Dartmoor property search information

Geography

Dartmoor National Park covers an area of 368 square miles – the largest and wildest area of open country in southern England.  Throughout the year Dartmoor is an exceptionally beautiful place to live or visit, with wide open moorland, deep wooded gorges and river valleys, beautiful lake-like reservoirs and tumbling rocky rivers.  Dartmoor was designated as one of the National Parks of England and Wales in 1951.  The National Park is named after the River Dart, whose source rises on the moor, with the West and East Dart rivers merging to form the River Dart at Dartmeet.  Surrounding the moor is some beautiful Devon countryside.

Cities and Towns

The area is bordered by the cities of Exeter to the east and Plymouth to the west, with excellent communications provided by the A38 to the south and A30 to the north.

There are numerous tiny hamlets, picturesque villages including Widecombe in the Moor, North Bovey and Lustleigh.  Chagford is a particularly popular and sought after town to visit or live.  The bustling market towns serving the area include Okehampton in the north, Tavistock to the west and Moretonhampsted to the east.

Communications

Air
Exeter airport has daily scheduled flights to and from Belfast, the Channel Islands, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich, together with flights to Alicante, Malaga, Paris and Canada.

Railway

The main line runs through Exeter, Newton Abbot, and Totnes to Plymouth from:

Paddington: First Great Western – the quickest journey time is 2 hours 4 minutes.

Waterloo: South West Trains .Throughout the UK, cross-country: Virgin Trains.

Road

There are two main routes to Exeter from London.  The M4 to Bristol/ M5 to Exeter, which can be driven in 3 hours, and the M3/ A303 via Basingstoke/Andover, which takes a similar time.  From the north, access is via the M6/M5 to Exeter.

From the M5 at Exeter the A38 and A30 give access to Dartmoor and the west.

Properties

The spread of property types and prices is considerable. Farms with a few hundred acres for privacy are like gold dust, sometimes fetching £3,000,000.  Tavistock, a frequent winner of awards for the best market town in the UK, has properties available at £400,000 and the countryside around it will surprise with the occasional estate fetching between £5,000,000 and £10,000,000.  The supply on Dartmoor is very thin and one needs to allow £400,000 to buy a small cottage, especially in the Chagford area, a hot favourite, Moretonhampstead or Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

Economy

Whilst Agriculture and tourism are two particularly important elements of the local economy, there are a wealth of diverse small and large businesses prospering in and around the area, many attracted by the high quality of life and stunning scenery and reasonable accessibility offered by Devon.

Schools

State Schools

There is a great diversity in the style of state school available, from the tiny village primary schools on Dartmoor to large, highly acclaimed secondary schools in the major towns and cities.  There are Grammar Schools in Plymouth, Churston Ferrers and Torquay.

www.devon.gov.uk

Independent Schools

These are listed below. Many operate bus services to outlying rural areas.

Plymouth College
Plymouth
Age: 11-18 co-ed
Tel:01752 203300.  www.plymouthcollege.com

Kelly College
Tavistock
Age: 11-18 co-ed.
Tel:01822 813100.  www.kellycollege.com

Kelly College Preparatory
Tavistock
Age 2-11 co-ed
Tel:01822 612919.  www.kellycollege.com

Mount House School
Tavistock
Age:7-13 co-ed
Tel:01822 612244.  www.mounthouse.devon.sch.uk

Exeter Cathedral School
Exeter
Age: 2-13 co-ed
Tel:01392 255298.  www.exetercs.org

Exeter Junior School
Exeter
Age: 7-11 co-ed
Tel:01392 273679.  www.exeterschool.org

Exeter School
Exeter
Age: 11-18 co-ed
Tel:01392 273679.  www.exeterschool.org

Maynard School
Exeter
Age: 7-18 girls
Tel:01392 273417.  www.maynard.co.uk

St Margaret’s School
Exeter
Age: 7-18 girls
Tel:01392 273197.  www.stmargarets-school.co.uk

Stover School
Newton Abbot
Age: 11-18 co-ed
Tel: 01626 354505.  http://www.stover.co.uk

Stover Preparatory School
Newton Abbot
Age: 3-11 co-ed
Tel: 01626 331451.  http://www.stover.co.uk

South Devon Steiner School
Dartington
Age: 3-16 co-ed
Tel: 01803 897377.
https://sites.google.com/a/steiner-south-devon.org/www/

Leisure

The traditional Field Sports are all well represented in the area.  There is an almost endless list of activities that can be enjoyed on Dartmoor and in the immediate vicinity, including walking, cycling, climbing, horse riding, sailing, swimming, diving, horse racing (Point to Point and National Hunt) and so on…..