Kitley Heritage - Bastard quartering Pollexfen impaling Scrope

29/ Or a chevron azure Quartering 1 & 4 Argent a lion rampant gules 2 & 3 Azure Impaling Azure a bend or – Bastard quartering Pollexfen impaling Scrope

Edmund Rodney Pollexfen Bastard inherited Kitley from his father (q.v. shield 27), but died without issue and so the Lordship passed first to his brother Baldwin John P Bastard (q.v. shield 27), and then eventually to his nephew William E P Bastard, son of another brother, William P Bastard (q.v. shield 23) – which is confusing enough to work out on a family tree, but much worse when one has to jump around looking at various arms in the display in order to follow the main lineage! Edmund R P Bastard himself was born on 7th Sept 1825, and married Florence Mary, daughter of Simon Thomas Scrope of Danby Hall, Yorkshire, on 22nd Nov 1853.

During his time as Lord of the Manor, the annual rental income being generated by the Kitley Estate was as follows (listed under parishes in which property was owned) – Yealmpton £5121, Brixton £1284, Ermington £1173, Plymstock £835, Buckland in the Moor £797, West Alvington £635, Newton Ferrers £252, Plympton St Mary £236, Wembury £234, Marlborough £116, Revelstoke £30. This total of £10,713 (1855 figures) was only the rental from the farms and other properties etc, and the leasing out of fishing rights on the Yealm Estuary, and various enterprises on other parts of the widely scattered estate, would have generated further income.

Sales from the extensive plantations at Buckland for example, alone generated a substantial annual income during this period, for the 1850s and 1860s were the boom years for timber sales, when the growth of the mining industry on Dartmoor led to peak demands for timber for pit props &c. Buckland was placed in the enviable position of being one of the few sources of supply of quality timber on the fringes of high Dartmoor, and large shipments of scotch pine and larch were sent out on an almost weekly basis to East Birch Tor Mine, Vitifer Mine, and Haytor Consols, amongst others. The largest orders received were for upwards of 700ft of timber in one lot, in 15ft to 30ft lengths, and the haulage of these huge quantities by horse power alone over the difficult and inhospitable Dartmoor terrain must have been an arduous task. Brimpts Mine was another of those supplied, and the journey down the steep incline at Dartmeet Hill with a cart load of timber weighing a few tons must have been an exciting and rather perilous experience for driver and horses alike!