Crownhill is an area of northern

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

, in the county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England.

Overview

It was originally known as Knackersknowle, meaning "the hill of the

knacker A knacker (), knackerman or knacker man is a person who removes and clears animal carcasses (dead, dying, injured) from private farms or public highways and renders the collected carcasses into by-products such as fats, tallow ( yellow gr ...

's yard". In 1860 a

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

was built on a high piece of land, just to the north west of the village, on the site of a building called Crown Hill, presumably because of its dominating position overlooking all the surrounding area. The village and surrounding area eventually adopted the same name. The fort was one of many

Palmerston Forts The Palmerston Forts are a group of forts and associated structures around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The forts were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the ...

built around Plymouth under the instruction of the then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

, as a defence for the dockyard at Devonport against the French. The construction of these forts was eventually found to be unnecessary and as such they have been called "Palmerston's Follies". Crownhill Fort has now been restored as a tourist attraction and its guns are fired more often now then they ever were in anger. For a long time Crownhill was predominantly a garrison area with Plumer Barracks and more recently Seaton Barracks, demolished finally in the late 1990s. This mostly 1930s suburb grew around the junction of the

A386 A86 is an assembler for MS-DOS which generates code for the Intel x86 family of microprocessors. Written by Eric Isaacson, it was first made available as shareware in June 1986. The assembler is contained in one 32K executable and can directly ...

Tavistock Road and the A374 road (later the A38 and now the B3413) from

Plympton Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to P ...

to Saltash Passage. Following realignment of the A386 in the 1970s the old Tavistock road has been isolated and renamed Morshead Road. There is a pub, a post office, a few convenience stores, many takeaways and an Indian restaurant. Crownhill is the home of the divisional police headquarters and a Catholic boys comprehensive school. There is also a large fire station and close by a big garden centre. The district is very popular because it is very close to the A38 Parkway/Devon Expressway and is near to the local general hospital at Derriford without being so far from the city centre four miles south that it is isolated and inaccessible as are so many of Plymouth's satellite suburbs. Crownhill is mostly known for being the main place in the book ''Witchhill'' by Marcus Segdwick.

Cultural references

"Union Street (Last Post)", a track on the 2006 album ''

Witness In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...

'' by contemporary West Country folk duo

Show of Hands Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots/ folk duo formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley (guitars, mandolin, mandocello, cuatro) and composer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer (vocals, guitars, violin, viola, mandolin, man ...

, features Crownhill as the home of one of the song's subjects. The song tells a tale of love and loss amongst the pubs and clubs of

Union Street Union Street may refer to: United Kingdom * Union Street, Aberdeen, Scotland *Union Street, East Sussex, between Ticehurst and Flimwell *Union Street, London * Union Street, Plymouth, Devon *Union Street, Reading, Berkshire United States * Un ...

at the time of the Falklands Conflict.

References

Suburbs of Plymouth, Devon {{Devon-geo-stub