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Summary

Triangular stone pillar inscribed 'S' of 0.6 metres high set in the top of a mound. Said to have been mentioned in 1802 as the grave of a suicide, George Stephens

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX57NW97
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439990
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57NW/190

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• GRAVE (XVII to XIX - 1700 AD (Between) to 1899 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

'Stephen's Grave' is depicted on the late 19th century (1880s) historic map.

Crossing, W., 1892, Old Stone Crosses of the Dartmoor Border, 90 (Monograph). SDV279564.

An upright stone beside the track on the common east of the village is mentioned in 1802 as the grave of a suicide, Steven's grave. The mound is still distinguishable but the stone has gone.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 152-3 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Mound knows as 'Stephen's Grave', which marks the site where a suicide was buried. George Stephens was a youth of Peter Tavy who is recorded to have taken his life due to the unfaithfulness of the girl to whom he was betrothed. Crossing records a legend that at the moment he was being laid to rest, some linen that was hanging out to bleach at Higher Godsworthy was caught up in the air in a freak gust of wind and was never seen again.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX57NW97 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV225158.

20/10/1980 The grave mound is almost imperceptible and is now surmounted by a moorland slab with the letter 's' incised upon it, and an upright post (see ground photograph). Crossing's later and probably corrected spelling the 'Stephens' is that in normal use, but note the Ordnance Survey misplacement of the apostrophe. The grave is probably 18th century.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

Recorded but not described by Aerial Photograph Project.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(11/11/1987) Site is as described. The worked moorland slab of triangular shape has a crude stone post 0.6 metres high set in the top. The surrounding ground surface has been cut up by vehicle tracks and the mound is not traceable.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 97, Map 31, Site 'e' (Monograph). SDV219155.

'Stevens Grave' is marked by a triangulr pillar incised 'S' at the junction of two tracks beside the Peter Tavy branch of the 'Lich Way'. According to a Mrs Bray "George (?) Stevens poisoned himself after an unsuccessful love affair and was buried in Stevens Grave".

Ordnance Survey, 2018, MasterMap 2018 (Cartographic). SDV360652.

'Stephen's Grave' is marked on the modern mapping, as well as 'Stone' idicating the marker stone for the grave site.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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