Before the days of modern roads and vehicles all transport over the moor was either by foot or horseback and that meant everything had to be carried by either man power or horse power and this included the dead. For those unfortunate to live in the more remoter areas this often meant carrying the coffin over long arduous distances to the local church. On one of the routes to Widecombe passes up over Dartmeet Hill and halfway up is a large flat frost shattered boulder called the ‘Coffin Stone’. It was here that he coffin would be rested to allow the bearers to get their breath back. On the stone various initials and crosses have been engraved these are the initials of the dead whose coffins have rested on the stone. An old story explains how the rock became rent in two, the events are as follows; On a particular day a funeral procession was bearing the coffin of a former renown sinner and as they stopped for a rest the coffin was placed on the stone, no sooner had it touched the rock a bolt of lightening streaked out of the sky hit the coffin and split the stone in two. The coffin ignited and both it and the corpse were cremated on the spot. Which I suppose meant the rest of the journey would be a little easier with just the ashes to carry, what they were placed in nobody knows (well I suppose one body knows).

Built in the 12th century this church stands high on a volcanic outcrop and can be seen for miles around. People say that a wealthy merchant was saved from a shipwreck and to show his gratitude built the church so that other seafarers could get comfort from the sight of a church. However all was not plain sailing (so to speak) because originally the intention was to build the church at the bottom of Brentor but The Devil took exception to this and decided if it was built on top of Brentor then this would possible deter some folk from visiting the church thus reducing the holy throng, so once construction work began The Devil would visit the site every night and move all the stones up to the top of the tor. This went on night after night and progress was painfully slow until in the end it was decided to let The Devil have his way and the church would be built on top of Brentor. Work then started on the tor, but The Devil then decided this was not on either so started interfering with the construction again. By this time the locals were well fed up and decided to call in the help of none other than St. Michael who one night hid behind Cox tor and when The Devil arrived he threw a huge rock at him, hitting him right between the horns which was enough to send ‘Old Nick’ scampering away never to be seen there again. So the church was completed and to this day stands on top of the outcrop. The church is dedicated to St. Michael and does in fact stand on the St. MichaelsLine which is a ley line of churches stretching from Cornwall across to East Anglia. Starting at St. Michaels mount the line bisects the sites of many churches dedicated to either St. Michael or St. George including Brentor and Glastonbury.