Datuidoc's Stone, Lustleigh, Dartmoor National Park

Datuidoc's Stone, Lustleigh, Dartmoor National Park

Zoom in on Google's satellite imagery and you'll see that the graveyard surrounding Lustleigh St John the Baptist Church is an oval shape. According to experts, this suggests that the church was built on a much older pagan burial ground. Evidence for this can be found inside the church in the form of Datuidoc's Stone.

The excellent church guide states that Datuidoc's Stone, or the Datuidoci Stone, 'belongs within a well recognised series of commemorative stones erected in the post-Roman period between AD450 to 600. Lustleigh is one of only 4 church sites in Devon with an inscribed stone'. The stone commemorated the burial of Datuidoc in a Roman-British cemetery on the site of the present church.

Visit Lydford St Petroc's Church and, inside, you'll see models that show the development of that church from the Saxon period through to the building of the present structure. It's likely the same development occurred in Lustleigh which is why this ancient stone appears in the church.