Burrator is a
grouped parish council in the English county 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. Devo ...
. It is entirely within the boundaries of the
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 P ...
National Park and was formed as a result of the
Local Government Act 1972 from the older councils of
Meavy,
Sheepstor and
Walkhampton
Walkhampton is a village and civil parish on the western side of Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England. The village lies on the Black Brook, a tributary of the River Walkham, about south-east of Tavistock, near the villages of Horrabridge, ...
.
The parish has an area of 59.45 km
2 (23 sq miles), and is one of the most sparsely populated. The population count in 2001 found that 1,540 people lived in the parish. The parish coincides with the similarly named electoral ward, and at the 2011 census the population had decreased to 1,445. The ward contains the villages of
Dousland,
Meavy,
Sheepstor and
Walkhampton
Walkhampton is a village and civil parish on the western side of Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England. The village lies on the Black Brook, a tributary of the River Walkham, about south-east of Tavistock, near the villages of Horrabridge, ...
, and also
Burrator Reservoir which is the main water supply for
Plymouth. The parish is twinned with the municipality of
Mathieu, in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, France.
Burrator Parish Council holds the ownership of the Royal Oak Inn at Meavy, which dates back to the 16th Century. The Inn is leased to a tenant publican and the council's ownership and responsibilities of the Inn is managed by its Royal Oak Inn committee, composed of Meavy parish councillors.
The parish of Burrator is named after Burra Tor, a large
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
tor that is exposed from the field to the woodland by the dam; located at Grid Reference 553679 at the southern end of the reservoir and about halfway between its two dams blocking the outlets to the
River Meavy and the Sheepstor Brook.
James Brooke
Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868), was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868.
Brooke was b ...
, the first white
Rajah of Sarawak
The White Rajahs were a dynastic monarchy of the British Brooke family, who founded and ruled the Raj of Sarawak, located on the north west coast of the island of Borneo, from 1841 to 1946. The first ruler was Briton James Brooke. As a reward f ...
, died in Burrator.
[Barley, p. 228.]
References
Further reading
*Barley, Nigel. ''White Rajah''. London: Time Warner, 2002. .
External links
Burrator Parish Council
Dartmoor
Local government in Devon
Tors of Dartmoor
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