Bridestowe

Bridestowe is a village and civil parish in West Devon, between Okehampton and Tavistock on the edge of Dartmoor, about 6 miles south-west of Okehampton. The name comes from St Bride, also called Bridget, an Irish saint, and the parish church is St Bridget's. The village website says it has been the parish church since the 15th century, and village records go back to 1641.

White's Directory of 1878 described a parish of 5,861 acres with 762 people in 1871, and a 'neat improving village'. Lead and copper were mined at Wheal Mary and Wheal Newton, and a company had just formed to work peat on Dartmoor, with a branch railway planned to bring it to Bridestowe. Millaton House belonged to J G Newton, and Leawood had long been the Calmady family seat. The church then had a tower with six bells. The national school was rebuilt in 1862 and taught about 100 children, and cattle fairs were held on the first Wednesday of June and on 29 July.

The village today has stone and slate cottages with a little modern building, a primary school, a shop and post office, a Methodist chapel and a village hall completed in 2008. The church is raising money for a tower appeal.