Beacon Villages Trail 9 - Belstone Stocks Traditional Cache
OckmentBells: Rescued the TB beofre I archived it
Beacon Villages Trail 9 - Belstone Stocks
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A trail around the Beacon Villages
Welcome to the Beacon Villages, a community of 4 villages on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park which consists the villages of South Zeal, South Tawton, Sticklepath and Bellstone.
This trail will take you on a walk around all 4 villages and should take around 4 1/2 hours (at a moderate pace) but with some interesting views and buildings along the way could take longer.My suggested route would be to do them in chronological order, either ascending or descending (if you want to get the hill out of the way first). GPS signal maybe a bit iffy so it would be best to map out the route before setting off.
OK here comes a brief health and safety announcement. This trail is intended to be done as a walk, please DO NOT do as a cache and dash as some of the roads are quite narrow. Parking at South Zeal recreation ground and at the time of posting is free. Most of the caches are placed on the roadside so care should be taken at all times especially with young children and dogs (please keep dogs on the lead due to this being mainly a farming community).
All caches are along tarmac roads or footpaths with the exception of "Beacon Villages 6 - The Postmans Path", this is on the bridlepath between South Tawton and Sticklepath and is very uneven and muddy after rainfall.
Belstone Stocks.
The STOCKS - a medieval form of punishment and humiliation.
The stocks (and thier companions the pillory and the pranger) were a medieval means of punishing petty crimes such as drunk and disorderly, drunkard, or using foul language. The offender would be partially imobilised by having their hands, feet and sometimes thier heads "clamped" between two blocks of wood. They would then be at the mercy of the mob who would "punish" them by throwing such things as rotten fruit and vegetables, eggs, rotten fish, liquids and even excrement (both animal and human) at them , or simply just tickling them.
In modern times the stocks are often seen at village fayres and fetes where "offenders" would be placed and have wet sponges thrown at them.
Many examples of Stocks and Pillory still excist today in many rural villages and castles.
This set of stocks in the Dartmoor village of Belstone were possibly last used around the 1800's (although during the millenium celebrations a blow-up doll was placed in the stocks), then for such crimes as infringing human rights and crimes against the church.
A Grade 2 listed monument these stocks for years consisted of only the 2 granite pillars, in 1953 as part of the Queens Coronation celebrations they were restored with 2 planks fitted between the posts, the granite "block" (really an upturned pig trough was also added. By 1975 the wood had rotted and the current boards put in place with a securing padlock. In 2000 the Dartmoor National Park moved one ot the pillars inward slightly, so the wood would sit more firmly, it was discovered that the granite was sunk to a depth of around 5ft, leading to speculation that due to thier hieght the pillars in fact supported a Pillory.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va sbyvntr oruvaq "frng" ng onfr bs onax