Crapstone is a village 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 ...

. The village is located on the 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 ...

, in the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

Buckland Monachorum Buckland Monachorum is a village and civil parish in the West Devon district of Devon, England, situated on the River Tavy, about 10 miles north of Plymouth. In 2006 the neighbourhood had an estimated 1,511 residents and 654 dwellings. The elect ...

and is approximately from the village of Yelverton, from the city of

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 ...

and from

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of ...

History

During 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Crapstone was the nearest village to RAF Harrowbeer. Members of the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

crew were housed in the nearby villages of Crapstone, Yelverton and

. The

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

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 Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

complaining that the village used in the television advert was not actually Crapstone but a location using its name. In recent years the settlement has gained some notoriety due to its proximity to a dogging hotspot. As a child,

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

lived for some years in the village, and noted his embarrassment at the name in his autobiography, as well as in the pages of '' Vanity Fair''. It has frequently been noted on lists of

unusual place names Unusual place names are names for cities, towns, and other regions which are considered non-ordinary in some manner. This can include place names which are also offensive words, inadvertently humorous or highly charged words, as well as place ...

. Other previous residents include singer Michael Ball and the writer

Emma Smith Emma Hale Smith Bidamon (July 10, 1804 – April 30, 1879) was an American homesteader, the official wife of Joseph Smith, and a prominent leader in the early days of the Latter Day Saint movement, both during Smith's lifetime and afterward as ...

. Nearby villages include: *

Yelverton, Devon Yelverton is a large village on the south-western edge of Dartmoor, Devon, in England. When Yelverton railway station (on the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from Plymouth to Tavistock) opened in the 19th century, the village became a popul ...

Milton Combe, Devon Milton Combe is a village in Devon approximately 2 miles from Yelverton and 8 miles from the city of Plymouth. The name ''Milton Combe'' is derived from the village's historic name, first mentioned in 1249, of 'Mile Cumbe' literally meaning 'M ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Devon Dartmoor