Staverton

Staverton is a village and civil parish in the South Hams of Devon, on the River Dart on the road to Dartington and Totnes. It lies outside Dartmoor National Park, south-east of the moor. The 2001 census gave the parish 717 people in 297 households; the parish history records a peak of 1,152 in 1851.

King Athelstan gave lands here to the monastery of St Mary and St Peter in Exeter between 925 and 940, and Bishop Leofric regained them in 1050. The Domesday Book valued the manor at 7 pounds a year. The church of St Paul de Leon is mostly early 14th century. Staverton Bridge over the Dart replaced a ford and an earlier wooden bridge, and was rebuilt in 1413 with money raised by Church indulgences. In 1436 the chaplain Sir John Laa quarrelled with John Gayne on the bridge after dining; Gayne was killed with a knife and a bishop's inquiry cleared the chaplain.

Slate from the Penn Recca quarries in the parish was used on Dartington Hall in 1338, and the mine was expanded from 1845 until the quarries closed in 1908. Staverton station is on the South Devon Railway, and The Sea Trout is the village pub. The parish history lists three pubs in 1850.