Sampford Courtenay is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

West Devon West Devon is a local government district with borough status in Devon, England. Its council is based in Tavistock, the borough's largest town. The borough also includes the towns of Hatherleigh, North Tawton and Okehampton, along with nume ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, most famous for being the place where the Western Rebellion, otherwise known as the Prayerbook rebellion, first started, and where the rebels made their final stand. It has a population of around 600. The Church of St Andrew is mainly built of granite and has an elegant tower.Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the South. London: Collins; p. 165 Between 1867 and 1972, the village was served by the nearby Sampford Courtenay railway station at Belstone Corner. The station reopened for the heritage Dartmoor Railway between 2002 and 2021, after which it closed permanently.

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

reclaimed ownership of the Dartmoor line between and in 2021, but have no plans to reopen the station.

Literature

Sampford Courtenay is the area author

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

had in mind for his short ghost story " Martin's Close" published in '' More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' in 1911. The New Inn featured in this story is also a real place and a grade II listed old coaching inn originally built in the 16th century.

References

External links

Villages in Devon {{devon-geo-stub