Lifton

Lifton is a village and civil parish in West Devon, close to the Cornwall border, near where the rivers Wolf and Lyd meet. Launceston is 4 miles to the west. It lies west of Dartmoor, outside the National Park. The 2021 census recorded 1,239 residents, up from 976 in 2001.

Lifton is among the older Saxon settlements of west Devon. It appears as Liwtune in King Alfred's will of the late 9th century, and Wikipedia reports a meeting of the Witan here in 931 attended by Welsh kings. The old Lifton Hundred, which included neighbouring Lamerton, took its name from it. The church of St Mary is mostly 15th century, with a Norman font and a monument to the Harris family with figures dated 1590, 1618 and 1631. Kelly's Directory of 1902 says Charles I slept at the Rectory House, formerly the manor house, on 31 July 1644.

The same directory recorded a fair on 13 February, two lime quarries and a manganese mine (none being worked) and a population of 1,195 in 1891. The railway station, on the South Devon and Tavistock line, ran from 1865 to 1962. Ambrosia opened a milk factory here in 1917, and the A30 bypass opened in 1993. The Arundell Arms is a hotel known for its fishing.