Rattle Brook is a brook in north

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

in south-west England. It is situated East of Great Links Tor, and rises by the Rattlebrook Peatworks on remote

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of Habitat (ecology), habitat found in upland (geology), upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and the biomes of montane grasslands and shrublands, characterised by low-growing vegetation on So ...

in the western section of

Dartmoor National Park Dartmoor is an highland (geography), upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National parks of England and Wales, National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers ...

. It flows past Bleak House with Green Tor to the east and Higher and Lower Dunna Goat Tors to the west. It runs between Amicombe Hill and Rattlebrook Hill to join the

River Tavy The Tavy () is a river on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The name derives from the Brythonic languages, Brythonic root , once thought to mean 'dark' but now generally understood to mean 'to flow'. It has given its name to the town of Tavistock and ...

at the mouth of Tavy Cleave.

Usage today

Recreational walkers tend to stay west of Rattle Brook with the series of scenic tors stretching from Great Links Tor to Hare Tor to Tavy Cleave Tors and Ger Tor. This is largely due to the high amounts of bog, mud, and thick grass to the East of Rattle Brook in the moor East of Rattle Brook.

RattleBrook Peatworks

The Rattlebrook Peatworks was a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

established in the Rattle Brook valley for the Dutchy of Cornwall to facilitate the transportation of goods and trade. Constructed in 1879 in the era of horse-drawn carriage transportation, the line was operated for almost all of its life by horse. The line featured only one

passing place A single-track road or one-lane road is a road that permits two-way travel but is not wide enough in most places to allow vehicles to pass one another (although sometimes two compact cars can pass). This kind of road is common in rural area ...

, just over half way along the line from

Bridestowe Bridestowe () is a civil parish and village in the district of West Devon, Devon, England. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Bratton Clovelly, Sourton, Bridestowe and Sourton Common, Lydford, Lewtrenchard ...

where the line reversed direction. At its peak, the line was seven miles long, and in that distance rose 1000 ft in elevation. Only by the early 20th century did more modern railcars become adopted in the area, when the first petrol powered lorry was converted to run on rails in

Okehampton Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 7,313, which was slightly more than the 7,104 recorded at the 2011 census. Th ...

. The line was discontinued in 1932, with its final job being to remove all the metal as scrap from Rattlebrook and lift the rails.

References

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