The name was later associated with the common suffix -hampton, but as late as the 1930s the original name was remembered by the pronunciation "Okington" or "Okenton" still used by old people in the district.

[8] Okehampton was the caput of a large feudal barony, which at the time of the Domesday Book was held by Baldwin FitzGilbert.

The town is also home to the Museum of Dartmoor Life, which has received notable visitors such as the then-Prince Charles.

Its origins are Saxon, long predating the earliest recorded consecration by Bishop Bronescombe of Exeter in 1261.

Another reconstruction followed, overseen by John Hayward who incorporated an 80 ft (24 m) granite ashlar tower which survived the fire into the new church.

[13] Stained glass in the church includes work by Morris & Co., the Kemp studios and Ward and Hughes.

Fairplace Church was built in 1904 for the Wesleyan Methodists, who were joined by a congregation from the Bible Christian tradition in 1962.

[19] Okehampton has a very wet temperate oceanic climate (Cfb), its location on the northwestern edge of Dartmoor makes for cooler temperatures and higher precipitation compared to lower-lying areas in Devon.

After years of uncertainty, this trunk road was finally re-routed in 1988 to bypass[26] the town, which had previously been a holiday traffic bottleneck on summer weekends.

Okehampton railway station is on the former northerly rail route from Exeter St Davids to Plymouth via Tavistock.

The line from Exeter was kept open for freight traffic to and from Meldon Quarry, two miles (3.2 km) west of Okehampton.

In March 2010, the freight operator Devon & Cornwall Railways announced plans to reinstate a daily passenger service terminating in Exeter, though this never came to fruition.

[29] In the wake of widespread disruption caused by damage to the mainline track at Dawlish by coastal storms in February 2014, leaving Plymouth and Cornwall with no rail connection to the rest of the country, Network Rail considered reopening the Exeter-to-Plymouth route via Okehampton and Tavistock.

Other nearby villages and settlements include Hatherleigh, North Tawton, Whiddon Down, Chagford, Bratton Clovelly, Lydford, Folly Gate, Southcott, Northlew, Jacobstowe, Bridestowe and Sourton.