Hemsworthy Gate

• Parish: Widecombe in the Moor
• Grid reference: about SX 7420 7607
• Local name: White Gate
• Beside it: Stentifords Cross, Grade II (list entry 1242139)

Hemsworthy Gate stands on the B3387 at the junction of the roads to Widecombe, Bickington and Haytor. Locals called it White Gate because the gate was painted white, and a photograph of 1925 shows it so. The narrow gate was later replaced by a wider gateway with a cattle grid; American troops are said to have demolished the original gateposts in the Second World War to let tank transporters through, and one post now lies in the wall on the north side. Crossing uses the name Hemsworthy Gate in 1905 and 1914.

Stentifords Cross, a Grade II boundary marker, stands about 70 metres to the east and marks the bounds of Dunstone Manor on the Ilsington border. The junction is a start point for walks to Top Tor, Pil Tor, Rippon Tor, Saddle Tor and Haytor Down. In 1914 it was a waypoint on the Princetown to Bovey Tracey route by way of Widecombe.

Sources: Dartmoor Explorations, Hemsworthy White Gate; W. Crossing, Gems in a Granite Setting (1905) p. 87 and Guide to Dartmoor (1914) p. 136; Historic England list entry 1242139; Geograph; Holiday in Dartmoor.