Shorton Woods - The fifth in a series of Green Spaces/Parks/Woods in the general area of Torbay.
There is limited parking on Barcombe Heights, then a short walk down the hill to the woods.
Shorton Woods: Shorton is the smallest of the 24 designated conservation areas of Torbay, covering only 10 acres. Much of the Shorton conservation area is well-wooded, and includes the mainly deciduous Shorton Woods to the north of the Shorton Valley road where oak, beech and sycamore predominate.
The Woods consists in the remains of a cluster of pre-20th century buildings located in a steep wooded valley. The surrounding woodland are remnants of extensive orchards.
The earliest known records of Shorton (Shiraton Hamlet) are only 16th century, when the hamlet of Shiraton and its landholdings contained Nine named tenants in 4 tenancies. Each of these tenancies had its own house, another farm outbuilding, orchards, meadow and pasture.
While Shorton Wood survives well, only a much smaller remnant of the more extensive orchards does, and only in a paddock to the southeast of Shorton Farmhouse. In Sleepy Lane there is also a small stone water feature and channel recorded in the 1567 Pembroke Survey as part of Meremeade Meadow / Merepoole Waterway.