Sheepstor is located within West Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Roborough Hundred. It falls within Plympton 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 99 in 1801 95 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 57 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in 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 Sheepstor 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 112/7 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 112NE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX560676. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX56NE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Outdoor Leisure 28, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 202. Geological sheet 338 also covers the area.

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

SHEEPSTOR is a mere hamlet at the foot of the Tor from which it took its name in the 12th century (plate 37). It has a typical little moorstone church (dedication unknown) of the Dartmoor type, mostly an early 16th century rebuilding. The windows are cut in the more tractable Roborough stone. A good medieval rood-screen was destroyed by Sir Massey Lopes at the "restoration" of 1862. Enough fragments were found to enable it to be reconstructed in an exact copy in 1914. There are also good modern carved bench-ends. Near the church is a 15th century priest's house. Sheepstor is associated with that remarkable man, Rajah Brooke, who bought an estate at Burrator about 1858. He died there in 1868 and is buried on the N. side of Sheepstor church under a massive tomb of red Aberdeen granite (but why not the Dartmoor granite?) His nephew succeeded him as Rajah of Sarawak, and is also buried here.

The Burrator reservoir, which supplies Plymouth, was made in 1891. In 1928 it was enlarged from a capacity of 668 million gallons to 1026 million. It now covers 150 acres, and is surely one of the most beautiful reservoirs in England, among the folds of the Moor. The parish is rich in Bronze Age remains (see 2-inch sheet 20/56), the most notable being those along the N. bank of the Plym at Legis Tor and Ditsworthy Warren.