Description: Information on Lydford, Devonshire, UK, especially on location, accommodation, history, places to visit, news, events and businesses
lies in the western part of the County of Devonshire, in beautiful countryside ideal for walks and relaxation, within the Dartmoor National Park. It is on the former stage-coach road between the towns of Okehampton (about 12 km to the north) and Tavistock (about 9 km to the south).
The historical importance of Lydford is that it is the exact site of an Anglo-Saxon town ("Hlidan") set up in about 890 AD by Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, as one of his strategic, militarised centres to defend his country from the Vikings, who were making frequent violent raids from Denmark, and also from the Cornish, on the other side of the nearby River Tamar. In the subsequent Anglo-Saxon period, Lydford became an important coin-minting town, producing the famous Lydford Silver Pennies . The pre