Crapstone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crapstone
Village
Village street
Village street
CountryUnited Kingdom
RegionSouth West England
CountyDevon
Postcode District
PL20

Crapstone is a village in the county of Devon. The village is located on the edge of Dartmoor, in the parish of Buckland Monachorum 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 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.[1]

In 2007 Crapstone was used as the name of the village in a television advert for the RAC.[2] 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.[3]

As a child, Christopher Hitchens 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.[4] It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.[5] Other previous residents include singer Michael Ball and the writer Emma Smith.

The village has been the subject of media interest due to its proximity to a number of notorious dogging locations.[6]

Nearby villages include:

References[]

  1. ^ "Dispersed Sites". RAF Harrowbeare, Yelverton. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  2. ^ "RAC - Crapstone". TellyAds. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  3. ^ Christie, Jonathan (20 May 2008). "What's in a name? Britain's rudest places". The Independent. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  4. ^ Hitchens, Christopher. "England Made Them". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  5. ^ Lyall, Sarah (22 January 2009). "No Snickering: That Road Sign Means Something Else". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  6. ^ Dowrick, Molly (2021-01-09). "Life in the village near a dogging hot spot". PlymouthLive. Retrieved 2021-11-13.

External links[]

Media related to Crapstone at Wikimedia Commons Coordinates: 50°29′26″N 4°06′43″W / 50.4905°N 4.11199°W / 50.4905; -4.11199

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