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Brentor

Civil parishes in DevonDevon geography stubsVillages in the Borough of West Devon
Brentor Church geograph.org.uk 182941
Brentor Church geograph.org.uk 182941

Brentor is a village in West Devon, England. Its population in 2001 was 423. The village is dominated by the hill of Brent Tor, topped by the village's church. The origins of the name Brentor are Southwestern Brittonic, an extinct Brythonic Celtic language related to Cornish, Welsh and Breton and spoken in isolated parts of Devon until the early Middle Ages. 'Bryn' and 'tor' translate to 'hill of the rock tower'. There is a farm near Brentor, which is named Brinsabach, from 'Bryn' and 'bach', meaning 'small hill' (named after the Tor). The village used to be part of Tavistock Hundred. Brentor railway station served the village. The topographer William Crossing was for part of his life resident at Brentor. Burnville House (or Farm) was built in about 1800 and is listed on the English Heritage Register

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Brentor (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Brentor
West Devon Brentor

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.6125 ° E -4.1483333333333 °
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Address


PL19 0LT West Devon, Brentor
England, United Kingdom
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Brentor Church geograph.org.uk 182941
Brentor Church geograph.org.uk 182941
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Nearby Places

Lydford Castle
Lydford Castle

Lydford Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lydford, Devon, England. The first castle in Lydford, sometimes termed the Norman fort, was a small ringwork built in a corner of the Anglo-Saxon fortified burh in the years after the Norman conquest of England. It was intended to help control Devon following the widespread revolt against Norman rule in 1068. The Norman fort had been abandoned by the middle of the 12th century. The second castle in Lydford was constructed in 1195 following a wave of law and order problems across England. It included a stone tower with a surrounding bailey, and rapidly became used as a prison and court to administer the laws in the Forest of Dartmoor and the Devon stannaries. The tower was rebuilt in the middle of the 13th century, probably in the 1260s by Richard, the Earl of Cornwall. It was redesigned to resemble a motte and bailey castle, an antiquated design for the period but one that was heavily symbolic of authority and power. In 1342 the castle, still being used as a prison and courtroom, passed to the Duchy of Cornwall, who owned it until the 20th century. The castle was repeatedly renovated and then left to deteriorate, so its condition varied considerably over time. Nonetheless, other than a period during the English Civil War and the Restoration in the 17th century, Lydford Castle played an important part in stannary and forest administration until the 19th century. The castle acquired a bad reputation for injustice in the 14th century, and complaints about "Lydford Law" persisted for centuries. In the early 19th century, however, Dartmoor Prison was constructed, and Lydford ceased to be the centre for legal administration. The castle had fallen into ruin by the middle of the century. In 1932, Lydford Castle passed into the hands of the state, and in the 21st century is run by English Heritage as a tourist attraction. Historian Andrew Saunders has described the castle as architecturally significant, being "the earliest example of a purpose-built gaol" in England. The earthworks of the Norman fort are owned by the National Trust and are open to the public.