Sheepstor is a village,

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 ...

and former manor on the western 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 ...

in the 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. Devon is ...

, England. In 2001, its population was 53, down from 95 in 1901. For administrative purposes the parish is grouped with the parishes of

Meavy Meavy is a small village, civil parish and former manor in the English county of Devon. Meavy forms part of the district of West Devon. It lies a mile or so east of Yelverton. The River Meavy runs near the village. For administrative purposes ...

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, ...

to form Burrator Parish Council, and for electoral purposes it is grouped with the same two parishes to form Burrator

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

Burrator Reservoir Burrator Reservoir is a reservoir on the south side of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. It is one of a number of reservoirs and dams that were built over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries in the area now covered by Dartmoor Nati ...

, constructed in 1898, is to the north of the village and forms part of the northern boundary of the parish. The name ''Sheepstor'' has evolved considerably since the first reference to a settlement here which was recorded in a pipe roll of 1168 as ''Sitelestorra''. In a document of 1262, it was ''Skytelestor'', ''Shittestorre'' in 1474, ''Shistor'' in 1547 and in c. 1620

Tristram Risdon Tristram Risdon (c. 1580 – 1640) was an English antiquarian and topographer, and the author of ''Survey of the County of Devon''. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated ar ...

called it ''Shetelstor now Shepstor''. The name probably derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''scyttel(s)'' meaning a bar or bolt, reflecting the shape of the nearby Sheeps

Tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia Sc ...

Manor

The manor of Sheepstor was held by the

Scudamore family The Scudamore (or de Scudamore) family is an English noble family. The family settled in Herefordshire at two seats, Holme Lacy and Kentchurch Court, before lines moved to Devon, Somerset and Derbyshire. The family first gained prominence in the ...

, whose heirs were the Elford family.

Sheepstor Church

The village church, dedicated to St Leonard, is built of granite and dates from the 15th century, though a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...

was first documented here in 1240. The church contains a fine

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...

which was reconstructed in 1914 by the then vicar Hugh Breton from drawings made of the original that had been removed in a 19th-century restoration. Buried in the churchyard are

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 bor ...

, Charles Brooke and

Charles Vyner Brooke Vyner, Rajah of Sarawak, GCMG, full name Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke (26 September 1874 – 9 May 1963) was the third and last White Rajah of the Raj of Sarawak. Early life The son of Charles Brooke and his wife Margaret de Windt ( Ranee Ma ...

, the three

White Rajahs 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 ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

(now part of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

), as well as Bertram Willes Dayrell Brooke, another member of the family. The graves of the Rajahs have been designated Grade II listed monuments by English Heritage. There are currently six bells in the church tower, five of which were cast in 1769, with a sixth hung in 1904; one of the older bells has inscribed on it the words 'I call the quick to church and the dead to grave'. A local legend tells that the bell ropes of the church were once tied together and lowered into

Crazywell Pool Crazywell Pool or Crazy Well Pool is a large pond situated about south of Princetown, England, Princetown just off the path between Burrator and Whiteworks mine, Whiteworks on the western side of Dartmoor, Devon, England at . It is about long an ...

, 3.6 km to the north east of Sheepstor, in order to determine the depth. According to the legend the ropes descended as much as 90 fathoms without reaching the bottom, causing people to believe the pool is bottomless. The church has been renovated several times, the most thorough of which was in 1861 at a cost of £590.

Sheeps Tor

Sheeps Tor, from which the village is named, is a prominent outcrop about half a mile north east of the village. The summit is 369m above sea level and it is one of the area's most prominent tors.

Sheepstor in popular culture

In 2010 Sheepstor was one of the filming locations for the

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

film ''

War Horse The first evidence of horses in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons. By 1600 BC, improved harness and chariot designs ...

'', and the village with its prominent church tower features in an aerial shot in the trailer for the film which was released on 29 June 2011.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Devon Dartmoor