Ilsington

The restored pub and the village shop

The Carpenters Arms sits among thatched cottages in the middle of Ilsington, and it took seven years of restoration before it reopened as a pub again. The building is over three hundred years old. Friday is fish 'n' chip night, the burgers are made from Dartmoor beef, and all the meat comes from farmers on the moor. There are water bowls and lead hooks outside. One visitor called it "a traditional village pub full of local characters and friendly staff members... this thoroughly British bar and eatery welcomes muddy boots and dogs alike," which is a fair account of the place. It's rated 4.7 on Tripadvisor and ranked first of the three places to eat in the village, though with only three that's a smaller boast than it sounds.

The ale and cider come from Sandford Orchards, over in Devon. There's a beer garden for the days that allow one.

A grander pause in the gardens

The village shop is community-owned — a non-profit run by two part-time managers and a rota of volunteers who work voluntary shifts through the week. It opened in July 2012, sits attached to the Village Hall, and puts its surplus back into local charities. It's the kind of arrangement that only works if enough people care whether it survives.

For somewhere grander there's the Ilsington Country House Hotel & Spa, ten acres of gardens with an AA 2-Rosette restaurant that cooks the daily catch from Brixham, Dartmoor-reared meat, West Country cheeses and things foraged from the garden. The spa has an 11-metre pool and has taken Gold at the VisitDevon Spa Awards three times. There's a floodlit tennis court across the road.

Granite, glass and village memory

The Church of St Michael is Grade I listed, its core late 13th or early 14th century, with a granite tower three stages high and a five-sided stair turret. Inside there's a medieval octagonal granite font, an oak rood screen across the nave and aisles, and the mutilated 14th-century effigy of a recumbent woman in the north transept. A church has stood here since at least 1187.

In September 1639 the schoolroom built over the church's west lychgate collapsed into the street and churchyard with a master and his boys inside. The pupils survived. The village has remembered it ever since. The present lychgate is a 20th-century replacement.

Green lanes beneath Haytor

Haytor and the open moor are about ten minutes west on the B3387, granite tors rising over the fields. The Ilsington Circular is an easier introduction — 5.3 kilometres through green lanes and woodland beside a stream, with views back over the village and Haytor Rocks. It gets muddy, so bring the boots the pub is happy to see.

The parish is one of the largest in Devon and has produced a mixed cast. The playwright John Ford, who wrote 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, was born at Bagtor House in 1586. The comedian Josh Widdicombe went to the primary school. Ann Widdecombe has lived in Haytor Vale since 2008.

A parish of people and stone

Newton Abbot station is six or seven miles east; the A38 is about four miles off; and the 193 bus runs through to Bovey Tracey. Once, granite cut from the quarries above the village went into London Bridge. Now the old stone tramway rails just sit on the moor, going nowhere.