The talk centres on the book which is a series of fifty poems about Dartmoor that starts with the bad winter of 1962-63. The coldest prolonged winter since 1740. The snow lasted for at least three months on the moor and many farms and villages were cut off. Woven into this is the history of the South West moor where the poet James Crowden grew up. He covers a very wide range of subjects such as Tavistock Abbey, the Lydford Mint, tin mining, rabbit warrens, swaling, peat cutting, leats, china clay, Dartmoor prison, Eamon de Valera, Blue Grass and of course the Chagford Tinners Riot of 1793 which was led by his great-great-great-great grandfather Zacharias Pascoe who later built himself a small cottage at Rundlestone near Princetown. Here you will find a rich vein of Dartmoor history and a personal touch which taps into the real lives of those that have lived and worked on the moor.
