Hawkridge

Below Tarr Steps at the foot of Hawkridge is the confluence of the Danes Brook with the Barle, a wildly beautiful spot with the wooded slopes of the ridge towering up to the bare summit. The lovely church of St Giles, Hawkridge (861307), has a fine Norman door and font.

Hawkridge

Hawkridge still has one person whose business is carving items from deer antlers. The ‘Antler Man’ at Hawkridge is worth a visit, to see what can be produced from antlers found in the forest. His shop is behind the cartwheel you see in the above photo.

Marshclose barn, Hawkridge is a bank barn, one of the improvements introduced to Exmoor during the 18th century along with field gutters, to flush manure onto pastures to improve them, and open fronted linhays. Bank barns developed in Cumbria in the 17th century and were later introduced in several upland areas including Exmoor. They are built into steeply sloping hillsides in order to provide level access to both storeys. Hay and fodder could be carted to the upper storey reducing labour. In winter feed could be thrown down through a trapdoor to the animals housed below. Bank barns were incorporated into farm yards including Cloggs in Hawkridge and further afield at Leigh Barton, Old Cleeve and Silcombe near Porlock. The latter is a very large barn dating from the 1860s. More modest barns like that at Marshclose were built on Exmoor away from farmsteads as winter outfarms. The stock could be penned in winter in a large yard in front of the barn with access to the lower floor in severe weather. Hay and fodder stored above could be quickly thrown down to the mangers below.

Hawkridge Church

The church of St Giles at Hawkridge is a Norman church largely rebuilt in the late middle ages and heavily restored in 1878, but still with its original north doorway and Norman font. The church lies in a remote part of Exmoor near the boundary between Devon and Somerset and a mile south of Tarr Steps. It stands amidst a few cottages on a ridge between the Danes Brook to the south and the river Barle to the North.

It is impossible to date the foundation of the church with any accuracy. The nearness of the site to the ancient roadway crossing Trarr Steps suggests a very early origin - probably Saxon. The first rector was appointed in 1318. The present building has some interesting Norman work, including the font and the south door-way, which is the only example of a doorway of this period in West Somerset, except Dunster and Charlynch. The font is late Norman and consists of a huge block of stone, which includes the cylindrical stem and moulded plinths as well as the base. Parts of the chancel, including the beautiful little east window, are of the early Decorated period the tower is Perpendicular and rises to a height of 1,000ft. (305 metres) above sea level. The Royal Arms over the entrance to the chancel bear the date 1877.

Tom Lock in his workshop at Hawkridge

Tom Lock is part of a family that have been wheelwrights, carpenters and undertakers for many generations. Tom's great great grandfather made his own coffin years before he died, keeping blankets in it under the bed.

There are six bells, of which the fifth and tenor are mediaeval, having been cast by Thomas Geffries, of Bristol, early in the 16th century. They are inscribed "Sancta Katerina" and "Sancta Thoma". The church possesses an Elizabethan chalice, six inches high dated 1573. The paten by Philip Elson, of Exeter, is inscribed "Eccles de Hawkridge 1726".

The ecclesiastical parish of Hawkridge is very extensive, stretching from Tarr Steps, down the Barle Valley to Castle Bridge, up the valley of the Danes Brook to Willingford Bridge, across the moor to Brightworthy Barrows, Landacre and Bradymoor, thence to Room Hill and Comer's Gate, across the shoulder of Winsford Hill and down to the River Barle again, with a small area of the parish 0f Winsford intervening before coming to Tarr Steps again. The parish includes the village of Withypool, with its chapel-of-ease dedicated to Saint Andrew.

The people of Hawkridge hold their annual Revel and Gymkhana on the Summer Bank Holiday, which occurs near to St. Giles Day (September 1st).
Visitors to Hawkridge will enjoy a lovely view from the churchyard, looking across to Anstey Common, in Devonshire. The lane from the church to Tarr Steps and the walk from there to Withypool provide some of the finest riverside scenery to be found anywhere.

Hawkridge Church

Hawkridge: tiny, remote village close to the beautiful wooded valley of the River Barle. Red deer like the area; so do an abundance of other wild animals and birds. Nearest shop in Dulverton, 7 miles. The sea at Porlock, about 15 miles; the great sand/surf beaches atSaunton(fine golf course),Woolacombeand Croyde, about 30 miles.

John Lock of Hawkridge claimed in 1933 to be the oldest wheelwright on Exmoor. He was born c. 1860 in Hawkridge the son of carpenter William Lock who had moved to the parish from Twitchen and married a local woman. In 1901 John was in business beside the school. His house was also the local post office, probably run by his wife. John was still working as a wheelwright on the eve of the 2nd World War when he was nearly 80.

The wheelwright was essential in any agricultural community maintaining the farm carts as well as doing general carpentry and sometimes making coffins, packing cases and other wooden items. The wheelwright's shop was often situated near busy road junctions and close to a smithy, which would supply and fit the iron tyres to the cart wheels. The wheelwright's job was highly skilled including shaping the spokes and felloes that made up the wheel, often by eye without taking measurements.

See also:

www.discoverhawkridgeexmoor.com

Contributed by: Keith Underwood