Whiddon Down

Whiddon Down is a hamlet in the parish of Drewsteignton, West Devon, on the A30 between Exeter and Okehampton at the crossing with the south to north road. It takes its name from the medieval Whiddon family of nearby Chagford and is recorded as Whyddon Doune in 1535 and Whiddon Downe in 1661. The population was 267 at the 2011 census.

The hamlet only developed after the south to north road was turnpiked in the 18th century. A 15th-century crossroads dwelling became a coaching inn and post point, and survives as the Post Inn. The parish history says the place grew large enough to support a school in Victorian times. The Bible Christian chapel opened in 1866 and was replaced by a Methodist church in 1906, now closed. The primary school opened in 1879 and closed in 1959, and the building became the village hall in 1960.

When the A30 was dualled in the late 1980s the hamlet was bypassed, but it remains a junction, with a service station and a Travelodge. The Chagstock music festival ran on farmland south of the hamlet each year from 2007 to 2022. Nothing earlier than the 1500s has turned up for the settlement itself.