kings Tor From Foggintor Dartmoor Devon
Artist
Richard Brookes
Medium
Photograph
Description
A view to Kings Tor from the remote, abandoned Foggintor Quarry near to Princetown in Dartmoor National Park, Devon, SW England, UK. Taken one September. Fair weather cumulus clouds resembling cotton wool cast patchwork shadows over this beautiful and wild landscape. In the foreground are ruins of buildings and to the right one of the massive rock dumps or spoil heaps extends into the landscape.
According to web sources this was once a thriving granite mining community of some 400 people with associated settlement, Foggintor was one of the three great Dartmoor granite quarries. It operated from about 1820 until 1938. Granite mined here was used in Nelson's Column, London Bridge and the infamous Dartmoor Prison at nearby Princetown.
Dartmoor prison was initially built to re house prisoners of war from old ship hulks due to their appalling conditions and a possible security threat, the hulks being near to Plymouth Royal Naval docks (now Devonport). The POWs came from the Napoleonic Wars, the first arrivals from 1809 and later American prisoners of war from from the War of 1812. Its population reached 6,000 at one stage. Most prisoners were repatriated in 1815. The prison lay empty until rebuilt and reopened in 1851 as a convict gaol. Some of the quarry's associated ruined buildings, foundations and old railway track beds can still be seen on the moor.
Rumours of ghostly 'Shadow Men' seen in the area between 1955 and 1980 turned out to be elite forces using the area for training.
Uploaded
August 24th, 2021
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