Clearbrook is described by the Ordnance Survey (Government map agency) as a 'scattered hamlet', an apt description for it at any stage of its history. It lies on the South Western fringe of Dartmoor and as the air photograph shows, is in the midst of a number of industrial ventures.

The road junction to the left of the centre of the photograph includes a bridge over the Plymouth leat, (the dark line running right to left and as a bushy arc at the top of the fields on the right) built in 1591 to take water from the Moor to Plymouth. Sir Francis Drake is reputed to have ridden a horse along the leat ahead of the released water! The later Devonport leat (c.1796) is visible to the right of the bridge as a dark line in the pale green patches of the moor.

The horse-drawn Tramway which ran from Plymouth to Princetown and was completed fn 1837, crosses the road just beyond the bridge. This was one of the many, largely unsuccessful, attempts to 'develop' the Moor. Finally, the South Devon and Tavistock Railway, completed by 1859, ran right to left immediately below the houses in the foreground.

As I.K.Brunel was involved in some of its engineering it is not surprising that the track was originally broad gauge, and for a while between about 1873 and 1890, carried LSWR trains as well as GWR. Despite the wealth of transport and industrial activity mainly passing through this area, Clearbrook seems to have been almost completely unaffected by it all.

The earliest houses were built on part of a field which is referred to in the deeds as 'Clearbrook Field formerly Parsons Field'. Clearbrook is possibly a reference to the intermittent stream that forms the Northern boundary of the field; 'clear' perhaps because it is not contaminated with China clay as are other Dartmoor streams not too far away. For that matter 'Parsons field' is also inexplicable; it is not glebe land, nor does there appear to be any person of that name in the vicinity. Another variation 'Millbrooks field' which appears in some documents is even worse, since anything less like a mill brook than this normally feeble rivulet would be hard to imagine.

It is noticeable that one of the syndicate originally buying the land was a man called George Frean, (who is an interesting man). Originally he is noted as a baker (and sometimes miller) supplying the Royal Navy with biscuits. He is also one of the men, like Thomas Tyrwhitt, who were interested in developing Dartmoor to its full potential and making some money in the process. Accordingly, he is responsible for Powdermills, (the gunpowder factory) between Two Bridges and Postbridge, deep in the Moor. The gunpowder incidentally, was not intended for the Royal Navy, but to help farmers with land clearance. Possibly he saw the Clearbrook area as fitting into some 'Improver's' plan, though what he had in mind is unknown. He appears to sell the land on and is not involved in any building but he may have had some thoughts about mining, for two of this colleagues in the syndicate were miners.