Photo © Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rattery
Rattery is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, a few miles from Buckfastleigh and Ashburton and about 4 miles west of Totnes. South Brent, whose village centre is inside Dartmoor National Park, is the nearest village on the moor side. Rattery is in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ratreu. The 2021 census recorded 580 residents in the parish.
St Mary's church has a font, nave and chancel thought to be 12th century, with the tower and narrow aisles added around the 13th century and chancel chapels in the 15th. The font is Norman, with a red sandstone bowl and stem. The first recorded priest, Jeffrey Hurning, was in post around 1199. Three of the five bells were cast in 1763, and the interior has sgraffito decoration from 1874. Next to the church is the Church House Inn, which claims a building on the site as early as 1028. No document for that date turned up.
Marley House, a Georgian mansion built by Walter Palk (1742 to 1819), passed to the Carews of Haccombe in 1806 and was renamed Syon Abbey in 1925 when a community of nuns moved in. Building the A38 took trees and part of its grounds.
Rattery on the map
In Rattery
Avon Dam Reservoir
Rattery
A remote reservoir high on the southern moor, on the River Avon above Shipley Bridge. Built between 1954 and 1957, it is reached only on foot, by a good track up the Avon valley from near South Brent.
Dean Burn
Rattery
A tumbling brook that rises on Dean Moor and falls through a steep, wooded glen of small waterfalls down to Buckfastleigh, one of the two moorland rivers that shaped the town.
Dean Court Farm Shop
Rattery, Buckfastleigh
Independent farm shop, deli & cafe - utilising local suppliers and fresh local produce, served with a warm and friendly welcome.
Sophie Macdonald Seamstress Studio
Rattery, Dartmoor
Sophie Macdonald of Ivybridge, Devon, runs a seamstress studio where she turns her lifelong passion for fabric into custom creations. From wedding dresses to bespoke boxer-shorts, her work reflects a blend of creativity and practicality, fulfilling her childhood dream of making clothes that people wear.
