Blackmoor Gate
| Blackmoor Gate | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 'The Old Station Inn', Blackmoor Gate | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS646431 |
| Location: | 51°10’18"N, 3°56’13"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Barnstaple |
| Postcode: | EX31 |
| Local Government | |
Blackmoor Gate is a hamlet in northern Devon, three miles south of the county's northern coast. It is in the Exmoor hills, with the prescribed bounds of the Exmoor National Park running through the middle of the hamlet.
The name comes from that of the Blackmore family who owned this and much more land elsewhere around Parracombe.
The village stands at the watershed between tributaries of two local rivers; the Molland Yeo and the River Heddon, nearly one thousand feet above sea level.
This has long been a crossing of tracks: an ancient ridgeway follows the former moorland ridge from the heights of Exmoor down to the sea at Mortehoe; the road from Lynton to Barnstaple crosses here at a low point of the ridge, as did the former Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. The former Blackmoor Gate railway station is now 'The Old Station Inn' — a licensed restaurant.
Until the middle of the 19th century, open moorland ran to the east of the road between here and Parracombe with a gate onto the moor at this point.
Lorna Doone
The Blackmore family, whose name is reflected in that of the hamlet, owned much of the land hereabouts. The great Exmoor novel Lorna Doone is inspired by the landscape hereabouts and was written by R D Blackmore of that family, who stayed in the area during his childhood. His grandfather was rector of Combe Martin.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Blackmoor Gate) |