First mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 Petrockstowe is a small village in the Devon district of Torridge in Northern Devon. It is near the end of the Tarka Trail

Tarka Trail

The Tarka Trail is a series of footpaths and cyclepaths around north Devon, England that follow the route taken by Tarka the Otter in the book of that name. It is a figure-of-eight route, based on Barnstaple, and covers some of path....

. Its population has fluctuated between 400 and 600. Petrockstow railway station

Petrockstow railway station

Petrockstow railway station was a station serving the village of Petrockstowe in West Devon, which is about one mile away. The station was, throughout its passenger-carrying life from 1925 to 1965, spelt without the final "e" of the village name....

carried passengers between 1922 and 1965, the village also had a school and a tannery.

There is ongoing debate as to whether the name of the village is Petrockstowe or Petrockstow, with two of the signs entering the village reading Petrockstowe and two reading Petrockstow.

The Baxter Hall is the name of the village hall, which is situated at the centre of the village along with The Laurels public house.