Widecombe in the Moor

The name is thought to derive from 'Withy-combe' which means Willow Valley. According to Widecombe's official website, there are 196 households in the village, although its large and sprawling parish stretches for many miles and encompasses dozens of isolated cottages and moorland farms. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Manaton, Ilsington, Ashburton, Buckland-in-the-Moor, Holne and Dartmoor Forest. Tourism is a major source of income for Widecombe today, and within a small area of the village there are several gift shops, one cafe and two pubs (the Old Inn and the Rugglestone Inn). The village is known for Widecombe Fair, held annually and celebrated by…

The church of St Pancras is known as the "Cathedral of the Moors" in recognition of its 120-foot tower and relatively large capacity for such a small village. Originally built in the fourteenth century, in the Perpendicular style (late Gothic), using locally quarried granite, it was enlarged over the following two centuries, partly on the proceeds of the local tin mining trade. Inside, the ceiling is decorated with a large number of decorative roof bosses, including the tinner’s emblem of a circle of three hares (known locally as the Tinners' Rabbits). It was badly damaged in the Great Thunderstorm of 1638, apparently struck by ball lightning during an afternoon service. The building was…

In the reality show Celebrity Ghost Stories, American actor Daniel Stern claimed to have had an unsettling, and possibly supernatural, experience while on a brief visit to the village during his honeymoon in 1980. He also recounted that people in the region considered Widecombe to be haunted, and that the Great Thunderstorm of 1638 was blamed. The official Widecombe-in-the-Moor website responded to the claims and dismissed the alleged hauntings as a legend borne of superstitions. In 2010, Widecombe-in-the-Moor was one of the filming locations for the Steven Spielberg film War Horse.