Meavy

Meavy is a village and civil parish about a mile east of Yelverton, in West Devon, with 595 residents at the 2021 census. It is grouped with Sheepstor and Walkhampton under Burrator Parish Council. The Domesday Book of 1086 has the manor held by Robert le Bastard or Juhel de Totnes, and the de Meavy family held it from the reign of Henry III to Richard II. Sir Francis Drake, 3rd Baronet (1642 to 1718), later bought it.

St Peter's church is at least partly Norman, with later medieval additions and a reredos of 1884. The manor house beside it carries the date 1705 and the Drake star, and a Drake Aisle survives as the manorial chapel. The Royal Oak Inn on the green dates from the late 15th century and began as the church house, the parish hall before the Reformation. The Burrator parish site says it has belonged to the parish since 1936, and its profits go to community causes. A platform was built in the oak's branches in 1899 so that musicians could play for dancing at Meavy Fair.

The Meavy Oak on the green is hollow and has been for centuries, and was still standing in 2023. It was propped with wooden and steel props and its crown reduced in the 1970s. John Claudius Loudon wrote about it in 1838, and it may be over 900 years old. A local tale has a landlady giving a dinner party for nine inside it in 1826, and others have Charles II hiding in it. In April 2016 the blogger Adrian Colston found it standing.

Burrator Dam, across the River Meavy, was started on 9 August 1893 and the reservoir opened on 21 September 1898. It was enlarged between 1923 and 1928. The village was a filming location for War Horse in 2010.