Ponsworthy

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title: "Ponsworthy" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["villages-in-devon", "dartmoor"] description: "Hamlet in Devon, England" topic_path: "general/villages-in-devon" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponsworthy" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Hamlet in Devon, England ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Ponsworthy_old_cottages.jpg" caption="Thatched cottages and the "splash" at Ponsworthy"] ::

Ponsworthy is a hamlet on the eastern side of Dartmoor, Devon, England. It lies in the steep valley of the West Webburn River about 3.5 km southwest of the village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

Its row of picturesque thatched cottages, climbing up a steep hill, are often the subject of calendars and postcards. It also has a mill and old bakehouse, converted to a house in 1976. Ponsworthy House, built c.1800, has a porch with Doric columns of granite.{{cite book |title=The Buildings of England — Devon |author=Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth |pages=908 |year=1989 |isbn=0-14-071050-7}} At the foot of the hill is the ‘Ponsworthy Splash’, where vehicles must drive through a small stream which runs across the road.

The village is also well known for Ponsworthy Bridge over the West Webburn River. It has a single arch and contains a stone engraved with the dates 1666 and 1792 - believed to be when repairs were carried out. {{cite web |url=http://www.widecombe-in-the-moor.com/history/minutes/2002/transport_(2).php |title=Widecombe History Group Talk: Local Transport (2) |publisher=The Widecombe-in-the-Moor Website |accessdate=2009-04-23}} It was further repaired in 1911. The bridge has a 7.5 foot width restriction, which is one of the reasons the village is so quiet, for it is impassable to modern coaches.

References

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::