Brendon Hills village
Brompton Regis
A community-minded Exmoor base between Haddon Hill and Wimbleball Lake, with local supplies, historic details and outdoor routes nearby.
- Best for
- Haddon Hill walking and Wimbleball activities
- Give it
- A half day or a full outdoor day
- Know first
- The George Inn is closed long-term
The Fox verdict
A small village with a strong community centre
Come for a compact village pause, then make Haddon Hill or Wimbleball Lake the main event.
Brompton Regis pairs a volunteer-supported shop and green with the medieval fabric of St Mary's. Haddon Hill adds a short, mostly level Explorer route, while Wimbleball broadens the day with paths, cycleways and instructor-led activities.
Where to go
Places in Brompton Regis
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesChurch of St Mary
A Grade II* church with a 13th-century tower, a nave and north aisle rebuilt around 1490, a 1625 pulpit and an Arts and Crafts-style organ case.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Around 30 minutes
- Locality
- in the historic core clustered around St Mary
Haddon Hill Explorer Route
A short Explorer route on wide, mostly level stone and dirt tracks towards the trig point, with Wimbleball views and a chance of Exmoor ponies.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 40 minutes
- Locality
- Haddon Hill
- Access
- Wide, mostly level stone and dirt tracks are suitable for sturdy pushchairs or assisted or all-terrain wheelchairs, though muddy after rain.
Wimbleball Lake
A 530-acre activity site with miles of footpaths and cycleways, lake and rolling-hill views, watersports, archery, high ropes, equipment hire and instructor-led sessions.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Around 2 hours
- Locality
- immediately east of the village
Food & drink
1 placeBrompton Regis Village Shop
A community-owned shop selling local meat and poultry, cheese, eggs, bacon and sausages, plus takeaway pies, pasties, sandwiches, cakes and drinks.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Around 20 minutes
- Locality
- beside the Village Hall
Things to do
1 placeMillennium Green
A community-owned green with football space, a play area, seating, fruit trees, bug hotels, bird boxes, wildflowers and a wildlife pond.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Around 30 minutes
- Locality
- the central green
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Three ways to explore Brompton Regis
Signature outings
Shop with the village
Pick up local meat, cheese, eggs, takeaway pies, pasties, sandwiches, cakes or drinks from the community-owned Village Shop.
See a community rescue
Spend time on the volunteer-run Millennium Green, which villagers saved from proposed development through community fundraising and hands-on work.
Build an active lake day
Choose from kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding or sailing at Wimbleball, with equipment hire and instructor-led sessions available.
The village story
Brompton Regis Village Guide
A village shaped by local effort, from its community shop and green to the social life carried on while its pub remains closed.
The shop that became a village institution
The village shop sells take-home pizza to finish in your own oven, along with pies, pasties, cakes and sausages drawn from West Country Bakehouse, Glenmore, Exmoor Bakehouse, Jen's Pantry, Kendle Farm and John May Family Butcher. It stands beside the Village Hall, community-owned, with more than 150 shareholder-members. Christine Cherry manages it, helped by her assistant Cameron Cherry and a rota of volunteers.
The shop opened in July 2008, after the old Village Stores and Post Office closed, and began life in the skittle alley of The George. In 2012 it moved into the Village Hall's former snooker room, where it remains, selling local meat and poultry, cheese, pâtés, cold meats, eggs, bacon and sausages alongside the takeaway trade.
A closed inn and a connected village
The George itself is a 16th-century freehouse, and it is shut. It has been closed long-term since July 2024, with a local campaign trying to reopen it. In the meantime, "Thank George It's Friday" evenings run a temporary bar at the Village Hall — beer, wine and soft drinks — which keeps the idea of the pub alive while the building waits.
Brompton Regis sits just inside Exmoor National Park, in the Brendon Hills, between Haddon Hill and Wimbleball Lake. Rendered-stone cottages cluster around the church, with farmland and wooded valleys falling away to the south and west. Single-track lanes connect the village to the B3190 and B3224; Dulverton, five miles west, is where you go for the nearest pubs, cafés and post office. A community bus, the 678, runs on Thursdays between Dulverton and Minehead and stops at the shop, though seats are few and it is worth booking ahead. The nearest mainline station is Tiverton Parkway, over the Devon border.
Church details and Haddon Hill tracks
The Church of St Mary has a 13th-century tower, with the nave and north aisle rebuilt around 1490. Inside there is a 1625 pulpit, a Perpendicular arcade carved with vine-leaf capitals, a surviving rood stair, and an organ said to be by T. C. Lewis, 1872, in a case dated 1897. Pevsner described that case as a "pretty organ case in the Arts and Crafts style."
The walking starts more or less at the door. The Haddon Hill Explorer route is a mile and a half of wide, mostly level track up to a trig point, about forty minutes, with views over Wimbleball and a fair chance of Exmoor ponies. It is firm enough for a sturdy pushchair or an all-terrain wheelchair, though it turns muddy after rain. There are longer routes through Storridge Woods and around Haddon Hill if you want them.
Wimbleball above a drowned valley
Wimbleball Lake is to the east, a 530-acre site with miles of footpaths and cycleways and, on the water, kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, sailing, archery and high ropes, with equipment hire and instructor-led sessions.
The lake is younger than the valley it fills. Making the reservoir meant drowning part of the Haddeo Valley: Steart Cottage, Bessom Cottage and the telephone exchange were demolished first. In a dry summer the old Bessom Bridge surfaces again.
Wartime hill and community green
Haddon Hill has an older history buried in it too. During the Second World War it held a camp of thousands of American troops preparing for D-Day.
The Millennium Green, at the centre of the village, was nearly lost to development. Villagers raised more than £75,000 and did much of the work themselves to save it, and it opened in 2001. There is room for football, fruit trees, a wildlife pond, bug hotels and bird boxes, and a climbing frame put in during 2025. It is still looked after by volunteers.
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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.
- Brompton Regis Village Shop — bromptonregis.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St Mary — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Haddon Hill Explorer Route — exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Wimbleball Lake — directory.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Millennium Green — bromptonregis.com other published source