Belstone is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the West Devon District of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England.

Location

Lying on the northern side of

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

, the western boundary of the parish is mostly formed by the

East Okement River East Okement is a river in the Dartmoor moors in Devon in south-west England. It joins the West Okement River, West Okement at Okehampton to form the River Okement, Okement. References

Rivers of Devon Dartmoor Torridge catchment, 2E ...

and the eastern by the

River Taw The River Taw () rises at Taw Head, a spring on the central northern flanks of Dartmoor, crosses North Devon and at the town of Barnstaple, formerly a significant port, empties into Bideford Bay in the Bristol Channel, having formed a large ...

. The village lies at around 300m (990 feet) above sea level with its highest point being Belstone Tor in the south, at 460m (1,508 feet). The village is central in its parish, surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Sticklepath,

South Tawton South Tawton is a village, parish and former manor on the north edge of Dartmoor, Devon, England. An electoral ward bearing the same name exists. At the 2011 census the population was 1,683. Historic estates Located in the parish of South Tawt ...

Dartmoor Forest Dartmoor Forest is a civil parish in Devon, England. It was formed in 1987 by the splitting of the former parish of Lydford. It covers about entirely within Dartmoor, Dartmoor National Park, and is the largest parish in Devon. Despite its size ...

and

Okehampton Hamlets Okehampton Hamlets is a civil parish in the Borough of West Devon and the English county of Devon, it runs independently from the Okehampton Town Council, meetings are held at the Meldon Village Hall. The Parish of Okehampton Hamlets is a rura ...

. It is only accessible by minor roads from the

A30 road The A30 is a major road in England, running WSW from London to Land's End. The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route. It used to provide the fastest route from Londo ...

, east of the town of

Okehampton Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based i ...

, which is about three miles to the north-west. In 2001 its population was 257, relatively unchanged from the 1901 figure of 236.

History

There are a number of Bronze Age remains within the parish, including the Nine Maidens stone circle, the remains of the outer wall of a

burial chamber A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interred than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could a ...

. It is possible that Fatherford, in the north west of Belstone

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, was one stage in a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

extension of the

Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis (Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bath), Corini ...

road from

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

to Launceston. The village was recorded as ''Bellestam'' in the 11th century

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

. The parish church, dedicated to St. Mary, dates from the 13th century and has priests recorded from 1260. In the 19th century, copper was worked on the moor at Taw River mine which closed in 1892, and at Greenhill in the north-east. Nine Stones - geograph

Belstone in fiction

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

's 1931 novel ''

The Sittaford Mystery ''The Sittaford Mystery'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1931 under the title of ''The Murder at Hazelmoor'' and in UK by the Collins Crime Club on 7 Sept ...

'' would appear to use Belstone as the location of the fictional settlement of Sittaford. *The story of ''The Ballad of the Belstone Fox'' (1970) by David Rook was based on the area, later made into a film ''

The Belstone Fox ''The Belstone Fox'' is a 1973 British film directed by James Hill, and based on David Rook's 1970 novel, ''The Ballad of the Belstone Fox''. Plot The Belstone Fox is the nickname given to Tag, a fox cub rescued from the woods and adopted by hu ...

'' in 1973. *

Michael Jecks Michael Jecks (born 1960, Surrey) is an English writer of historical mystery novels. Early life The son of an actuary, and the fourth of four brothers, Jecks worked in the computer industry before becoming a novelist full-time in 1994 after h ...

made the village the setting for his 1999 novel ''Belladonna At Belstone''.

Gallery

File:Stocks at Belstone.jpg, alt=, The Grade II listed

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

at Belstone File:Church of St Mary the Virgin, Belstone.jpg, alt=, Church of St Mary the Virgin, Belstone File:The Belstone Ring-Cross.jpg, alt=, Early medieval ring-cross in Belstone's Church of St Mary the Virgin

References

Sources

*''The Book of Belstone'' by Chris and Marion Walpole, 2002

External links

Village community websiteParish Church website
{{Devon parishes Villages in the Borough of West Devon Dartmoor