Corn Ridge

Also known as:
Branscombe's Loaf
Nearest town:
Okehampton (7km NNE)
OS reference:
SX552891
OS sheet:
191
Latitude:
50° 40' 58.52 N
Longitude:
4° 2' 59.7 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Looking approx south across the ‘interior’ of the round cairn towards the serrated skyline of Great Links Tor... although one of Dartmoor’s great tors, I had no intention of visiting at the time. That soon changed.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The best-preserved arc surrounding Branscombe’s Loaf.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Looking approx west across the second ‘tor cairn’ – and another small round cairn, if not part of the tor cairn? – to the great round cairn. It might be argued that there is evidence for another monument to the beyond to the left. So much going on up here one gets confused, you know? Best to simply enjoy the moment.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Sunburst upon the other ‘tor cairn’....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The second ‘tor cairn’, a little west(ish) of Branscombe’s Loaf.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

These ‘tor cairns’ are so enigmatic I swear my hair was standing on end. Which takes quite a bit nowadays.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

A not altogether successful attempt at a ‘bird’s eye view’..... “If God had wanted man to fly, Mr Wint..”

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Branscombe’s Loaf’s ‘tor cairn’ is perhaps best illustrated here.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The highlight of the top, however, is rather more subtle.... the remains of a ‘tor cairn’ surrounding Branscombe’s Loaf. High Willhays and Yes Tor rise beyond, sentinels of Dartmoor.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020
Image of Corn Ridge (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Clearly, this excellent cairn once possessed a rather striking kerb. Or Multiples thereof?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 28, 2020

Articles

Perched upon ‘Branscombe’s Loaf’ in an attempt to obtain an aerial view of the tor cairn.

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 31, 2021

Folklore

Corn Ridge
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Dec 3, 2014

Up here is a little cairn cemetery with two round cairns, two tor cairns and two ring cairns. They surround a large rock outcrop called Branscombe’s Loaf. Tor cairns are only found on the higher moors of Devon and Cornwall and only about 50 are known. They date from the early-mid Bronze Age.

On the slope between Sourton Tor and Bronescombe’s Loaf lies a large slab of granite through which a dyke of elvan has been thrust. In this elvan have been cut the moulds for two bronze axe-heads.*

Walter Bronescombe was Bishop of Exeter between 1258 and 1280, and he lies buried in the Cathedral under a fine canopied tomb. The effigy is of his own date, and gives apparently a true portrait of a worthy prelate.

One day he was visiting this portion of his diocese, and had ventured to ride over the moor from Widdecombe. He and his retinue had laboured through bogs, and almost despared of reaching the confines of the wilderness. Moreover, on taking Amicombe Hill [Kitty Tor] they knew not which way to take, for the bogs there are nasty; and his attendants dispersed to seek a way. The Bishop was overcome with fatigue, and was starving. He turned to his chaplain and said, “Our Master in the wilderness was offered by Satan bread made of stones. If he were now to make the same offer to me, I doubt if I should have the Christian fortitude to refuse.”

“Ah!” sighed the chaplain, “and a hunch of cheese as well!”
“Bread and cheese I could not hold out against,” said the bishop.
Hardly had he spoken before a moorman rose up from a peat dyke and drew night; he had a wallet on his back.
“Master!” called the chaplain, “dost thou chance to have a snack of meat with thee?”
“Ay, verily,” replied the moorman, and approached, hobbling, for he was apparently lame. “I have with me bread and cheese, naught else.”
“Give it us, my son,” said the Bishop; “I will well repay thee.”
“Nay,” replied the stranger, “I be no son of thine. And I ask no reward save that thou descend from thy steed, doff thy cap, and salute me with the title of master.”
“I will do that,” said the Bishop, and alighted.
Then the strange man produced a loaf and a large piece of cheese.

Now, the Bishop was about to take off his cap and address the moorman in a tone of entreaty and by the title of master, when the chaplain perceived that the man had one foot like that of a goat. He instantly cried out to God, and signified what he saw to the prelate, who, in holy horror, made the sign of the cross, and lo! the moorman vanished, and the bread and cheese remained transformed to stone.

Do you doubt it? Go and see. Look on the Ordnance Survey map and you will find Bread and Cheese marked there. Only Bronescombe’s name has been transformed to Brandescombe.
But the Bishop, to make atonement, and to ease his conscience for having so nearly yielded to temptation, spent great sums on the rebuilding of his cathedral.

I don’t know if this is traditional or made up by the good old Reverend Baring-Gould, but I don’t mind either way. From his ‘A Book of Dartmoor‘ (1900).

*This sounds most intriguing, but I’ve not found out anything more. Only a slog across the moors will tell.

Topics

Revised OS Grid Ref 3
GLADMAN
GLADMAN
Oct 2020

Sites within 20km of Corn Ridge

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