Bridestowe is located within West Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Lifton Hundred. It falls within Okehampton Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 581 in 1801 457 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 110 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Okehampton & Tavistock Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website

Maps: The image below is of the Bridestowe area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.

On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 88/1 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 88NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX514894. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX58NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Outdoor Leisure 28, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 191. Geological sheet 324 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Bridestowe as included in the Library's Etched on Devon's memory website. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.

Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:

BRIDESTOWE (pron. Briddistot,c') is " the holy place (stow) of St. Brigid," the famous Irish saint (c. 450-c. 525) to whom the church is dedicated. The church, mainly 15th century in date, was ruthlessly "restored" and practically disembowelled. One of its Norman arches now stands at the gateway to the churchyard. A fine screen was hacked to pieces, and every other enormity perpetrated.

There are a number of good houses in the parish. Bidlake, the home of the Bidlakes from 1268 until 1792, is a restored Elizabethan mansion, a good example of a squire's house of that time. Millaton, another ancient estate of the same type, had its house rebuilt c. 1700 and enlarged in the early 19th century Leawood is another small mansion; in a park. In addition, a number of farmsteads are recorded in Domesday Book: Battishill, Combebow, Ebsworthy Town, Fernworthy, Kersford, and Way. Battishill gave its name to a family who were flourishing round the edge of the Moor as late as 1890.

In Burley Wood, above the river Lew, is one of the strongest fortifications on the W. side of Dartmoor. It appears to be a large castle-site, with mount and bailey and extensive outworks, and is probably of 12th century date. The manor of Bridestowe was held by the great Norman family of Pomerai (of Berry Pomeroy) in the 12th century and this may well have been a stockaded castle put up by one of them.