Nick has taken a week off work and he is in Merton to take us touring around Devon with his mother Barbara. This is really kind of him and it will be great to spend some time with him as well as his mother. Nick came to Australia with Barbara in 2013.

Today Nick and Barbara had decided they would like to take us to Dartmoor. There is 47,000 hectares of Dartmoor Moorland. Dartmoor is famous for its wide open spaces and it is the largest area of upland and open space in Southern Britain. Our first stop was to a church on the top of Brent Tor. Tors are dramatic outcrops and there is an endurance race held each year over 'Ten Tors' of Dartmoor.  It is held in May for over 2,000 young people and organised and run by the British Army.  

We climbed Brent Tor to visit St Michael’s Church. Unfortunately the 600 year old church had scaffolding around it. There was a sign apologising for the inconvenience, but the church has not had any work done on it for 600 years! I would imagine the church wardens would have been very excited when funding was granted. There is a service held in the church every Sunday evening, way up there on the hill.

There are two memorial stones on the wall and one of them just happens to be a 'Batten'. Ted and Coralie also visited the church a couple of years ago with Nick and Barbara and they did leave a note at the church, in the hope someone may have had more information about this 'Batten'. I intend to ring a couple of the church wardens in the hope they may know something.

From there we went to the Prison Museum at Princetown. Dartmoor Prison was a high security prison for many years and although we have been across Dartmoor on both our visits to the UK, we have looked across to the prison on the moorland, but we have never visited the village of Princetown and been close to the prison. The history of the prison goes back to 24th May 1806 when 2500 war prisoners were marched up from Plymouth and four weeks later another 2500 were marched the 20 miles to Dartmoor, to start constructing this prisoner of war camp. There were six decommissioned warship hulks at various ports along the south coast of England, in close proximity to Plymouth, and they were full of prisoners from the 1806 war between Great Britain and France. Another 250 American prisoners from another war were marched up by 1813. The early work on the moor by the prisoners was extremely punishing. One written piece related how they were treated like convicts. There was a hand roller and eight men were harnessed to it. The mans writing said "He was one of those horses".

In the early 1800's England transported their worst criminals overseas to Australia. By 1850 other countries were refusing to accept Britain's criminals and a new place had to be found. In September 1850 convicts under guard of army soldiers, began to convert the old Prisoner of War camp into a convict prison. Dartmoor Prison became the place where the worst convicts were sent. With the harsh weather, hard labour and rigid discipline it soon earnt a reputation for being a tough place for both prisoners and staff.

In 1932 there was a major riot and 200 prisoners broke out of Dartmoor. They set fire to the Governors office, destroying the prison records. Today work at Dartmoor Prison includes engineering, plastics and electrical manufacturing. The work ranges from steel fabrication to the translation of books into Braille for the visually impaired. They use over 10,000 acres of land for agricultural production. In August 2004 a Government shakeup temporarily closed the prison for a short time after 200 years. The traditional farm activities have been replaced by modern skills. By 2004 there was only 1600 acres of Dartmoor Prison Farm remaining, and in 2016 there is only a few acres that have been kept for future training programmes. It seems there is still murmurs that the prison will close. The agricultural machinery and tools display was in the old Dairy of the prison. No photographs were allowed inside the Museum.

From there we went into Princetown and spent time waiting for Tracey, who is Barbara's second son Chris' wife. Tracey and son Harry were joining us for lunch. Nick had trouble contacting Tracey, but eventually contact was made and we finally met up at 'Badgers Holt' at Dartmeet. It was rather a late lunch but it was lovely to chat to Tracey and Harry. He is a fine young man who at the age of 13 enjoys helping his grandfather move coaches around at their business. George the eldest son is 'dog sitting' and working at the garage at the moment, having finished secondary schooling. He will get the results of his General Certificate of Education (GCE) tomorrow.

After lunch we spent a lovely afternoon together at this very peaceful spot on Dartmoor. Harry even had a swim at one of the places we went to. We tried to find some Dartmoor ponies on the way home, but they had all gone far away from the roads.

It was a lovely evening so Nick took us to see the Meldon Reservoir which was opened in 1972. The West Okement Valley was dramatically plugged by the construction of the Meldon Reservoir. Water is pumped to a treatment works by the power generated by hydro electricity. This was built into the dam in 1987. The reservoir serves a population of 200,000 and the cost was 1.6 million pounds. As Nick said "It was worth every pence"!

 We arrived home about 7.30pm and of course it was still very light. A nice meal of home cooked ham, jacket potatoes and salad completed a very interesting and enjoyable day.