Tiny Devon village that Chris Martin grew up in where homes sell for over £650,000

Chris Martin is often wrongly credited as hailing from the city of Exeter - however the Coldplay frontman hails from a tiny village on the outskirts of the University city

Coldplay proved they've still got it this week as their latest album, Moon Music, topped the charts in the UK.

Frontman Chris Martin is said to be worth an estimated £160 million and has homes in Malibu and London. He is often reported to be from the historic English city of Exeter but is actually from the tiny village of Whitestone, situated just four miles from University city centre.

The Yellow singer got his start in music while a student at Exeter Cathedral School where he learned to play piano and wrote a three-minute track called Electric Thunder when he was 12. Before his Coldplay fame, he was in two bands while at school; one called Crises and the other called Rockin' Honkies.

Chris was raised in a strict, religious, evangelical environment which he revealed impacted his early ability to perform. He told Howard Stern in 2021: "I am having such a hard time in my life right now. And part of dealing with that is going back to look at all that stuff.

"I could not sing Paint It Black by The Stones because I thought it was evil... Any method of coping is a strength when you develop it, but later in your life it might not necessarily serve you anymore." And he also told The Times in 2019: "I struggled, like a lot of young teenagers... 13 to 15. I had weird world-views that didn't help. I was closed-minded, which is easy to make fun of, but I am happy because it lit the fire."

The star's family home in Whitestone went on sale in 2010 and sold for a reported £1.35 million. House prices, according to RightMove, have an average of £650,000 - double the average house price in the UK. The larger price tag for homes in the village is credited to the proximity with Exeter.

DevonLive has, however, highlighted the quiet village as a desirable place to find a home - and has listed many attractions. They report: "At the heart of the hamlet, The Travellers Rest is a former 16th-century coaching inn, a country pub, and an eating house with a beer garden just off the A30 on the outskirts of Exeter. Renowned for its Sunday roast menu, it also offers a great selection of wines, beers, real ales, and spirits."

Situated in Devonshire, the village is close to nature, with Barley Valley Park picked out as a top local attraction - with over 11 hectares of rolling green hills and grass-covered space. The population of the village is estimated to be just 650 people - which is a number dwarfed by nearby Exeter which is said to be home to 129,307. Chris himself is said to spend most of his time in California, however, where he lives with movie star fiancée, Dakota Johnson.

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