South Brent travel guide

South Brent is a large village on the southern edge of Dartmoor, in the valley of the River Avon, population 2998 (2000), five miles north-east of Ivybridge, and next to the Devon Expressway which connects Exeter (32 miles to the north-east) and Plymouth (18 miles to the west).
It was originally a woollen and market centre with two annual fairs. Now the village centre is within the boundaries of Dartmoor National Park, and it is a thriving community with shops, public houses, businesses, school, village hall and community centre.
A railway station serving the village was opened on the South Devon Railway on 15 June 1848. It served as the junction for the branch line to Kingsbridge from 19 December 1893. The station closed in 1964, though for some years there has been a movement to reopen it in order to reduce commuter traffic on the roads.
The parish includes the small hamlets of Aish, Charford, Harbourneford, Lutton, Diptford, Brent Mill, and many scattered farmhouses. On Brent Hill, the steep hill just outside the village from which it takes its name (Old English brant – steep), are the ruins of an ancient building, supposed to have been a chapel, and of a windmill, built about 1790. On the high moorlands are many hut circles, enclosures, and barrows, all dating from the Bronze Age. The manor of Brent belonged to Buckfast Abbey from the time of the foundation of the abbey in the early 11th century and was bought at the Dissolution by Sir William Petre, a large receiver of monastic spoils in South Devon. The panoramic view from the top of the hill is one of the most impressive in the county. (...) more....