Middlesex University is located here. Widecombe Primary School is a primary school that educates around 70 pupils. Other features In Widecombe churchyard is the grave of novelist Beatrice Chase who lived for much of her life in a cottage close to the village. Next to the church stands the Church House, built in 1537. It is thought to have originally been built as a brewery for the production of church ales, became adapted as an almshouse, and later became the village school. Today, it is used as a meeting place for local people. Sexton's Cottage forms the western end of the building and is now a National Trust shop and Dartmoor National Park information point. It is now managed by the National Trust. Standing in front of the building is a 15-inch naval shell, which was donated to the village after the First World War to thank the villagers for supplying troops with sphagnum moss. This grows in abundance in the damp Dartmoor conditions, and is said to have healing properties. It was used as an emergency field dressing for injured troops. The size of the parish meant that, for centuries, families were obliged to walk for miles to attend the church every Sunday. The task was even more challenging when it came to burying their dead, whose coffins had to be carried over rough ground and both up and down exceptionally steep hills. Halfway up Dartmeet Hill, for example, lies the Coffin Stone, close to the road, where the body would be placed to allow the bearers to take a rest. The rock is split in two, along its length. Local legend has it that the body of a particularly wicked man was laid there. God took exception to this, and struck the stone with a thunderbolt, destroying the coffin and splitting the stone in two. The deserted medieval village of Hutholes and the abandoned farmstead Dinna Clerks (also spelt Dinah Clark's) are nearby. The Rippon Tor Rifle Range lies within five miles of the village. In popular culture In the reality show Celebrity Ghost Stories, American actor Daniel Stern claimed to have had an unsettling, and possibly supernatural, experience while on a brief visit to the village during his honeymoon in 1980. He also recounted that people in the region considered Widecombe to be haunted, and that the Great Thunderstorm of 1638 was blamed. The official Widecombe-in-the-Moor website