Dartmoor Town Guides

North

East

South East

South

South West

West 

Central

Bridford

BRIDFORD is a large village in a wild, hilly area, rising to over 1,100 ft, containing much beautiful scenery. Many granite quarries and the barytes mine in the area. There are also disused lead mines. The older houses of the village are built of moorstone (i.e. surface granite) of which there was much in the higher parts of the parish. St. Thomas Becket, an early 14th century church, contains many of its ancient fittings: some late medieval glass, carved stalls and bench-ends of the same period.

Chagford

Chagford is a small town on the northeast edge of Dartmoor, close to the River Teign. The name Chagford is derived from the word ‘chag’, meaning gorse or broom, and the ford suffix indicates its importance as a crossing place on the River Teign. Archaeological prehistoric remains confirm that a community has existed here for at least 4,000 years. In historical times, Chagford is one of the original four Stannary Towns of Devon, where tinners brought their hard won metal for assay and stamping. Chagford grew due to the wool trade and from tin mining in the area, and in 1305 was made a stannary town where tin was traded. A market is recorded from 1600 and survived until the 1980s.

Cheriton Bishop

Cheriton Bishop is a village situated on the northern borders of Dartmoor National park between Exeter and Okehampton. The history of the settlement can be traced back over a thousand years when the old village centre was first established as a commercial centre for the local farming community. The name "Cheriton" derives from the ancient English for "church town". The current church, St Mary's, originates from the 13th century.

Christow

CHRISTOW stands on the West hillside of the Teign valley, it rises well over 800 ft. to moorland where the two reservoirs of Tottiford and Kennick, supplying Torquay with water, lie. Canonteign was the original Domesday manor, it was given to the canons of St. Mary du Val in Normandy c. 1125. Christow church (prob. St. Christina) is a 15th century granite building. The West tower was rebuilt in 1630 and is one of the finest granite towers in Devon.

Crockernwell

A small village within Dartmoor National Park. Crockernwell lies on the northern most perimeter of the Dartmoor National Park, in the centre off the ancient ridgeway between Exeter and Okehampton. Crockernwell is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The name is possibly derived from crock, as in pot or vessel, so it may refer to a place where pots were made or found. Elements of the village plan suggest a phase of medieval planning, probably adding to an existing settlement. It is known that a Chapel of Ease existed in the 14th century, though the location is uncertain.

Drewsteighton

Drewsteignton is a large but picturesque village in the teign valley lying on the edge of northern borders of Dartmoor National Park. The area around the village has been inhabited for over 3000 years and the remains of a Neolithic burial chamber, known as Spinsters’ Rock, is the oldest evidence of man in the area. Bronze Age stone circles and avenues were recorded nearly 200 years ago but have all since disappeared. A complex of three Iron Age fortifications lies astride the River Teign and one of these ‘castles’, Prestonbury, is in the parish. All these remains are strong evidence of a large local community in prehistoric times. The parish of Drewsteignton is one of the oldest in Devon to have a recorded boundary. In 839 King Aethelheard gave a tract of land to endow Crediton Minster, this territory shows an outline which is almost the same as the present parish. during the sixteenth century tin and imestone quarry was in use. Castle Drogo is situated on the edge of the Village, set 900ft above the Teign Gorge with dramatic views over Dartmoor. It was the last castle to be built in England. Built by Sir Julius 1911-1930, an ancestor of a Norman baron named Drogo de Teigne, construction took 20 years.

Dunsford

Pretty little village nestling in the Teign Valley, within the Dartmoor National Park, right where the River Teign changes it's mind and heads south from it's original easterly direction. It is mentioned in the DOMESDAY BOOK in 1086. St. Marys Church, in the centre of the village, was built circa 1430 but there has been a church on the same site since 1260, if not earlier.

Moretonhampstead

A small ancient market town on the north-eastern edge of Dartmoor Forest,situated within the Dartmoor National Park. Voted the Best Village in Devon in 2002.It is mentioned in Domesday Book (1086), when it was a royal manor, but clearly had by then been in existence for many years before. The Earl of Devon is lord of the manor of Moreton. It reached its peak population as a cloth manufacturing town in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Moretonhampstead is surrounded by stunning scenery on all sides including the Wray valley being considered one of the most beautiful valleys in England. 

North Bovey

BOVEY, NORTH is an exceptionally attractive and an extremely picturesque unspoilt village lying on a hillside above the river Bovey from which it takes its name, looking across to the eastern wall of Dartmoors National Park. Approached by steep, narrow lanes and 18th century thatched cottages surround a village green with a stone cross and pump. To the West of the village are hut circles and other Bronze Age antiquities also a numerous ancient tin works and abandoned tin mines.