A former Torbay councillor and mayoral candidate has set out to change the course of history.
Nick Pannell is switching from campaigning on local politics to lobbying Ordnance Survey to change the route of a classic Dartmoor footpath.
He says the nation’s mapmakers have been getting the route wrong for nearly 140 years, and the time has come to set the record straight.
Ordnance Survey (OS) says it has been mapping the route the same way since 1886, but there are many potential routes across the moor that don’t show up on maps.
Nick served on the council for eight years, including four as deputy leader. He came a close second in the bay’s first elected mayor contest in 2005, and now chairs the Friends of Factory Row organisation dedicated to supporting Torquay’s town centre hostel for the homeless.
An avid Dartmoor walker, he says he wants a rethink over the famous Abbot’s Way path which takes in some of the moor’s remotest places.
He says his research over the last four years shows that monks travelling between Buckfast and Tavistock abbeys in medieval times followed a more northerly path than the one that has been printed on maps for more than a century.
Now he has published his findings in a new book on ‘The Real Abbot’s Way’.
He said: “If enough people contact OS and lobby for a change of description then we can remedy a fundamental error that denies hundreds of walkers each year the chance to experience the real Abbot’s Way.
“The more northerly route follows a line of ancient crosses which were erected as waymarks and is so much more interesting. You can line up the crosses and on some stretches still navigate by them, just as the monks did 700 years ago.”
Every year youth groups follow the OS route for adventure challenges, as well as hundreds of individual hikers, thinking they are following in the footsteps of the medieval monks who needed to cross the Dartmoor wilderness from one abbey to the other.
But the truth may be different
“Sometimes things get set in stone that aren’t right, and we rely on historians to put the record straight,” said Nick. “There’s been enough research over the last 50 years, and a consensus of opinion from William Crossings onwards, to indicate that the moorland starting point on the east is Holne Moor not Cross Furze.
“All I’m doing is bringing all these voices together to try and get the route re-written.”
He said the northern route was dotted with crosses, with three on top of Ter Hill alone that served as a kind of crossroads, guiding walkers from all directions.
In the new book he approaches the route as a pilgrimage.
He explained: “The crosses have powerful spiritual meaning and enhance enjoyment of the walk.
“There is no evidence the monks followed it as a pilgrimage route, but for Christians and those seeking answers to life’s big question, following a procession of crosses across the moors has real spiritual power.
“And for non-Christians, looking for the chance to get out on to the open moors and maybe camp under the stars, the Abbot’s Way gives access to remote natural beauty that is awe-inspiring.
“Dartmoor is a spiritual place, and the Bronze Age monuments demonstrate that 3,000 years ago our ancestors were also searching for meaning in a chaotic world.”
When Nick’s claims were put to them, OS undertook some ‘map sleuthing’ on the route of the Abbot’s Way. A spokesman said the current route shown on OS maps follows paths and tracks that have existed for more than 130 years from when the area was first surveyed.
Maps held by the National Library of Scotland show that the route shown on maps in 1886 is the same as it is on current OS mapping today, following designated tracks and paths.
The spokesman went on: “Whilst I don’t think that OS can dispute Nick Pannell’s four years of research into the precise route of the Abbot’s Way, there is no designated track or path linking these crosses, although looking at imagery shows many potential routes across Dartmoor that aren’t shown on the mapping.”
Any petition to get the Abbot’s Way route changed must go through Historic England, which is the recognised authority considered by OS.
Nick’s book The Real Abbot’s Way: A pilgrimage across the Dartmoor wilderness is published by Blackstone Publications at £14.99.
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