White Hart Hotel History

The White Hart has stood in the Market Square of Moretonhampstead for over three and a half centuries and played a pivotal role in the history of the town. Formerly a Georgian posting house, the Plymouth to London mail coaches changed horses here. During the Napoleonic Wars it was a meeting place for French Officers on parole from Dartmoor Prison.

Throughout Moretonhampstead there is evidence of work from over 4000 years ago. The Bronze Age left Moretonhampstead with long stone walls, which where used to divide up parts of the parish. Later a hill fort was built by the Iron Age, one of a series which circle the moor today. When the Saxons arrived, they called Moretonhampstead ‘moor-tun’ which means the settlement in the moor.