The Parish is within lands recorded within the Doomsday Book of 1086. The Doomsday records Buckland Monachorum (Bocheland) as having 46 households, land for 15 ploughs, a salt pan and a fishery based upon the River Tavy It was in the possession of William de Poilley, one of 17 estates he held in southern part of Devon as a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror.

 

The present parish of Buckland Monachorum is located between Plymouth and Tavistock about 10 miles north of Plymouth city centre and on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. The parish has five villages within its boundaries, Yelverton, Clearbrook, Crapstone, Milton Combe and of course Buckland Monachorum. 

 

The Parish is bounded by the River Meavy to the West and the River Tavy To East and to the North the A386 passing close to Horrabridge. To the south it borders onto Roborough Down. At one time it also housed a World War 2 Aerodrome much of which can still be detected amidst the moorland area close to Yelverton.

 

The Churches of St Andrews Buckland Monachorum and Holy Spirit are within the Diocese Parish of Buckland wheras the Church at Yelverton is within the civil Parish of Buckland only.

 

The Parish also has the home former home of Sir Francis Drake within it at the converted former Cistercian Abbey of Buckland.