The Belstone Cleave Coven (all photos restored now, 13/01/18)

[oldskoolrebel]

I didn't know that, that's very interesting. It seems a very sensible precaution though, otherwise Squire Cabell may have been roaming the moor for the last 75 years!!  

I take it on your visit to Buckfast Abbey, you purchased a bottle of the ubiquitous tonic wine?

Also available in all good Scottish Cornershops...


... the taste is revolting and it's only frequently drunk by certain disreputable groups (and that includes the 'ironical drinking' by Arts students. Sadly this is not a joke)



But all chat of Buckie aside, I love this thread. Such an amazing execution.

[Malamute]

Malamute, well worth a visit next year. Let me know what happened if you try the running around the tomb seven times! Although not normally open to the public, there are a series of caves below the church stretching for about 3,500 metres. Directly below Cabell's tomb a stalactite and a stalagmite have joined to create a rather scary 'Little Man', as it is known.  

I think I might give running aorund the tomb a miss
But will definitely visit as its en route for us and not a detour.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I think I might give running around the tomb a miss

Probably very wise!  

This may be useful for your visit:


Cabell Mausoleum

The shelter has a pyramidal slate roof and three windowless walls, while the fourth side is closed by an iron
railing providing a view of the tomb within.

Architect(s)
Not known

Listing
Grade II* (England and Wales)

Year Created
1656

History
The names inscribed on the chest tomb are Richard and Susanna Cabell (d.1612 and 1597) and Richard, their
son (d.1655). Local folklore has it that this is the tomb of the wicked Richard Cabell of Brook Manor in
Buckfastleigh who died in 1677 “with such an evil reputation that he was placed under a heavy stone and a sort
of pent-house was built over it with iron gratings to prevent him coming up and haunting the neighbourhood.
When he died…fiends and black dogs breathing fire raced over Dartmoor and surrounded Brooke, howling”. The
story is supposed to have inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Hound of the Baskervilles. The tomb is
known locally as ‘The Sepulchre’, and it is said that Cabell will gnaw the fingers of anyone who dares to place
them in the keyhole.

Sir Howard Colvin has identified this as one of the first two freestanding mausolea in England, the other being
the Ailesbury Mausoleum in Bedfordshire.

Condition
The condition of the building is good (though one or two slates are slipping) but that of the tomb itself is poor; the
render is crumbling, the slab is broken and there is lots of debris lying inside the shelter (2002).

Sources
H Colvin,Architecture and the After-Life (1991), 313;
Djabri, S:The Story of the Sepulchre (1960);
S. Baring-Gould,Devonshire (1907);
A Brown,The Cabells and their Kin (1939).

Location
Churchyard of Holy Trinity,
Buckfastleigh,
Devon.

www.mmtrust.org.uk | Copyright © 2016 The Mausloea & Monuments Trust. All rights reserved.

[Malamute]

Excellent, thanks, we will definitely give it a visit and the ruined church.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I've been away for a bit so not much progress. However, further back in this thread, Elk101 suggested having a lych gate for my graveyard. A great idea and I started scratch building but didn't like how it looked. So I bought a kit from Petite Properties and then made the walls out of foam instead of using the supplied MDF.

It's left a gap in the walls where I removed the original posts but I can soon solve that. As soon as the glue dries I can tile the lych gate roof (it does actually have some gates, I just haven't fitted them yet).

[Doug ex-em4]

Just found this brilliant thread - a classic piece of Snapcasery. Very interesting and entertaining and I can't wait for more.

Dashed good show, Old Weevil.....

Doug

[Elk101]

Now that really looks the part; love it!

[Malamute]

That looks great.

[Michi]

Lych...Germanic for CORPSE. Leiche...German for Corpse. Similarities all over - cool! 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Doug, Elk101, Malamute and Michi, many thank for your kind comments.

Michi, those similarities with the German words are interesting. I believe in Old English that Lich and Lych were words for a corpse (I assume that they are Saxon words?).

About 8 years ago I walked the 'Way of the Dead' or the 'Lych Path' from Lydford to Widecombe-in-the-Moor at night (about 18 miles). As the scattered tenements across the moor were part of the Parish of Lydford, the dead were required to be buried at the church in Lydford. Forest and Stannary Courts were also held at Lydford. Dartmoor dwellers were forced to carry the deceased from their homes for up to 12 miles across the moor along the path which became known as the 'Way of the Dead'.

[Vagabond]

History lesson, folklore lesson, modeling lesson - what more could we want, well done.

The stone work on the gate has come out well. Is the path a vinyl tile - looks good if so

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Is the path a vinyl tile - looks good if so

Thanks, it is a vinyl tile. I've put a black wash on it but it still looks a bit shiny. It might look better once I add the grass etc.

[Michi]

Michi, those similarities with the German words are interesting. I believe in Old English that Lich and Lych were words for a corpse (I assume that they are Saxon words?).

Yes, most possible brought to your isle by the Saxons, I guess. Funnily I just read an ad that claims the five best reasons for native English speakers to learn German for their first foreign language. Number one reason is that 25% of the vocabulary share the same roots. I can´t prove it, but that´s what they claimed in that advertisement.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Number one reason is that 25% of the vocabulary share the same roots.

Sounds very likely, the English language seems to have it's roots in so many languages, but Old English is definitely Germanic. I believe it has influences from Denmark and the Netherlands as well as Germany.

[TimK]

About 8 years ago I walked the 'Way of the Dead' or the 'Lych Path' from Lydford to Widecombe-in-the-Moor at night (about 18 miles).

Soft southerners

Try the Lyke Wake Walk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyke_Wake_Walk and there's a song to be sung as well as you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyke-Wake_Dirge (other corpse roads are available throughout North Yorkshire!)

Sounds very likely, the English language seems to have it's roots in so many languages, but Old English is definitely Germanic. I believe it has influences from Denmark and the Netherlands as well as Germany.

More seriously there is obviously a common language link between lych and lyke, up here the descent is obviously from the Scandinavian being well inside the Danelaw.

I'm always interested in the odds and sods that come up on here, I didn't know that there were corpse roads that far south.

Tim