Brent Tor or Brentor, Devon
Historical Description
Brent-Tor or Brentor, a parish in Devonshire, on the river Lyd, 2 miles from Lidford station on the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R. In 1879 the hamlets of North and Southe Brentor and West Black Down, formerly part of St Mary Tavy parish, were added to this parish for ecclesiastical purposes. Post town, Bridestowe; money order office, Tavistock; telegraph office, Lydford railway station. Acreage, 3363; population of the civil parish, 476; of the ecclesiastical, 575. The manor belonged formerly to the abbey of Tavistock, and belongs now to the Duke of Bedford. A remarkable eminence here, bearing the same name as the parish, starts abruptly from an elevated down, has an altitude of 1100 feet, is seen at a great distance, and serves as a mark for vessels entering Plymouth harbour. Its form is conical, its surface rocky, and its mineral structure a subject of mucli discussion among geologists. A mine of manganese was long worked, but has been abandoned. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter; gross value, —£235 with residence. Patron, the Duke of Bedford. The church surmounts a precipice on the crown of the Tor, is a curious weather-worn structure 37 feet by 14½, and is said to have been built by a merchant who, overtaken by a storm at sea, vowed to erect a church on the first point of land he saw.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Devon | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Brent-Tor St. Michael | |
| Hundred | Tavistock | |
| Poor Law union | Tavistock |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Brent Tor or Brentor from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Brent-Tor (St. Michael))
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Devon online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of the County of Devon in the year 1564, with additions from the earlier visitation of 1531, is online.
The Visitations of the County of Devon, comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564, & 1620, with additions by Lieutant-Colonel J.L. Vivian, published for the author by Henry S. Eland, Exeter 1895 is online.