Attractions and Places To See around Chawleigh - Top 10

Great you enjoyed your passage via Tucking Mill

A Grade-II listed stone bridge just outside Zeal Monachorum, Tuckingmill Bridge sits in a tranquil setting. It was likely built in the late 18th or early 19th century and spans the River Yeo (one of several in the area). With moss dappling its stonework, it's a lovely place to pause and admire the water.

North Tawton is a lovely village with a particularly pretty square. The town hall is a Grade II-listed building dating to the 19th century whilst a mullion windowed house with a gorgeous door dates back to the 16th. A clock tower sits in the middle and was built in 1887. The poet Ted Hughes once called this village his home after buying a house here in 1961 with Sylvia Plath. Hughes continued to live in the village until his death in 1998.

Overlooking the TawValley, at the northern end of Heywood Wood, stand the remains of an early medieval motte and bailey castle. Motte and bailey castles are medieval fortifications introduced into Britain by the Normans. This type of castle was made up of an artificial mound, or motte, on which was built a wooden or stone structure known as a keep. Next to this at least one bailey, a fortified embanked enclosure containing additional buildings, would be built. Although many were occupied for only a short period of time, motte and bailey castles continued to be built and occupied from the 11th to the 13th centuries, after which they were superseded by other types of castle. Heywood CastleAt Heywood the circular motte is about 8 metres high and almost 50 metres in diameter, surrounded by a rock-cut ditch 4 metres wide and 2 metres deep. Around the top of the motte is a bank, up to 4 metres high in places. The crescent shaped bailey which lies to the north-east of the motte is 60 metres long and 40 metres wide and bounded on all sides by a bank 2 metres rising to about 4 metres on the eastern side, where there is an entrance with a causeway across the ditch which extends to the outer bank, which surrounds both the motte and bailey. From the bailey to the motte on the north east side there is the possibility of a bridgeway. On the north side of the bailey a more modern entrance has been formed. https://www.devon.gov.uk/historicenvironment/explore-devons-heritage/heywood-castle-eggesford/

This place is well worth a visit, it is a huge Norman castle mound. No structures are visible (Probably only a wooden keep now long gone) but really worth seeing, it is still quite imposing 1000 years on. "At Heywood the circular motte is about 8 metres high and almost 50 metres in diameter, surrounded by a rock-cut ditch 4 metres wide and 2 metres deep. Around the top of the motte is a bank, up to 4 metres high in places. The crescent shaped bailey which lies to the north-east of the motte is 60 metres long and 40 metres wide and bounded on all sides by a bank 2 metres rising to about 4 metres on the eastern side, where there is an entrance with a causeway across the ditch which extends to the outer bank, which surrounds both the motte and bailey. From the bailey to the motte on the north east side there is the possibility of a bridgeway. On the north side of the bailey a more modern entrance has been formed. The castle at Heywood possibly took the place of an earlier castle some 500 metres to the south in the grounds of Heywood House, on the steep valley side above the River Taw. An alternative theory is that both date to the 1130s and 1140s, and were built during the civil war between Matilda, daughter of Henry I, and his nephew Stephen." https://www.devon.gov.uk/historicenvironment/explore-devons-heritage/heywood-castle-eggesford/

With a network of paths, this diverse woodland is a lovely place to explore. Keep a look-out for wildlife, wildflowers, and interesting fungi. Visit throughout the year; it's different in every season.

This remote church has a peaceful atmosphere and is steeped in history. Whilst parts of the church date to the 15th century, much of it was restored and rebuilt in 1867. Inside the church, there are two 17th century monuments to the Chichester family and a large 18th century monument to William Fellowes in Italian marble.