In the short story The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow (later, chapters 3 and 4 of The Big Four), Hoppator is a village "clustering in a hollow right on the edge" of Dartmoor. The village is located about nine miles from Moretonhampstead. The Granite Bungalow, the home of Jonathan Whalley, is located in the village. The road distance from Moretonhampstead to the village of Throwleigh is 14 km (about 9 miles). Throwleigh is near the edge of Dartmoor and is a village with significant Agatha Christie connections. It is plausible that she might have used it as an inspiration for Hoppator.
Name of the village[]
In the short story version the village is named Hoppator. When it was rewritten as a novel the name was slightly changed to Hoppaton.