Sourton

Sourton is a village and civil parish about 4 miles south-west of Okehampton, on the A386 at the north-western edge of Dartmoor. The 2021 census gave the parish 446 residents, spread over the village and hamlets such as Boasley, Thorndon and Bowerland. The name first appears around 970 as swurtan tune, and the Domesday Book of 1086 has it as Surintone. Farming has been the main work, with lime production alongside, and in 1881 the workforce was mostly farm labourers.

The church of St Thomas a Becket is grade II* listed. A chapel of Sourton was licensed in Bishop Brantingham's register in 1374, and in 1376 a court ordered a resident chaplain because floods stopped parishioners reaching the mother church at Bridestowe. The chancel is 14th century but was largely rebuilt in 1847 to 1848, the rest is 15th century, and the church was restored in 1881. It has an 18th century sundial, one of only 11 on Dartmoor according to Legendary Dartmoor. The Becket dedication is recorded in 1742. One theory has William de Tracy, one of Becket's murderers, building it as penance, which nobody has proved.

The Highwayman Inn was known as the New Inn until the mid 20th century, and its age is disputed: the parish council says 12th century, Haunted Britain says 13th century, and other sources give 1812. In 1959 John Buster Jones took on the run-down building and filled it with salvage, including a carved door from the whaler Diana as part of the Galleon Bar and an old stagecoach as the entrance lobby.

Above the village the ice works ran from 1875 to 1886, making ice to keep Plymouth fish fresh. Only the banks of its ponds survive. The Granite Way cycle route (National Cycle Network route 27) runs through the parish on an old railway line.