PRINCETOWN'S community policeman Stewart Pearce retired from the moorland beat at one of England's highest villages last week, after serving ten years with the police force.

PC Pearce, well known to West Devon residents for his tireless biking and swimming challenges for charity, said he is 'very much' looking forward to his retirement.

PC Pearce said: 'I'm going to take a year out, do a lot of travelling and just re-find myself really — and do all the jobs I haven't had time to do for the last ten years!'

PC Pearce, 54, said he would miss working life with the police, despite looking forward to the future.

'I'm going to miss the freedom of being able to go around the community meeting people from all walks of life — goodies and baddies.

'And I've been working with a fantastic group of people. Most policemen are proud to be policemen, they're a special breed in lots of ways. Everybody here, from the highest rank to the police station cleaner, is marvellous.'

PC Pearce, a former Royal Marine and manager of the Royal Western Yacht Club in Plymouth, said he had enjoyed the two years he spent as Princetown's community policeman.

He said: 'It's unique up there, it's isolated from everywhere else, you have to drive seven or eight miles from any direction to actually reach it.

'I found the people very supportive — it's a very good community up there.'

PC Pearce might be retiring from work but he certainly isn't slowing down. He is now in training for his biggest charity challenge yet — on July 18 he leaves for a 4,250-mile cycle ride across America to raise money for Children's Hospice South West.

'We're going from Astoria in Oregon to Boston, but it could be more like 5,000 miles — allowing for getting lost.

'We're carrying all our own equipment and hoping to cover 60 miles a day, depending on the terrain. Some of the mountains we go through are 11,500ft up,' said PC Pearce, who is tackling the challenge with John Crossley of Dousland and Dave Pickles of Crapstone.

PC Pearce hopes the cycle ride, plus a ceilidh in June at Yelverton and a concert in Tavistock in July, will raise about £2,000 for the Hospice.

And while PC Pearce is in training for his marathon bike ride, new man on the Princetown beat, PC Steve Bradfield, will be getting to know his moorland patch.

PC Bradfield, 39 and a Devonport Dockyard engineer by trade, has also been a policeman for ten years and coincidentally joined the force on the same day as PC Pearce.

PC Bradfield, who has been stationed at Tavistock since December, said: 'I'm looking forward to meeting and working with the community in Princetown.

'I want to spend a good proportion of my working time getting to know people up there.'