Green Combe, Dartmoor

If you travel from Morton towards Postbridge on the B3212 road, just past the moorgate on the right you will find a carpark. On the left of the car park you will find this small valley called Green Combe . As the sides drop streeply away from the road you can drive past it without seeing into it and it is not until you park up and walk over to it that you become aware of what a pretty wooded valley it is.

Apparently the word "green" derives from an Anglo Saxon word "grene" meaning growing or living and according to Tim Sandles in "Legendary Dartmoor this valley had a reputation for growing potatoes.

In the bottom of the combe there is a small stream and the remains of what appears to be spoil heaps from old tin workings which would indicate that tin streaming took place there in the past. Along the side of the combe you can see what appear to be green paths through the bracken. I think that these may have been leats that took water from upstream which was used to drive machinery further down the valley

Often when exploring a large area like Dartmoor we tend to overlook the little features all around us which help us fill in the bigger picture.

I am now back in East Devon where I have an appointment tomorrow to get a new pair of reading glasses so I can see what I am typing again, not that it will improve!