River Heddon

Parracombe railway station was a halt on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, a narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon, England. The Halt which served the village of Parracombe comprised a simple wooden shelter and was not opened until 1 May 1899 — almost a year after the line was opened on 16 May 1898 — and closed along with the rest of the railway on 29 September 1935. It is planned this station will be reopened next by the Lynton & Barnstaple Trust. It will replace the station at Killington Lane a bit further to the north that was opened in 2006.

St Petrock's Church in Parracombe, Devon, England was built in the 13th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 25 November 1969, and was vested in the Trust on 23 June 1971.The church is dedicated to St Petrock. Parts of the building, including the chancel and the lower part of the tower remain from the 13th century but much of the current fabric dates from a reconstruction in the early 16th century.In 1879 there were worries about the stability of the building however protests led by John Ruskin who donated £10 lead to the preservation of the church and the construction of a new one further west in the village.The interior includes 18th-century box pews, a Georgian pulpit and a screen with a wooden tympanum above it which dates from the 18th century.

Parracombe is a rural settlement 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Lynton, in Devon, England. It is situated in the Heddon Valley, on Exmoor. The population at the 2011 census was 293.A number Bronze Age barrows exist nearby, along with several other small earth-works throughout the parish. Beacon Castle and Voley Castle both Iron Age Hill forts are situated nearby. Rowley Barton ("rough clearing") was a manor mentioned in the Domesday Book along with East and West Middleton. Holwell Castle, at Parracombe was a Norman motte and bailey castle built to guard the junction of the east–west and north–south trade routes, enabling movement of people and goods and the growth of the population. Alternative explanations for its construction suggest it may have been constructed to obtain taxes at the River Heddon bridging place, or to protect and supervise silver mining in the area around Combe Martin. It was 40 metres (130 ft) in diameter and 6.2 metres (20 ft) high above the bottom of a rock cut ditch which is 2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in) deep. It was built in the late 11th or early 12th century.Parracombe's St Petrock's Church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.Until 1935 the village was served by a halt on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway which ran close to the centre of the settlement.

Killington Lane is a temporary terminus about one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Woody Bay on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B), the narrow gauge line that originally ran for 19 miles (31 km) through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon.

Beacon Castle is an Iron Age hill fort close to Parracombe in Devon, England. It is situated on a hilltop some 290 metres (950 ft) above sea level, overlooking the Heddon Valley.

Voley Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated close to Parracombe in north Devon, England. The fort is situated on a promontory on the eastern side of Heale Down, approximately 230 metres (750 ft) above sea level. It is close to another Iron Age hill fort at Beacon Castle. Voley Castle is a slight univallate hillfort, a rare type of hill fort found mainly in Devon, and is unusual for its type because it has an outer earthwork.

Blackmoor Gate, the western gateway to Exmoor National Park, sits on the watershed between tributaries of the rivers Yeo and Heddon nearly 305 m (1000 ft) above sea level. It has long been a crossing of tracks — an ancient ridgeway following the former moorland ridge from the heights of Exmoor down to the sea at Mortehoe. The road from Lynton to Barnstaple crosses here at a low point of the ridge, as did the former Lynton & Barnstaple Railway. The former station is now 'The Old Station Inn' — a licensed restaurant.Until the middle of the 19th century, open moorland ran to the east of the road between here and Parracombe with a gate onto the moor at this point. The name does not come from that of the Blackmore family - who owned the Manor of Court, Parracombe Churchtown. The land at Blackmoor Gate was owned by the Nott Pyke-Nott family and was part of the Manor of Rowley.

Blackmoor railway station, situated near to Blackmoor Gate at the western boundary of Exmoor National Park, England, was a station on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, a narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon.

Exmoor Zoo is a conservation centre in Exmoor, North Devon, England. The zoo developed from Exmoor Bird Gardens, opened on the site of a farm in 1982. The current owners took over in 1993, and have enlarged and developed the zoo, now specialising in the conservation of smaller animals. The zoo has been a member of BIAZA, the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, since 1995 and recently became a member of EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquariums) in 2018.

Challacombe is a small village on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, in Devon, England. The village has a small general shop/Post Office and a single pub, the Black Venus. The village is on the B3358 road and is 5 miles west of Simonsbath.

Wistlandpound Reservoir is a reservoir in Devon, England owned by South West Water. Completed in 1957, the earth embankment reservoir holds up to 1,550 megalitres (341 million gallons) and covers an area of 40 acres (16ha). Situated close to Exmoor National Park, and managed jointly by Forestry England and The South West Lakes Trust, Wistlandpound is a popular recreation area, with bird watching, trout fishing, as well as boating and nature walking among the most popular activities. The Calvert Trust has a centre at the Reservoir, providing holiday and activity facilities for those with disabilities, and their families. The construction of the reservoir flooded part of the formation of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, which can still be seen when water levels are low. The railway, which is being reconstructed, will follow an alternative route around the side of the reservoir. Wistlandpound reservoir is located at grid reference SS642417. The reservoir is used as a water supply, it supplies water to the (former) Ilfracombe urban district (ilfracombe, berrynaurbour, Combe Martin, etc) since the disuse of the Slade reservoirs this task has fallen to wistlandpound reservoir, for a short time they would have co-existed as a water supply.

Shoulsbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort close to Challacombe in Devon, England. It takes the form of a multi-ditch and rampart enclosure close to the top of a hill on the shoulder of Shoulsbarrow Common at an elevation of 472 metres (1,549 ft) above sea level.Shoulsbury Castle is unusually rectangular and on a western hill spur suggesting that it is either Roman or Iron Age. (The Archaeology of Exmoor, p78) It is the largest and best known hillfort on Exmoor that over the years has been referred to as Solsbury, Shorsbery, Salusbury, Shoulsbury, Showlsborough, Shoulsbarrow in various texts over the Centuries (The Archaeology of Exmoor, p84). The area was occupied from the Iron Age into the early Saxon period by the Dumnonii people. In the 18th Century it was suggested it was the work of the druids for the celebration of religious rites or ‘feats of activity or athletick exhibitions’ (Collinson, 1791) The fort is mainly double rampart but to the south natural topography allows only one. The unusual rectangular plan is similar to nearby Roman fortlets at Martinhoe and County Gate, leading to the suggestion that Shoulsbury may be Roman in origin. Very little evidence of Roman activity exists on Exmoor with only one Roman fort and the two fortlets identified (The Field Archaeology of Exmoor, p.56). The likely entrances are from the west and south east corner, the inner enclosure extends to four acres, the outer six. There is a circular mound evident in the north east corner. This has been described as a Bronze Age barrow and was excavated as such before 1906 with nothing found (Victoria County History, Devon Vol. I, p596). There are various lumps and bumps enclosed which may be house platforms, a nearby water supply is from the river Bray. Its location on Exmoor is likely to have been an extremely exposed, remote and inhospitable place in the Iron Age. Referred to by Daniel Defoe (1661-1731), “The Country is called Exmore, Cambden calls it a filthy, barren Ground, and indeed, so it is”. (The Reclamation of Exmoor Forest, p6) In 1818 it was just outside an area of 20,000 acres described as, ‘His Majesty’s Allotment’ that contained one small farm and a few ancient track-ways (The Reclamation of Exmoor Forest, p.11). Henry Wollcombe wrote in 1839, ‘Some Account of the Fortified Hills in the County of Devon, whether British, Roman, Anglo-Saxon or Danish with plans of many of them', he describes the hillfort; “The whole inclosure is a complete morass incapable of being walked on. Indeed the whole hill is a bog and marshy and requires great care even in this dry season to pick your path. The parts with double ramparts was never a ditch, it was rather an esplanade for men to draw up on” (The Reclamation of Exmoor Forest, p.7)