Murchington

Murchington is a hamlet in Throwleigh parish, Devon, just north of the Chagford boundary and about 1.5 miles from Chagford. A travel site places it inside Dartmoor National Park. It has no shop, church or pub, and about twenty houses. The same site says it began as a farmstead some six centuries ago, with three farms dating to the 16th century and Pleasant Farm possibly 15th.

In 1841 Murchington had 158 residents against 60 in Throwleigh village, according to Chagford Local History Society. In the 19th century it had at least five farms of 20 to 70 acres, a pub, a blacksmith and a quarry. Today one working farm and one smallholding remain. An Anglican chapel was completed in 1890 on land given by the Rev James George Dangar. It closed as a place of worship in 1975 and is now a private house.

In June 1868 the Rev John Ingle bought about 50 acres of woodland, coppice and water meadow and named the estate St Olaves, after his Exeter church. The Sutton family owned it from 1907 to 1960, and it was divided up between 1954 and 1971. A trial pit in 1917 was reported to show a tin lode assaying at 54%.