Browse crosses

Grid Ref:  640 940          Map location:  Click here to view map.

Purpose:  Not known.

Size:  Not attainable.

Information:  The cross is set in a square socket stone and appears to be leaning back over the roof at quite an angle. I am unable to discover the origins of the cross but there is a plaque set into the wall beneath it, which reads:

Methodist Chapel
1816

I presume this to be the date that the chapel was built, but I am unable to find out whether the cross was made for the chapel or if it has been reused from another site.

There is a clock set in the centre of the roadside wall. This has a round face, set in a diamond shaped surround. A brass plaque beneath the clock gives its history, thus:

This clock was erected
by the inhabitants and friends of
this village in commemoration of the
reign of her majesty Queen Victoria
1901

Just along the road from the chapel is the Finch Foundry. This museum gives an illuminating insight into the Dartmoor way of life in years gone by. The museum is centred around a couple of working waterwheels, which were extensively used in the tin mining industry on the moor. The foundry was built on the site of a former corn mill, which later became a cloth factory. The mill was converted to a foundry in 1814 by the Finch Brothers, who specialised in making ‘edged’ tools and shovels. At its height, 25 men were employed at the factory but the demand for the products reduced in the 20th century and the foundry closed down in 1960, after the collapse of one of its walls. It is now open to the public as a working museum.

The meaning of the name ‘Sticklepath’ is ‘Steep Path’ and anyone who has climbed to the top of Cosdon from here will certainly agree with this interpretation.