Meavy

The Oak and Its Parish Inn

On the green at Meavy stands an oak that may be over 900 years old. Local tradition has it planted in the reign of King John, and it has spent the centuries since being hollowed out from the inside. In 1834 the innkeeper of the Royal Oak recorded that nine people once sat down to dinner inside its trunk. Later it was used as a store for turf and peat. A platform was built in its canopy so musicians could climb a ladder and play for dancers below at the fair. It is now in decline — a 2019 survey found only about a quarter of the trunk still feeds the leaves — but it is still there, in front of the churchyard wall, doing what it has always done.

The pub facing it is the Royal Oak Inn, and it has a claim worth stating plainly: since the parishes of Meavy, Sheepstor and Walkhampton merged in 1974, the building has been owned by Burrator Parish Council. It is believed to be the only pub in England and Wales owned by a parish council. It began life as the Church House Inn, owned by the church itself, which is late-15th-century thinking. Some of the seating is made from pews that used to be in St Peter's next door.

Pub Fare and Practicalities

Inside there are low beams, flagstone floors and open fires. The kitchen does a homemade Dartmoor steak and Jail Ale pie, wok-cooked mussels, monkfish and salmon kebabs, and a caramelised red onion tartlet with goat's cheese and tomato-chilli chutney. The Jail Ale itself comes from Dartmoor Brewery down the road and sits on the bar at 4.8%, alongside Legend. Dogs are welcome in the bar, and the outdoor tables look over the green. Jo Rowe has run it since late 2023.

There are no shops in the village — for those you go to Yelverton, about a mile off, just up the A386 towards Tavistock. The nearest railway station is Plymouth, nine miles south; buses run through Yelverton on the Plymouth–Tavistock corridor. A car helps.

Out to Burrator Reservoir

What Meavy has instead of shops is the moor. Burrator Reservoir is a mile and a half away, with a circular walk of about 3.7 miles round the water and four tors in view: Sheeps Tor, Leather Tor, Sharpitor and Down Tor. A longer loop climbs onto the higher moor and comes back through Sheepstor. The River Meavy runs close to the village.

Norman Stone and Drake History

St Peter's Church has a Norman core and a font that Pevsner called among the most interesting in the country — carved with a baptism, the four seasons, and a head spouting water. It holds the Drake Aisle, chapel of the Drake family; Sir Francis Drake, third baronet, bought Meavy and sometimes lived at the manor house west of the church, dated 1705. The Domesday surveyors found three villagers here in 1086 and valued the principal holding at seven shillings and fivepence.

Fair Day and the Film Crew

Spielberg filmed part of War Horse here. On the third Saturday of June the Oak Fair opens at two o'clock with maypole dancing and a turn from the primary school, on the green, under the tree.