Crapstone, Devon

Crapstone is a village in the county of Devon. The village is located on the edge of Dartmoor and is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from the village of Yelverton, 9 miles (14 km) from the city of Plymouth and 5 miles (8.0 km) from Tavistock.

History

During the Second World War Crapstone was the nearest village to RAF Harrowbeer. Members of the RAF crew were housed in the nearby villages of Crapstone, Yelverton and Buckland Monachorum. The Ministry of Defence maintained a defence site in Crapstone until the 1980s when the site was cleared and converted for residential use.

In 2007 Crapstone was used as the name of the village in a television advert for the RAC. Local residents started a protest group on the social networking site Facebook complaining that the village used in the television advert was not actually Crapstone but a location using its name. One member of the group has stated that the location for filming was near 'The Pimple' at Tavistock; however none of this was mentioned anywhere in the advert.

The industrial hub of the town is found in the Crapstone business park, while the chief financial district is located at the banking counter within the local post office.

As a child, Christopher Hitchens lived for some years in the village, and has noted his embarrassment at the name in his autobiography, as well as in the pages of Vanity Fair^[1]. Nearby villages include:

• Yelverton, Devon
• Milton Combe, Devon
• Buckland Monachorum

References

1. ^ http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/eccentrics200801

External links

Media related to Crapstone, Devon at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 50°29′26″N 4°06′43″W / 50.4905°N 4.11199°W / 50.4905; -4.11199