Village stories, gorge paths
Drewsteignton
A compact conservation-area centre on high ground above the River Teign, with a community-owned inn and the wooded gorge below.
- Best for
- Teign Gorge walks and village history
- Give it
- A village visit or the six-kilometre circuit
- Don't miss
- The church's 1936 Dartmoor wildlife carvings
The Fox verdict
A community pub above a wooded gorge
Drewsteignton brings together an unusually storied inn, a Grade I church and the classic high-and-low paths beside the Teign.
Begin with the compact centre shared by the square, Holy Trinity and the Drewe Arms, then descend to Fingle Bridge for the historic river crossing, riverside inn and wooded gorge scenery.
Where to go
Places in Drewsteignton
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Drewe Arms
A thatched, cob-walled community-owned inn with a preserved period interior and seasonal chalkboard meals, reopened by the community in March 2024.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Suggested visit allowance: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- The Square
Drewsteignton Post Office & Stores
The parish's general village store and post office counter.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Suggested visit allowance: around 15 minutes
- Locality
- the village
Fingle Bridge Inn
A family-run riverside inn with river-fronted terraces, winter log fires, cream teas and a Sunday carvery; children and well-behaved dogs are welcome.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Suggested visit allowance: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- beside the River Teign at Fingle Bridge
- Access
- Booking is advised for the Sunday carvery.
History & heritage
2 placesChurch of the Holy Trinity
A mostly 15th- and early-16th-century church with a four-pinnacled west tower, barrel-vaulted nave roof and 1936 pew carvings of Dartmoor wildlife.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Suggested visit allowance: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- the compact centre formed by the square, church and pub
Fingle Bridge
A 16th-17th-century granite bridge crossing the River Teign at a wooded riverside beauty spot.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Suggested visit allowance: around 30 minutes
- Locality
- across the River Teign below the village
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Three ways to explore Drewsteignton
Signature outings
The pub the village brought back
Step into the Drewe Arms, preserved through Mabel Mudge's 75-year tenure and reopened after the community bought the freehold.
Pew carvings with a Dartmoor cast
Look for ponies, hares, foxes, woodcock, salmon and deer in Holy Trinity's pew carvings installed in 1936.
Granite bridge in the gorge
Cross Fingle Bridge and look back at the 16th-17th-century granite bridge spanning the River Teign.
The village story
Drewsteignton Village Guide
A community-owned inn, carved church pews and the wooded paths of the Teign Gorge.
Auntie Mabel's Community Pub
The Drewe Arms sits on The Square, thatched and cob-walled, and it was run for seventy-five years by one woman. Mabel Mudge — Auntie Mabel — took over in 1919 and retired in October 1994 at the age of ninety-nine, which made her Britain's longest-serving and oldest licensee. The pub kept the period interior she presided over: it's on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors and has been named their Heritage Pub of the Year. It closed in 2022. The village then crowdfunded more than £550,000 — reported as the country's most successful community-pub raise — bought the freehold, and reopened it in March 2024. The kitchen serves seasonal meals from a chalkboard Tuesday to Saturday, plus a Sunday roast.
The name is younger than you'd think. It was the New Inn in the 1890s, then the Druid's Arms, and only became the Drewe Arms in the 1920s, at the prompting of Julius Drewe — tea merchant, founder of Home & Colonial Stores, and the man building Castle Drogo up on the ridge.
Church, Square and Store
The square, the church and the pub sit together in a compact centre that has been a conservation area since 1972 and gets photographed a great deal. The Church of the Holy Trinity is Grade I listed, mostly fifteenth and early sixteenth century, with a four-pinnacled west tower. Inside there's a barrel-vaulted nave roof, nine floor ledger stones — a large set for a Dartmoor church — a Drewe memorial designed by Edwin Lutyens, and a set of pew carvings put in during 1936 showing Dartmoor wildlife: ponies, hares, foxes, woodcock, salmon and deer. The room above the main door once did service as the Parish Clerk's office and the village schoolroom.
For everything else there's the Post Office and Stores, which handles the parish.
The High and Low Paths
The village stands on high ground above the River Teign, and the reason most people come is what the river does below it. The Teign carves a wooded gorge with walls rising past 200 metres, and the classic circuit runs the Hunter's Path along the high slopes — steep in places, with drop-offs — and the Fisherman's Path along the water, linking the village, Castle Drogo and Fingle Bridge in a six-kilometre loop. Iron Age hillforts face each other across the gorge: Prestonbury Castle to the north, Cranbrook Castle to the south.
At Fingle Bridge, a mile and a half below the village, a sixteenth-century granite bridge crosses the river beside the Fingle Bridge Inn. It's family-run, has river-fronted terraces and log fires in winter, and welcomes children and well-behaved dogs. Walkers stop for the veggie burgers, the raspberry Eton mess, the cream teas, or the Sunday carvery, for which you should book.
Water and Wildlife
Mains water only reached the village in 1966; Mrs Dorothy Drew is said to have used the well until then.
The pew carvings are the thing that stays with you — someone in 1936 decided the church needed hares and salmon in the woodwork, and there they still are, keeping an eye on the congregation.
Stay around Dartmoor
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Dartmoor, linked directly to their property pages.
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Drewe Arms — drewearms.org operator, sector body or destination organisation record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Church of the Holy Trinity — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Drewsteignton Post Office & Stores — dartmoor.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Fingle Bridge Inn — finglebridgeinn.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Fingle Bridge — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access