| Bellever | |
|---|---|
 Bellever Youth Hostel | |
  Bellever Location within Devon | |
| OS grid reference | SX6577 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | YELVERTON |
| Postcode district | PL20 |
| Dialling code | 01822 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
Bellever is a hamlet in Dartmoor, Devon, England. It is located on the river East Dart about 2 kilometres (1 mi) south of Postbridge.
The first mention of a settlement at this location is in a Duchy of Cornwall record from 1355 which gives the name of a farm here as Welford, a contraction of wielle (spring) and ford.[1] However, in his High Dartmoor (1983), Eric Hemery proposed that the name comes from bal (mine) and ford, meaning the mine by the ford.[2]
Until the period after World War II the hamlet consisted of Bellever Farm (owned by the Duchy of Cornwall) and its outbuildings, with a small number of cottages for the farm workers. The farm gained a reputation for the introduction of Galloway and Aberdeen Angus cattle onto Dartmoor.[3] However, in 1931 the Forestry Commission, now Forestry England bought the farm and began a large planting scheme here; several houses were built in the 1950s to house the forestry workers.[4] The coniferous plantation known as Bellever Forest[4] surrounds the hamlet on its north, west and south sides.
In 1934 some of the barns of Bellever Farm were let to Youth Hostels Association (England & Wales) and now form the oldest, still functioning youth hostel in Devon.[5]
As of 2019 the hamlet is served by a daily bus service that runs between Yelverton, Princetown, Postbridge and Tavistock.[6] During the summer Forestry England run a small visitor centre by the East Dart river.[7]
Bellever Tor lies 1.5 kilometres (1 mi) to the southwest.
- ^ Gover, John; Mawer, Allan; Stenton, Sir Frank Merry (1932). Place-names of Devon. English Place-Name Society. Vol. 8. Cambridge University Press. p. 192.
- ^ Hemery, Eric (March 1983). High Dartmoor: Land and People. Robert Hale. p. 486. ISBN 0-7091-8859-5.
- ^ "The Bellever Bulls". Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ^ a b "Introduction to Bellever Forest" (PDF). Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ^ Maurice-Jones, Helen; Porter, Lindsey (2008). The Spirit of YHA. YHA. p. 149.
- ^ "98 - Tavistock - Yelverton". Bus Times. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
- ^ "Bellever and Postbridge Trails" (PDF). Moor than meets the eye. Retrieved 3 July 2016.