Route
Carrington in the late 1820s relates how the rail-road can be used as a route, for pedestrians or those on horseback, from Haytor to Teigngrace, making the point that a tramway usually differs from a railway by effectively being part of a road and also that the frequency of the granite traffic was usually low and slow moving, so passage along the route by the public on foot or horseback would not have been particularly hazardous. It may be that pedestrians and riders were asked to pay a toll as on the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway in Ayrshire, Scotland.
| Etymology |
| The name Haytor is of comparatively recent origin, probably a corruption of its old name and that of the Haytor Hundred. Idetordoune (1566), Ittor Doune (1687), Idetor (1737) and Eator Down (1762) are a few recorded examples of the names given to this prominent Dartmoor feature. |
Milestones were erected, of which three remained in 1975. These were at 3 miles (4.8 km) close to the former Bovey Potteries, Milestone 4 in a copse just south of the road from Bovey Tracey to Haytor near Lowerdown Cross and Milestone 6 on the north side of the same road to Haytor, soon after it reaches the open commons at the eastern end of Haytor Down. The miles were measured from Ventiford. Passengers were never carried and the milestones may have been a whim on behalf of George Templer. Granite seems to have been the only traffic carried as the company was reluctant to go to the expense of building high-sided waggons or trucks for iron ore transportation.
When the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway was opened in 1866, the tramway had been disused since 1858; however the land owner, the Duke of Somerset, insisted that a siding and a crane should be built and new interchange sidings made at the 'Bovey Granite Siding', 1-mile (1.6 km) south of Bovey Tracey, although it was probably never used. A mile of the old tramway route had been taken over for the new line.
The 1831 map of Devonshire by Fisher, Son & Co. depicts the course of the tramway and erroneously shows it running directly down to the Teign without the Stover canal being in existence. A map of Devon of about 1865 shows the course of the line.
Read more about this topic: Haytor Granite Tramway
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