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Southway Farm is small but with much variety, from hay meadows to ancient sheepfolds, it has much of Dartmoor’s history. Lying at an altitude of 260m in the valley of the East Webburn and close to Widecombe in the Moor, it is also close to open moor and Tors up to 500 metres.
Planting at this site took place during National Tree Week in 2007. The new planting extended the existing natural woodland regeneration that had developed over the past 200 years on the edge of the un-enclosed land (often open access land on maps). Sheep have not ventured into this boggy dead-end and consequently not eaten the young trees that have seeded there. Indeed, this neighbouring regeneration shows the changes and variations in numbers of sheep on the moor by the size and variety of species there.
Records show that sheep numbers went from a low of around 50,000 to- 60,000 in 1811, to 108,000 sheep in all of the Dartmoor parishes in 1939, then down to around 56,000 in 1972 to over 200,000 in 2002. This huge increase was due to the Common Agricultural Policy's sheep regime. Today there are 145,000 sheep grazing rights on the commons and all un-enclosed common land is now within environmental schemes to cap numbers.
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