Photo © David Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peter Tavy
Peter Tavy is a village and civil parish on the western edge of Dartmoor, 3 miles north-east of Tavistock off the A386. The parish covers 3,954 hectares, and the 2021 census recorded 296 people. Domesday Book (1086) lists the place as Tawi, after the river. The parish council describes mills driven by the Colly Brook through the village centre, a long mining history, and a working farm still at the centre. The Methodist chapel and school were added in the 19th century.
St Peter's Church is probably Norman in origin: there is a Romanesque head on the south transept and a Norman priest's door in the chancel. The first priest on record is Robert, chaplain of Tavi, around 1185. The font is early English, about 1250, and the oldest grave is Roger Cole's, from 1632. Lightning damaged the tower pinnacles in 1803, and there are six bells, the earliest from 1720. A tale is told of the rector W. McBean sending the churchwarden Roger Mudge to clear the inn before the sermon, but Mudge gave warning and the inn was empty by the time he arrived. At Willsworthy a former manor house has a chapel that was converted into a house.
George Stephens died in 1763, and a granite post marks his grave near Peter Tavy Moor. He is said to have killed himself after losing the chance to marry Mary Bray, a farmer's daughter, and was buried outside the parish boundary, as was usual for suicides. The ghost story attached to him is local tradition, and nothing here proves it.
Peter Tavy on the map
In Peter Tavy
Boundary Stone, Ngr 503 767
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
A stone boundary marker on the open moor, marking historic land divisions across Dartmoor's upland landscape.
Cairnfields on White Hill
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
Two Bronze Age cairnfields on White Hill: a western-slope field of about 26 mounds above Lydford and a northern-slope field of at least 22 above the Walla Brook, in six scheduled monuments.
Church of St Peter, Peter Tavy
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
Grade I granite church, probably 14th century and much rebuilt in the 15th, whose tower was struck by lightning on 21 November 1893.
Clay Tor
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
A disputed tor on the steep side of the Walkham valley: writers place the name on two different sites nearly a kilometre apart, and Crossing said there is no tor there.
Hare Tor, Wapsworthy
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
A small, ruined tor of metamorphic rock on Arthur Hill about 300 m north of the Langstone menhir, not the conical Hare Tor on the Willsworthy range.
Hare Tor, Willsworthy Range
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
A conical granite tor of 531 m on the Willsworthy range with two peaks, an oval rock basin and some of the finest views in Devon.
Harford Bridge Park
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
Holiday park on the edge of Dartmoor near Tavistock, offering caravans, tipis and shepherds huts with riverside setting.
Langstone Moor Standing Stone
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
A 2.76 m standing stone on Langstone Moor, re-erected in 1893 in its original socket and marked by bullet holes from wartime target practice.
Milestone, SX 503 768
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
A stone milestone marking a route across the open moor, likely from the 18th or 19th century.
Milestone, SX 505 783
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
A milestone marking distances on the roads crossing Dartmoor's high moorland.
Peter Tavy Inn
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
Well-loved village inn on the western edge of Dartmoor, serving real ales and home-cooked food in a traditional setting.
Peter Tavy Parish Council
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
The parish council for Peter Tavy, a small village near Tavistock on the western edge of Dartmoor.
Peter Tavy Village Hall
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
River Tavy
Peter Tavy
The Tavy is a river on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The name derives from the Brythonic root tam, once thought to mean 'dark' but now generally understood to mean 'to flow'. It has given its name to the town of Tavistock and the villages of
Round cairn cemetery on White Hill
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
Eight scheduled monuments of a Bronze Age round cairn cemetery on White Hill, near the summit and on the slope above Willsworthy: ring cairns and round cairns, some dug by Baring-Gould in 1888.
Sharp Tor, Peter Tavy
Peter Tavy
A largely forgotten tor of 348 m with three crags crowned by hawthorns, between Great Combe Tor and Cocks Tor above Peter Tavy Combe.
Tavy Cleave
Peter Tavy, Tavistock
Steep gorge of the River Tavy on north-west Dartmoor, rare for the moor, below Hare Tor and Ger Tor and the setting of Trevena's Furze the Cruel (1907).
