Bellever - Jan-Eric Osterlund

Bellever with the new Victorian bridge and in front of it the medieval clapper bridge across East Dart River. In the background the settlement of Bellever can be seen with the new houses that was built for forestry workers, when the conifer plantation project began in the 1930s. The image captured on a frosty day in January this year

Bellever is a small settlement on Dartmoor, not far from Postbridge. The old name for the village was Welford (documented in 1355) and three hundred years later the name had changed to Bellaford, and now it has become Bellever. The “ford” in the original name indicates that it was originally a ford crossing river Dart here on the ancient Lychway towards Lydford.

At some point in time a clapper bridge was built across East Dart River near the previous ford. It had two piers and across them laid four granite stone slabs, each about 2.5 metres long and wide enough to carry a person across, but not suitable for any carriages. Clapper bridges are very usual on Dartmoor (see my post about Clapper Bridges on Dartmoor), and more than one hundred Clapper Bridges have been recorded on Dartmoor.

*River Dart with the clapper bridge in front of the new Victorian bridge*

The Bellever Clapper Bridge is in all probability medieval. It was replaced by a new bridge in Victorian time although no definite date has been found for its construction. The rector of Widecombe travelled often to Postbridge and Princetown and had to cross the East Dart River at Bellever. He probably found it a nuisance and was responsible for building the new bridge alongside the clapper.

Later in the 19^th C two of the stone slabs of the clapper bridge disappeared and none knows their fate. One man, living on the Moor in the late 19^th century, claimed to have wrecked one of the slabs into the river, but that doesn’t explain how it totally disappeared, nor do we know anything about the second slab that has vanished!

*Bellever Clapper Bridge, where two slabs have disappeared and two remain*

Bellever Forest is a plantation of conifer trees that begun in 1931, when the Forestry Commission purchased Bellever Farm from the Duchy of Cornwall and started the planting scheme. It is now a nature reserve that offers wonderful walks. The forest borders river Dart and the road that crosses the new bridge.

*In January the sun never rises far above the horizon*

I first visited Bellever as part of my project of photographing clapper bridges and discovered the forest with its many walkways. The photos here are from a couple of different visits to the forest, the settlement, river and bridges.