Huccaby Tales

There is in fact a tale about Huccaby, called the Huccaby Courting, but you will have to find out about that one via the link provided. The two tales I wish to tell you about were handed down by Auntie Hilde, reflecting on her visits to Huccaby as a young woman. One is about a Viccar named Mr Fox and the other is about escaped prisoners. They were recorded by my dad in 1978, when she was 96 Years old.

Copyright of the Dartmoor Trust

But first, let me introduce you to Huccaby. Huccaby is a wonderful farmhouse set within Dartmoor, only a few miles from Princetown, where a high security prison was (& still is) located. Only a few bridges led off the moor. Even today, there are no houses in its direct vicinity. Above is a picture taken by Robert in the 1890s; below are some pictures we took of Huccaby in 1978. If you look at Robert's entire picture collection, you will find that Huccaby House figures prominently in about a dozen pictures.

The first is about Reverend Fox, a clergyman who would regularly come to visit Huccaby. It was in 1903 or 1904 that the cousin who usually managed the Household for Charles .F. Burnard went on holiday for three weeks and Hilde was asked to stand in for her. As so often, Reverend Fox would come over for his one or two visits per week and, as so often, would not leave as dinner time was approaching. Hilde was surprised to hear that he was from Australia, having assumed that the reason why people go out there usually prevents them from coming back.

Dinner was served and at about 9:00 pm, “Grandpa” Charles got up and said: “I am going upstairs to sleep, please have the lights of the pony cart lit up for Reverend Fox”. Well, there was no sign that Rev. Fox was about to get the hint. At about 9:30 pm Hilde said to Sarah, the cook (comment: she may be pictured on one of Robert’s photos): “Please have the lights on the pony cart lit up now, Grandpa did say Rev. Fox is about to leave.” - Rev. Fox remained seated. At about 10 pm Sarah appeared with a big loaf of bread from the kitchen and gave it to Rev. Fox. “Who’s bread is this?” Hilde asked. “Your Grandfather’s” Sarah replied.. “Well, then you can not give it away without asking me” Hilde said “after all, I am supposed to be running this household”. Rev. Fox kept the loaf of bread, but he was not very friendly as he finally left.

A few days later Reverend Fox visited Uncle Bob (Robert), who had a farm nearby Huccaby (Comment: I was not aware that there were several farms, but Hilde’s memory was usually very accurate). Reverend Fox told him he had recently met the rudest most and most “impertinent” girl ever at Huccaby and he believed she was from Germany. “Oh, Robert said, that is my favourite niece!” and laughed. Reverend Fox did not stay for dinner that night.

The second tale is about prisoners escaping. Huccaby farm is actually on Dartmoor, only a few miles from Princetown, where a high security prison was and is located. As you can see from its website, the prison was in those days considered to be the hardest and most severe in England and had some very notorious and dangerous inmates.

There were only a few bridges leading off Dartmoor, one of them was very close to Huccaby. When prisoners went missing a number of cannons would be fired and all bridges would be guarded. Well, most of the time. Sometimes one or both of the guards would come for Tea in Huccaby. One time Hilde was visiting when the cannons were fired and the usual procedure was followed: Some food and warm clothing was left on the porch outside and the whole house was locked up. The justification was: “These poor sods will get caught soon anyway, so why let them freeze and go hungry along the way?” More likely, it was a pretty good tactic for making sure some very dangerous people do not try to enter the house.

This time, though, there was a knock on the door, which kept getting louder & louder. Uncle Bob (Robert) was there; all in all three men. Uncle Bob said: “We can handle an old convict. If he needs something, he can have it; if he attacks us, we’ll teach him a lesson”. The men took the irons from the fireplace and the women anything they could find & Bob opened the door.

Outside was the 17 year old son of the caretaker. He had been sent by his dad to say: “You can all go back to sleep. The escaped prisoner has been sighted near several miles away. So they did. The next morning the news arrived that the prisoners had been caught uncomfortably close to Huccaby. Perhaps the boy was a decoy sent to test the strength of the “troops” in the house.