Bovey Tracey

Bovey Tracey calls itself the Gateway to the Moor, which is the sort of thing a town puts on its own road sign when it has decided that being next to something famous counts as a personality. It is a handsome place that runs on galleries, craft shops, tea, and a level of quiet that people either pay a premium for or flee from within eighteen months. Cromwell turned up here in 1646, caught the Royalists mid-card-game, and left with four hundred horses, which remains the last time anything happened in Bovey at speed. The town has never quite forgiven the railway for leaving, and has been getting on with it beautifully ever since.