| Crapstone | |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United Kingdom |
| Subdivision Type1: | Region |
| Subdivision Name1: | South West England |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Devon |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Postal Code Type: | Postcode District |
| Postal Code: | 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 from the village of Yelverton, from the city of Plymouth and 5miles from Tavistock.
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, Michael Foot (MP), Seth Lakeman, Sam Lakeman, Sean Lakeman, and the writer Emma Smith.
Nearby villages include: