Chagford

Chagford is one of Dartmoor's four stannary towns, granted the right in the Middle Ages to weigh and stamp the tin brought down from the moor, and to hold the courts that governed the trade. That privilege made it wealthy, and the town still shows it in the handsome buildings around its square and in the scale of St Michael's church. Set above the River Teign on the north eastern edge of the moor, Chagford has kept an independence of character that sets it apart, with a long tradition of craftsmen, writers and artists choosing to live here.

Today Chagford is one of the most rewarding towns on Dartmoor to spend time in, with independent shops, galleries and a famously well stocked ironmonger, alongside pubs and places to eat that draw people from across Devon. The Three Crowns, a granite inn on the square, has stood since the sixteenth century. From the town, walks lead down into the wooded Teign valley towards Fingle Bridge and Castle Drogo, or up onto the open moor at Meldon Hill and Kestor, where the tin workings that made the town rich can still be traced across the ground.