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Western White Barrow

Cairn(s)

<b>Western White Barrow</b>Posted by LubinImage © Peter Castle. ©
Also known as:
  • Western Whitaburrow
  • Petre's Cross

Nearest Town:Buckfastleigh (8km ENE)
OS Ref (GB):   SX653654 / Sheet: 202
Latitude:50° 28' 20.27" N
Longitude:   3° 53' 54.36" W

Added by Lubin


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<b>Western White Barrow</b>Posted by Billy Fear <b>Western White Barrow</b>Posted by Lubin

Fieldnotes

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I have been up there now 4 times and everytime I was in the midst of fog or low clouds with no visibility.
This cairn has been the accomodation of peat cutters around 1847 who supposedly took down Petre's Cross which stood there for nearly 300 years. The armless cross has been re-errected upside down.
Billy Fear Posted by Billy Fear
11th January 2010ce

Miscellaneous

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At Western Whitaburrow, the cairn on which Petre's Cross formerly stood, the men who used to work at the turf cutting, built themselves a little house, using stone from the cairn for the purpose, such being necessary as there is no village, or suitable habitations, nearer than Brent, which is between five and six miles distant. These men were the destroyers of the old cross which was set up on the cairn, the shaft being all that is now left of it. The workman that I have referred to informed me that the labourers used to make incursions into Huntingdon Warren, which is in full view across the valley from Western Whitaburrow, and trap the rabbits, he having sometimes seen, he added with a smile of satisfaction, as many as a dozen being boiled at one time in the crock at the house on the cairn.
From 'Amid Devonia's Alps' by William Crossing (1888).
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
15th January 2010ce