Dartmoor National Park Authority

George Shillibeer

Photo of George Shillabeer

George was born at Sheepstor and spent the first 40 years of his life there. His forefathers lived at Head Weir cottage (pictured) for generations and were in charge of looking after Drake’s Leat.

He remembers the railway line that ran from Yelverton up to Princetown to be a vital link to the community in that part of the moor:

Photo of Head Weir Cottage

Listen to George Shillibeer's memories of the railway Icon to indicate a sound file (55Kb - Media Help)

"It’s a bit different to what it is today, we didn’t need a timepiece in those days, we could always tell the time within two or three minutes of the train, when the train was up to a certain place and that was quite regular, you know, and you could absolutely tell the time by the train. Saturday nights they used to run a late train up Saturday nights for the benefit of the people who wanted to go in Plymouth and so forth for the evening and Saturday nights they’d run this late train up, I know it went up by our area 10 o’clock at night…and I know during the dry period there was a lot of forestry around there, sort of thing, a lot of dry grass and every night, every Saturday night somebody would have to be on watch at 10 clock when the train went up to see none of the sparks went off and caught it afire".

Photo of a train

Listen to George Shillibeer's memories of The Woolworth's Special Icon to indicate a sound file (43Kb - Media Help)

"Another thing with the train, in the summer, the one that came up, I think at three in the afternoon they used to call it Woolworth’s because they used to put it on at a cheap rate, I think it was sixpence they used to charge to come up and scores and scores of people would come up on that train, you know and they’d go around Burrator and over, and over Sheepstor itself you go around and there’s a big tor up there sort of thing and scores of people, scores of people would come up on the train and walk around there and up to Sheepstor and they used to call the train the Woolworth’s, you know, because they used to charge sixpence".

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Page updated 1 December 2005