Josephine Collingwood
Josephine Collingwood on Dartmoor
As a member of the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Group and author of a well-regarded book on the moor’s tors, it’s no surprise to learn that Josephine Collingwood has always felt a strong pull to the stunning landscape we are lucky enough to enjoy on our doorstep.
Brought up initially in London, her family moved to Totnes when she was 16. Although she went away to university, she and her husband, whom she met in a machine gun trench while with the Officer Training Corps, settled back in Devon following the death of her mum and they’ve stayed in the county ever since.
Although she already had a geophysics degree, in the 1990s Josephine embarked upon a three year photography course at Plymouth College of Art. It may have been a familial influence - her Dad was a film cameraman while her grandfather was a pioneer in aerial photography during World War I, working with the Royal Flying Corps. After graduating, she spent some 20 years specialising in freelance architectural work, taking pictures of multi-million pound houses for glossy brochures.
She has also done a fair bit of web design work, but one of the projects clearly close to her heart is her Dartmoor Tors Compendium, a 336-page book describing all the moorland tors in quite incredible detail, accompanied by Josephine’s stunning photographs. Not only did she research, write and illustrate the book over several years in her spare time, she set up her own publishing company to produce it.
‘I’m so glad I did it that way,’ said Josephine. ‘I could do the book exactly how I wanted it to look. The design decisions were mine, and it made sense really, as so much of my background involved desktop publishing. It’s been a great success, I’ve had some lovely feedback from people and as it’s timeless, it just keeps selling, which I am delighted with.’
Josephine paid tribute to Dartmoor National Park Authority, who were very supportive of the book and following its publication, asked her to produce the moor’s official visitor guide.
Flushed with the success of the compendium, she’s now working on another Dartmoor book, this time concentrating on its geology - and she’s also designed a ‘Dartmoor Overground’ map of all the ancient and modern tracks and paths on the moor, in the style of the London underground map.
It would seem only natural that someone with such a depth of knowledge of the moor should want to put this to good use and Josephine has been a member of the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Group’s Tavistock section for several years now, where her intimate knowledge of the landscape is a great asset.
She said: ‘A friend of mine had been talking about the rescue group - I’ve always loved the outdoors and climbing and while I was doing a route for the compendium, I came across this bloke who had broken his leg on King’s Tor. I stayed with him until help arrived and thought “I‘d really like to do this.”
‘I applied, did the interview, did the training and I love it. You have to be a team player, you could be in the middle of nowhere with a casualty, it’s blowing a hooley and you are stuck in this Kisu [survival tent], so you need to get on with people and work together - but to be able to help save a life is just marvellous.’
A very practical person, Josephine and her husband have renovated a barn together and she can turn her hand to most skills except plastering. The couple have three children, 23-year-old Lizzie and twins Poppy and Michael, who are just 17 months younger - as Josephine said wryly: ‘Those first three years were difficult, it was a bit crazy for a while!’
In addition to walking, Josephine loves to climb and to travel - but is always happy to come back to home - and Dartmoor.
‘I don’t know what it is about it; It’s multi faceted, like a living museum; it’s dangerous, but beautiful and benign; at other times it’s dramatic and unpredictable,’ said Josephine.
‘I love black and white photography, it strips away extra information so you just see the contrast and drama - and a lot of Dartmoor is really good for this - but I also love the colours of the moor, they are so subtle. Then there’s the smell of the turf, the tannin in the water; I adore granite and then there’s the whole history of its geology. It just gets under your skin . . .’
By Jane Honey