Cranmere Pool

Cranmere Pool is a small depression within a peat bog in the northern half of Dartmoor, Devon, England, at grid reference SX604858. It lies about 560 metres above sea level on the western flank of Hangingstone Hill, close to the source of the West Okement River, about 0.5 km north west of the source of the East Dart River, and about the same distance west of the River Taw's source.

The pool lies within the Okehampton Artillery range, one of the Ministry of Defence ranges. A military access road which made it possible to drive to within one kilometre of the pool was closed for civilian use in 2010. Walking distance from the closest civilian road access is now approximately 6km, from the north, at grid reference SX601911, at a starting height of 430 metres above sea level and using the existing military access road.

Cranmere Pool was once a permanent pool of water, but William Crossing, writing early in the 20th century, stated that it had been over a hundred years since this had been the case. The only time there is standing water today is after heavy rainfall.

Cranmere Pool is the location of the first letterbox. William Crossing relates in his Guide to Dartmoor that James Perrott, a well-known Dartmoor guide from Chagford, built a cairn in the pool and placed a bottle there for visitors' cards in 1854.

In Ernest George Henham's novel A Pixy in Petticoats (London: Alston Rivers Limited, 1906), Cranmere Pool and its famous letterbox play a vital part in the plot. It is a story of unrequited love between Beatrice Pentreath and John Burrough that occurs primarily in Dartmoor.

...
Wikipedia