Storyteller: Following in footsteps of Devil - with a little help from Angels

It was a treat I had promised him since his last birthday, and as he returns to his studies in Nottingham soon I was keen to do this before he goes away again. Sadly, his girlfriend wasn’t able to join us,so it became an uncle/nephew road trip.

My brother and his family live in Heathfield, so once I’d picked Tom up from home the first stop was the garage on the Bovey Straits to fill up with petrol. Having done that, I wanted to check my tyres and top up with water under the bonnet. It was here that we met our first 'angel' of the day. The air pump had worked ok, but I couldn’t get any water out of the machine. By this time another gentleman had arrived beside us to check his tyres and could see I was having a problem. Immediately he reached inside his car and handed me a bottle of drinking water so I could make sure that my radiator was at a safe level. It didn’t need much, but he insisted I keep it, so I put the rest in my screen washer tank. Thanking him profusely, we got out of his way and started our tour.

We were following the route of the Devil’s Quest, from the story of Jan Reynolds and his pact with the Devil. Having passed Haytor and Saddle Tor, we turned left towards Ashburton and made a stop at the remains of the Newhouse Inn where the story starts. I pointed out Foales Arrishes that Jan won in a game of cards, a stroke of luck that spurred him on to make his pact in the first place. Surrounding us were the high points of Top Tor, Pil Tor, Rippon Tor and The Nutcrackers, all of which bore witness to what went down between Jan and the Devil.

Moving on, we went passed The Tavistock Inn, where the Devil stopped to ask for directions on his way to the church in Widecombe in the Moor and where he certainly left his mark...

Our next stop was at Pixieland and I was very impressed with Tom for entering into the spirit of things by donning a pixie hat and having a photo-shoot...like uncle like nephew!

Then it was our turn to head towards Widecombe where, instead of the Devil, we met an 'angel' who gave us a car park ticket that was valid until 4pm that day. Having visited the church, continuing Jan’s tale and browsing the gift shops, we returned to the car and paid forward the good deed by passing on the ticket to a surfer dude and his gal who were just arriving...

Next stop was Jay’s Grave where I regaled Tom with her story, told him about the ghosts I believe are attached to the spot, related my 'Witches’ Triangle' theory and trod in a nice juicy cow pat...

To finish off Jan’s story we had to make a stop outside the Warren House Inn, where I spotted too late that the level of the tarmacked kerb by the parking area had dropped somewhat, making it difficult to get the car back on the road. After revealing Jan’s ultimate fate to Tom, and showing him his memorial in the shape of the Ace Fields, I shared other stories centred around the Inn before attempting to set off again. As I suspected, this proved somewhat problematic for although I could get one front tyre over the lip, the other was left spinning in mid-air whilst the back wheels were going nowhere.
After several unsuccessful attempts, stalling the engine each time, and with cars parked in front and behind, I couldn’t see a way out until one or other of the cars moved. It was then that our third 'angel' of the day came to our rescue. Having seen I was struggling, a guy from a car further along the parking strip came forward and offered to seek out the owners of the other vehicles hemming me in. Sadly, he couldn’t find them inside the pub, so he then suggested pushing the car back on to the road. As I manoeuvred the right-hand tyre over the lip, Tom and the angel both pushed until the other tyre gained traction on the road surface and we were good to go again.

To recover from our ordeal, we stopped at The East Dart Inn for a very satisfying meal, before completing our trip. On the way back, we took a spin through Princetown, went down to Whiteworks Cottages to show off the remoteness of Conan Doyle’s Great Grimpen Mire, had an unsuccessful letterbox hunt on Smith Hill, before our final stop at the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church, the ruin overlooking Buckfastleigh. Here I told Tom about Squire Cabal, another source of inspiration for Conan Doyle. He then went on to humour me by walking 13 times around the squire’s tomb widdershins (anti clockwise). Sadly, the Devil didn’t appear in the church doorway after Tom had completed his task, nor did he get his finger nibbled when he put it in the keyhole...the legend lies!

As I drove Tom back home at the end of our day together we mused over all the assistance we had received throughout. Tom commented that from his experience people seem to be so much happier and chilled when you encounter them on Dartmoor on a Sunday. Maybe there is something in that, for they certainly seemed very willing to step forward and help us out when we needed them during our Sunday excursion...'angels' indeed.