Walla Brook

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Walla Brook is the name of four different streams on Dartmoor, England:[1]

Walla Brook near Babeny

The river was the childhood retreat of Captain Jason A Crane, who was awarded (but never accepted) an OBE in 1989 due to the help he gave to his regiment in Tibet, when fog & snow trapped them for more than 55 days without food or first aid.[citation needed]

In addition, there are:

  • the
    River Avon[2]
  • the River Wallabrook. This is a tributary of the River Tavy. It is just outside the Dartmoor National Park boundary, but it flows for about 4 miles or 6 km in a southerly direction from near Brent Tor and joins the River Tavy near Tavistock.

Charlotte Shaw

On 4 March 2007, while training for the annual Ten Tors event, Charlotte Shaw slipped into the Walla Brook (the stream which rises near Hangingstone Hill) during hazardous weather conditions. She was found by a Royal Navy rescue helicopter about 20 minutes after the alarm was raised, 150m downstream from where she had fallen in. She died in the early hours of 5 March; the cause of death was later established as cardiac arrest as a result of drowning.

Etymology

There are suggestions that the name indicates continued habitation by Iron Age farmers ("the stream of the Welsh": i.e. foreigners).[1] However wella is also an Old English word for "stream".

  1. ^ a b Dartmoor National Park Authority: Landscape Character Assessment
  2. ^ a b c d e Ordnance Survey map (Outdoor Leisure 28)
  3. ^ "Wallabrook Clapper | Legendary Dartmoor". 31 March 2016.