BELSTONE

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)]

"BELSTONE, a parish in the hundred of Black Torrington, in the county of Devon, 2 miles N.E. from Okehampton, its post town, 10 S. from Hatherleigh, and 14 S.W. from the Copplestone station of the North Devon railway. It is watered by the rivers Taw and Okement, which take their rise a little to the southward, in Dartmoor, and fall into Barnstaple Bay. Copper was formerly obtained here. The village is situated near the old road from Exeter to Cornwall, on the verge of Dartmoor Forest. There is a serge manufactory, and woollen weaving is carried on by some of the villagers. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Exeter, value £154, in the patronage of the Rev. H. G. Fothergill, incumbent. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure of granite, in the mixed Anglo-Saxon and Norman styles, with a tower surmounted by battlements and pinnacles. The trustees of the late Lord Rolle are lords of two-thirds of the manor, and chief owners of the land, which is loamy."

"PRESTACOTT, a hamlet in the parish of Belstone, county Devon, 2 miles S.E. of Okehampton."