Sheepstor is a village, civil parish and former

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

on the western side of Dartmoor in the county of Devon, 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.

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

of Sheepstor was held by the Scudamore family, whose heirs were the Elford family.

Sheepstor Church

The village church, dedicated to

St Leonard Leonard of Noblac (also Leonard of Limoges or Leonard of Noblet; also known as Lienard, Linhart, Leonhard, Léonard, Leonardo, Annard; died 559), is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, in Hau ...

, 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, 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 of Sarawak (now part of Malaysia), as well as

Bertram Willes Dayrell Brooke Captain Bertram Willes Dayrell Brooke, Tuan Muda of Sarawak (8 August 1876, in Kuching – 15 September 1965, in Weybridge, Surrey) was a member of the family of White Rajahs who ruled Sarawak for a hundred years. Life Brooke was the son of Char ...

, 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, 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'', 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