North Brentor

North Brentor is a village in Brentor parish, West Devon, about 4 miles north of Tavistock on the western edge of the moor. The parish council estimates 385 people in 220 households in 2020. The village grew considerably in the 19th century, and a conservation area was designated in August 1993. Christchurch was built in 1856 and consecrated in 1857, to a design by Richard Gosling. A National School opened in 1832 and closed in 1955, and Brentor station on the London and South Western line ran from 2 June 1890 to 6 May 1968.

Brent Tor, 1,100 feet (335 metres) high, is not granite. It is pillow lava pushed out under a shallow sea, which the parish council dates to about 350 million years ago. Late Iron Age ramparts on the hill are dated to 500 BC.

The church of St Michael de Rupe on the summit was built around 1130 by Robert Giffard, and a papal bull of 1193 confirms it as a chantry chapel. It was rebuilt and enlarged in the early 1300s, and Tavistock Abbey oversaw it until 1539. It measures 37 feet by 14.5 feet, with a 40 foot tower and five bells, and is counted as the fourth smallest complete parish church in England. Lightning damaged the tower in 1995. The parish council gives a full restoration in 1890, though other accounts say 1889. The octagonal granite font is kept locked, a medieval practice meant to stop the water being stolen for black magic.