Following the piece of anecdotal history by Mrs Barbara Weeks published in last month's (May 2005) issue of the Blackdown News", readers may like to know that the peat railway between Bridestowe Station and the Rattlebrook was built in 1879. At that time John Arscott's, and my, great grandfather, was the policeman at Bridestowe. He died from bronchitis in March of that year, and in his book, "The Beat On Western Dartmoor", Simon Dell recounts how the Superintendent at Tavistock begged the Chief Constable to fill the vacancy promptly because the navvies were causing such a nuisance in the surrounding area.

      On a Sunday afternoon in June 1929, my mother, then six months pregnant, and my father, walked the track to take tea at the peat works with the caretaker, Joe Gay, who lived at Southerly. Another caretaker was Willie Lavis, who lived at Kirtonia on Vale Down. Incidentally, Helen Harris in "Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor" puts the German scientist, Muller, at the peat works from 1917-19, which seems odd considering the proximity to the Great War.

      The track ceased to be a railway in 1932 when the metals were lifted. It appears that the sleepers were not taken up, presumably because they had no scrap value, and their remains can still be seen in some places. A much rarer find would be a triangular headed bolt, which held the rails in place. The track was fenced, hence the need for an overbridge near Nodden Gate and an underpass near Points to allow farmers' stock access on the commons. Bob Lowries always maintained that the worked granites outside his window facing the moor came from the parapets of one of those bridges. One solitary fence post remains in situ having survived over a hundred years of Dartmoor weather.

      The last working was in the mid fifties, when peat was extracted for agricultural and horticultural purposes. More senior readers may remember the incongruous sight of a redundant aeroplane hangar by the embankment under Nodden Hill where the dried peat was granulated and packed into sacks. For some time George Brooks was the manager, but it is likely that the only surviving Lydford resident to have worked there is Bill Cooke.