The Stone Stile off Mill Lane

Situated along the 'Erme-Plym Trail' West of the village of Brixton is this most attractive stone stile, which has weathered the passing years remarkably well. Probably over 300 years old, the stile provides access from Mill Lane onto the footpath that links the village with Brixton Torr about a quarter of a mile away. History reveals that the community at Torr have used this route for hundreds of years to travel to and from the village to work, attend the fourteenth century Brixton church, and sell or purchase produce.

There is evidence that Brixton Torr was home to a settlement of perhaps a hundred people along the foreshore of the estuary at Cofflete Creek as early as the 10th century. Some cottages, still occupied, were built in the 1700s as homes for workers employed at the nearby slate quarry.

To this day, residents of the hamlet and the village use the footpath and climb the stile, enjoying this popular and practical route that links the two communities.

The Oxford English Reference Dictionary describes a stile as:

'An arrangement of steps allowing people, but not animals, to climb over a fence or wall.'