Barnstaple play at Park School. In 1975, Barnstaple was the home of Norman Scott, the male model who was blackmailing local MP and Liberal Party Leader Jeremy Thorpe over an alleged sexual relationship between the two of them. According to the investigative journalists Simon Freeman and Barry Penrose, Thorpe’s colleague David Holmes phoned an accomplice, ex-airline pilot Andrew Newton, with instructions to intimidate Scott, whom he would meet at a hotel in Barnstaple. But it was a bad line, and Newton spent time hanging around Dunstable in Bedfordshire. Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is the main town of North Devon, England
Barnstaple Bay. The name is first recorded in the 10th century and is believed to derive from the Old English "bearde", meaning "battle-axe", and "stapol", meaning "pillar", referring to a post or pillar set up to mark a religious or administrative meeting place. The belief that the name derives from "staple" meaning "market", indicating that there was a market here from the foundation of the settlement, is incorrect, because the use of "staple" in that sense is not recorded in England before 1423. Barnstaple was formerly referred to as "Barum", from a contraction of the Latin form of the name (ad