The stepping stones across the River Bovey at North Bovey are a favourite location of mine, popular with children, horse riders, dog walkers and the 4×4 crowd who like to drive through the ford here. They are a key feature of the short 15-20 minute circular walk around the village, for both local residents and visitors, especially those who have just enjoyed a wholesome lunchtime meal in the Ring of Bells pub in the village, just 200 yards up the hill.
My wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to buy a small cottage in North Bovey in early 2004, about 150 yards up the lane from the stepping stones and the ford across the river. North Bovey itself really is an idyllic village, more of a hamlet than a village, with a handful of houses (many thatched) clustered around the village green, a pub (The Ring of Bells), and a church (of St.John the Baptist).
The river flows around two sides of the village, in a dogleg – due to an East-West left lateral offset fault of the Northnorthwest-Southsoutheast trending Bovey arm of the Sticklepath Fault (see Image of the Month for January 2023 for more details). Lower Hill Lane descends from the village green by the entrance to the Ring of Bells for about 200 yards to the river. In days gone by there was no bridge at Fairbrook on the other side of the village, so the river was crossed by a ford at the bottom of Lower Hill. (Upper Hill is at the other end of the village, where the lane from Moretonhampstead descends from Pound Rock – a large granite boulder – into the village.)
The river is broad and shallow at this point, ideal for a ford that is still popular today with the off-road 4×4 crowd. Alongside the ford are the stepping stones, but be aware that they can be slippery in winter particularly in icy conditions or when the river is in spate, though for those of a nervous disposition there is a sturdy wooden footbridge about 10 yards downstream.
The photograph was taken about 4 o’clock on an autumnal Sunday afternoon in mid-October – one of those days of clear crisp bright sunshine, still mild with no breeze but with a distinct chill in the air as soon as the sun starts to go down, and the leaves just beginning to turn and drop. I distinctly remember savouring the calm of the moment, knowing that as soon as I had walked the 150 yards back to the cottage we were due to load up the car and head up the motorway to London.
I set up my camera on a tripod, intending to try and take an HDR image of the scene, as the bright light was giving rise to strong contrast – deep shadows and bright glare of the sun reflecting off the water. I took about 5 images at varying exposures but the HDR colour tones were rather exaggerated, and in those days I didn’t have access to decent HDR software, hence I selected this particular image from the sequence as being the most balanced to edit from the RAW file.
I was pleased with the composition and tones of the final image, particularly the bright green transparency of the Ash leaves, the clear brown water of the river, and the bright crisp colours with just enough dynamic range to avoid losing too much detail in the shadows. I especially liked the few leaves that had already fallen lying randomly on the stones.
I was fortunate in that a couple of minutes later as I was packing up my camera gear, an off-road 4×4 came thundering through the ford from the other side, creating a wash that thoroughly soaked the stones and washed the leaves away, totally breaking the tranquility of the scene. But fortunately I had already captured the scene.
Interestingly, 9 months later in June 2011, a magnitude 2.7 earthquake with an epicentre some 8.5 Kilometres to the Southsoutheast rocked this part of Dartmoor. For my sins I was asked to write a brief article on the earthquake for the Autumn 2011 issue of Dartmoor Magazine. ‘Brief’ turned out to be 5 pages, including maps and photographs, but I was more thrilled that this photograph was used for the front cover – my first ever magazine cover photo! (And about 3 years later, the article was responsible for winning me a 3-month oil & gas exploration consultancy project.)