Crownhill

At the highest point in Knackersknowle or knoll there used to be a pair of cottages named in deference to their location - Crown Hill. In the 1860s when it came to locating the main fort in the defensive ring of fortifications around Plymouth - built in response to the supposed threat to the nation from the French under Napoleon III - it became necessary to demolish these two cottages.

It seemed appropriate however to perpetuate their memory in the naming of the new fort that occupied their site and more besides. Thus it was that this particular Palmerston Folly (as all the forts were subsequently dubbed in honour of the somewhat paranoid Prime Minister who had ordered their construction) became known as Crownhill Fort.

In the years that followed, as the village grew to accommodate the increased traffic, population and interest, partly generated by this development, the old name - which appeared in a 1765 survey as Nackershole - was gradually dropped and the name of the fort was assumed in its place.