Cornwood

Cornwood is a village and civil parish in the South Hams on the upper Yealm, at the south-western edge of Dartmoor. It also includes Lutton. Domesday in 1086 lists three manors, written Cornehuda, Ferdendel and Blacheorda (Cornwood, Fardel and Blachford). It also records three unbroken mares at Cornwood, which one judge joked could be the first Dartmoor ponies in history. On Staldon Moor in the parish is a row of 65 large stones.

The church of St Michael and All Angels stands about 400 feet up. The squat tower is the oldest part, early 13th century going by its lancet windows, and the rest is mostly Perpendicular of the 15th century. Bishop Grandison re-dedicated it in 1336 after it was restored and enlarged. A restoration was finished in 1875, and the chancel reredos of 1867 is alabaster and Italian marble.

Blachford, held by the Hele family, was bought in 1694 by John Rogers, a Plymouth customs man. The 8th baronet, Frederick Rogers, spent 25 years at the Colonial Office and was made Baron Blachford in 1871. Fardel passed through the Ralegh family, including Sir Walter, to the Heles, who kept it until 1740. Brunel's South Devon Railway put a station in the parish. In January 2023, after a High Court ruling against wild camping on Dartmoor commons, a march set off from Cornwood onto Stall Moor, past the landowner's house. Police put it at just over 2,000 people, the organisers at over 3,000.