Stokenham is one of the larger villages with two notable inns and a large church but no village shop, those are in Chillington or Torcross. Throughout its history it has developed in parallel with the neighbouring village of Chillington and today the villages almost merge. Stokenham has a large village school which with the closure of many smaller village schools now has a huge catchment area.
The village of Torcross and the sea is just over a mile down the valley. Ancient tracks and roads lead inland to Slapton and East Allington, the coastal road was only developed in the C18th as a turnpike road. During 1944 this area was completely evacuated to facilitate large scale invasion preparations and assault exercises.