Five years ago, during our tour of the British county of Devon, we spent an evening in Chagford. One reason the village, located in Dartmoor National Park, was on our radar was due to the TV series Doctor Who. In the mid '70s, Tom Baker won the role of the 4th Doctor, taking over from actor Jon Pertwee, who had brought the show to new heights of popularity. During Tom Baker's first season, the cast and crew spent their days filming for the story "The Sontaran Experiment" at nearby Hound Tor, and their evenings in Chagford.
While filming around the windswept boulders at Hound Tor, Tom Baker fell and had to be rushed to hospital. As he had only filmed one previous Doctor Who story at this point, the actor worried that the BBC might scrap his first filmed story, and recast him. Tom Baker had been working at a building site for lack of acting roles when he won the starring role, so this understandably scared him. The rest of the cast and crew had similar worries.
That evening, when Tom Baker reunited with the cast and crew in a pub in Chagford where they would be spending the night, he only had a broken collarbone. His jacket and colorful scarf could conceal his neck brace in closeups for the following day's filming, and a stunt man, clad in his clothes, could fill in for him on for distance shots. This allowed him to continue in the role, saved the series from scrapping the filming, and hiring a new Doctor.
Tom Baker would star as the 4th Doctor for a record-setting seven years. During his tenure, the program would reach even greater heights of popularity, and the actor would become a national hero in Britain. But first, there was the crisis of "The Sontaran Experiment."
Another reason we visited Chagford was that part of Bernard Knight's novel The Tinner's Corpse was set in the historic village. This was the first novel I read in Bernard Knight's Crowner John series. The book so impressed me that I sought out more of his books. While these books may not be for the faint of heart, or those who prefer cozy mysteries such as those written by Agatha Christie, they paint a vivid portrayal of the working and living conditions faced by British coroners in the late twelfth century.
At one point in The Tinner's Corpse, Crowner John visits Chagford, where the miners bring the tin they've dug from the Earth to be graded. Some of that tin would prove of sufficient quality to be used as coinage.
A third reason we visited Chagford was because the village had real-life associations with events that may have inspired part of the historic novel Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore. The local church, St. Michael the Archangel, has a memorial to Mary Whiddon, who was murdered outside the church on her wedding day in 1641. I have not yet read Lorna Doone. When I do, I imagine it will feel more real to me after visiting Chagford.
After checking into a local pub, we wandered around the village. As the afternoon waned, our footsteps led us to the church yard. As we sat and gazed at the local church of St. Michael the Archangel, we debated what to do that evening. We had spent the day driving, and exploring the windy moorland of Dartmoor National Park. We were tired from our exertions and exposure to the elements.
A sign outside announced an Evensong service, but did we really want to sit in a pew for an hour? Yet, when a couple arrived, they invited us to join them. While we were tempted to return to our room above the pub to read and relax, we accepted, and followed them inside. Who could say what other stories we might discover, inside this country church, in the historic village of Chagford?
As you can see, we discovered a very beautiful church, which tells a story in its own right.
Dragon Dave
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St. Michael the Archangel