Dunsford
Coordinates: 50°41′24″N 3°40′55″W / 50.690°N 3.682°W
Dunsford is a village in Devon, England, just inside the Dartmoor National Park.
The place-name 'Dunsford' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Dunesforda, meaning 'Dunn's ford'.[1]
The village has a number of traditional thatched cottages; a primary school which has a swimming pool, climbing wall and sports field; one village shop and post office; a tea room and a public house. St Mary's Church, built between 1420 and 1455,[2] is located in the village centre.
Dunsford holds a village show at the beginning of July every year and the Dunsford Amateur Dramatic Society (DADS) produces a pantomime in the Village Hall in early January. The villagers also hold an annual fancy dress pancake race in the streets.
Dunsford Halt was a station on the Teign Valley Line from Exeter to Heathfield station that served the village from 1928 to 1958.
Great Fulford House lies to the west of Dunsford; a Domesday manor which has been the home of the Fulford family since at least 1190. The present house was mainly built in the early 16th century and is a semi-fortified mansion house built round a central courtyard.[3] It was the backdrop to the 2014 reality-television programme, Life Is Toff.
Nearby is Dunsford nature reserve which is managed by Devon Wildlife Trust and consists of 57 hectares of river valley woodland, heath-covered rocky slopes and fertile flood-plain scrub and grassland. It is especially known for its wild daffodils and six species of fritillary butterfly.
The hamlet of Butts is about one mile west of Dunsford.
References
- ↑ Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.154.
- ↑ St Mary's Church guidebook, April 1992
- ↑ Great Fulford House. Retrieved : 2010-05-13
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