There is a surprising amount of variation in the appearance of older houses, both within the same settlement and across the area. On Dartmoor, windows are comparatively small and rarely sit one above another; the predominant style is solid over void. In the villages below Dartmoor, terraced cottages are more common and much of their character comes from a lack of regularity in the overall grouping. In Tavistock, houses from the Victorian period were purpose-designed as genteel villas or as model cottages.

Most of the older houses in the area have moderately-pitched grey slate roofs, chimneys, rendered and/or painted walls, window panes that are taller than their width, and wide front-door openings. The absence of some or all of these features in much modern housing is tending to erode local distinctiveness.

Influences which link the rural settlements together and with Tavistock include: the ancient parish churches, built of stone from local quarries and with prominent towers; the mining heritage especially in the form of workers’ cottages; and farming with its continuity of building use over several centuries.

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