Yelverton is a large village on the south-western edge of

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...

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. Devo ...

, in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. When Yelverton railway station (on the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from Plymouth to Tavistock) opened in the 19th century, the village became a popular residence for Plymouth commuters. The railway is now closed, but the Plym Valley Railway has reopened a section of it. Yelverton is well known for Roborough Rock - a prominent mass of stone close to the Plymouth road on the fringe of nearby Roborough Down, near the southern end of the airfield. It gave its name to the Rock Hotel, built as a farm during the Elizabethan period, but converted in the 1850s to cater for growing tourism in the area. The area to the south and west of the roundabout at the centre of the village was settled in late Victorian and Edwardian times, with many grand and opulent villas. An area developed at about the same time on an odd shaped piece of land to the south of the Tavistock road is known as Leg o' Mutton Corner. At the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, an airfield (

RAF Harrowbeer Royal Air Force Harrowbeer or more simply RAF Harrowbeer is a former Royal Air Force station situated next to Yelverton in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England Location RAF Harrowbeer was located approximately NNE of the city of ...

) was constructed at adjacent Harrowbeer as a fighter station for the air defence of Devonport Dockyard and the

Western Approaches The Western Approaches is an approximately rectangular area of the Atlantic Ocean lying immediately to the west of Ireland and parts of Great Britain. Its north and south boundaries are defined by the corresponding extremities of Britain. The c ...

. A 19th century terrace of houses, now mostly converted into shops, had to have its upper storey removed to provide an easier approach. One tall building which was not altered was St. Paul's Church, but the tower was hit by a plane, resulting in a warning light being fitted. The layout of the runways is still very clear and although they are substantially grassed over, the many earth and brick protective bunkers built to protect the fighters from attack on the ground are all still in place. Some American airmen and anti-aircraft battery units were stationed here during the second half of the war. A plane carrying President Roosevelt landed here when its original destination was fogbound. To the south of the village is Langton Park, home of Yelverton Bohemians

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

Club and about 0.5 km south is the accurately named Moorland Garden Hotel serving the Yelverton Golf Club where most of the holes run well down the open moorland to the east. There are several bed and breakfasts in Yelverton, serving the many walkers and visitors to National Trust properties in the area.

Seth Lakeman Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. Ac ...

, the

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

nominee, comes from Yelverton. Former Sadlers Wells Ballet star Maureen Bruce lives in Yelverton. The present Ravenscroft Care Home was built as a private house but in the 1930s became Ravenscroft School and during the

was the officers' mess of RAF Harrowbeer.

External links

Yelverton Community Page

RAF Harrowbeer Site
{{Authority control Dartmoor