Teign and Templer

Not far from the bustle of Newton Abbot SIMONE STANBROOKBYRNE discovers some easy rural walking with royal connections

- Simone Stanbrookbyrne

Although some areas of our county can feel quite built-up, it’s often possible to find tucked-away green places. This particular green place, steeped in industrial heritage, is pleasingly rural and good for wildlife, with a wealth of history en route and distant views to Dartmoor.

The Templer Way is an 18-mile path between Dartmoor and the coast, which for part of its route runs alongside the Stover Canal. This walk uses some of the Templer Way; look out for the logo which comprises a tramway wheel, for the granite tramways on Dartmoor, and the tiller and rudder of a barge.

The trees may be bare, the sky grey, but it’s Ideal for a short, sharp blowing away of the cobwebs on a winter’s day.

ROUTE:

1 Leave the car park, cross the road with care, and pass through the footpath gate on the opposite side. Turn immediately left through another gate, walking along a narrow path parallel to the road, field to the right. In 200m you reach blue and white signs indicating the Stover Trail. Keep ahead here for a few metres; this is now part of the surfaced Sustrans Cycle Route 28.

2 Go through a gateway and as the surfaced path swings right keep ahead to an information board which explains some of the local history.

The two-mile Stover Canal was built in the late 18th century by James Templer who owned the Stover Estate. The canal transported clay used in pottery and, for a while, granite which was quarried on Dartmoor (see Devon Life walk, July 2016). The freight was taken to the sea at Teignmouth. Take a moment to read the information board – the area has seen big changes over the centuries.

Turn right from the information board following a stony path; the depression to the left of this path is the site of the old canal (the cycle path is to your right, through the trees).