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| Dunnabridge Pound - Image by Herbythyme [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], from Wikimedia Commons |
"Ascending the road from the [West Dart] river, a further walk of two miles will bring us to Dunnabridge Pound, which stands close to the right-hand side of the way. Mr. Page describes this as "an enclosure of uncertain age, and in itself in no wise remarkable." Its frequent mention, however, in documents connected with the forest endow it with considerable interest. It is still used for impounding cattle, especially those left unclaimed after the drifts. Our particular interest will be the the Judges Chair, at the entrance of the pound, surely one of the seats of the mighty. It consists of a roofing slab eight feet long, with supporters six feet high on either side, bellow which some blocks of stone form seats, another large slab serving as a back to the chair. Mr Bray, of course, saw in this the seat of an archdruid or president of some court of judicature. It is popularly supposed to be the Judges Chair of the Miners' Parliament, brought from Crockern Tor together with the Judge's Table, which may be seen in a less complete condition at Dunnabridge Farm, close by. Some antiquaries have judged the chair to be the remains of a cromlech erected in the circle which doubtless was the origin of the pound. One can hardly imagine that at a time when little respect was paid to rude stone monuments the Judge's table and chair, with their huge stones, were taken from Crockern Tor, several miles away, to Dunnabridge for preservation, and Mr. Crossing suggests that in the popular story confusion has arisen between Dunnabridge Farm and Dunnabridge Pound, the stone, which really does seem, from the evidence we posses, to have been taken from Crockern Tor, being at the former place."
Cresswell 1921
Map - Crockern Tor
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| Judges' Chair - By Richard Knights (From geograph.org.uk) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
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