Time again for Sunday Sevens, the brainchild of the wonderful Nat at Thread and Bobbins for bloggers to share seven photos of their personal week.
This week I’d like to share photos of us beating the bounds of our village on Saturday last weekend. Beating the Bounds dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, when villagers would formally walk the boundaries of the parish. This was done to hand down knowledge of where the boundaries were, to check that no one was encroaching on the villagers’ land and to scare away evil spirits. If you want to know more this link talks about the beating of the bounds on Dartmoor.
- The village boundary is approximately 14 miles longs long…
2. Sadly 14 miles was way too far for Mr Hicks to come with us. So while lovely husband gave Hicks a quick walk, I assembled our picnic and a few other essentials.
3. A group of about forty villagers set off from the village sports field at 9.30am. It took about half an hour to reach the first boundary stone on the moor. Here some of the children were bounced – bottom first – against the stone. Sorry no pics, I haven’t caught up with anyone to gain permission. We then moved on, heading up between Brat tor and Arms tor, bouncing children on more boundary stones as we went.
4. The further we headed into the moor, the harder the terrain became, with thick tussocks slowing our pace.
5. It had rained briefly about 10am, but after this the skies cleared and the sun came out. There was a brisk breeze at times, but this was mostly very welcome, and gave the perfect weather for the rest of the day.
6. We marched on, stopping for more boundary stones and the odd nibble of food and sip of water to keep us going, until we stopped at a boundary stone beside a river for lunch. The first thing my friend Theresa and I did was take out boots and socks off and dip our hot tired feet in the river. The cold water was absolute heaven.
7. After lunch we headed on. The miles felt very slow, but finally we reached the ten mile rest point, where we were greeted by bottles of water and chocolate. Even the dogs were tired out by now.
8. For me, the next couple of miles were the hardest. Although the terrain had improved, we were walking away from the village and my feet were screaming to walk towards it.
With about two miles to go we reached Lydford Gorge. Such a beautiful place, but I was far too focussed on getting back to appreciate it properly.
9. After the gorge we headed up through the village. Lovely Husband had to be firmly steered away from the pub and the call of a pint.
10. Finally we reached the sports field were tea and cake and burgers were waiting for us. I can’t tell you how good that cup of tea tasted.
11. And just to prove I did it, here’s my certificate…
All in all is was an absolutely fabulous day of great walking, beautiful views and wonderful company. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Only problem is, we’ve got to wait another seven years to do it again.
Dartmoor Creative - Bekki Hill 
Well done you! Sounds like a fun (if tiring) tradition. I think that dog lying down at the rest point says it all!
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That is a long walk and I’m impressed you did it – all that pedalling has paid off! I do love old English traditions 🙂
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Me too. One of the lovely things about living in a village 🙂 Being a good stone lighter definitely helped, but the terrain was very hard going at times. Loved every minute though.
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I never heard of this, it is an interesting custom. I think it’s cool that it is still done. Keep those evil spirits away!
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Yes, interesting, but makes a lot of sense why we used to do it.
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I want to do this for our village! Looks fab, even if exhausting. Good job you didn’t take Mr Hicks – it would probably have finished him off!!
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You should revive it – great event. I think ours was revived in the eighties. Even if you’ve lost your boundary stones, you could still walk it. Oh yes, poor Hicks was nowhere near up to it 😦
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I love this idea. A great community tradition
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Certainly is 🙂
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What a walk! Love your photos 🙂
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It’s a shame I didn’t take more, but we were going at such a pace, I took my ‘proper’ camera with me, but barely had time to get it out let alone adjust settings.
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Wow what a beautiful place to live in and congratulations on completing the walk. Was that a lizard on someone’s back?? 🙂
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Thank you. We are very lucky. Yes, it is a Lizard 🙂
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This looks like a lovely way to spend a day. If a somewhat tiring way to spend it.
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It was. And tiring almost always makes you feel a bit virtuous 😉
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What a great experience. History, tradition, natural beauty, and exercise, all in the company of friends and neighbours. I would love to participate in that kind of event. Good for you for doing it, it sure sounds like a challenging walk! Have a good week. 🙂
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Thank you. It certainly was. You have a great week too x
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I love these old traditions.And what is that creature on your husbands back? Local wildlife? 🙂
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It’s a Lizard – although that’s a friend, not my hubby.
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What a great walk ~ well done you and all the others for accomplishing it 🙂 I think I would have given over the burgers and cake for another three brews lol. 😀
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Thank you. Funny you should say that, I actually had three cups – or maybe even four – And I still got burger and cake 🙂
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LOL! Nothing better then a good brew after a big day! Burger and cake too ~ bonus!! 🙂
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Absolutely. Can’t beat good brew under most circumstances 🙂
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That is such a great tradition. I love the idea of it. A very lovely walk.
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It certainly was 🙂
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Congratulations. Beating the bounds is a wonderful tradition. I have heard of special sticks to hit the points but never bouncing children!
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It is 🙂 Yes, is it birch? But we didn’t have any – maybe that’s why we used the children 😉
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Well done and it looked like a lot of fun to 🙂
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Thank you. It was 🙂
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A very interesting post! Never heard of this tradition before but I do think it’s a nice thing to get the community together 🙂
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I’d never heard of it either until we moved here. But yes, great for getting the community together 🙂
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Wow, what an awesome thing to do. And have tea, cake, chocolates, etc on the way. I think it is just amazing. We don’t get to do in here, and I think it would be a gorgeous day out. I love Lydford Gorge. I think I would definitely have made a pit-stop (pint-stop) there. 🙂
Good thing Mr. H did not go, even the younger dogs seemed tired out.
Well done!!
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It was. You’ll have to have a trip over here in seven years time to join in. The tea room was shut by the time we came through the gorge – otherwise I’d have been in for an ice cream 🙂
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I’ve never heard of this tradition before, it looked like a lot of fun!
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Certainly was 🙂
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