Princetown

Princetown
Devon
Dartmooor Prison
Location
Grid reference:	SX588736
Location:	50°32’42"N, 3°59’39"W
Data
Post town:	Yelverton
Postcode:	PL20
Dialling code:	01822
Local Government
Council:	West Devon
Parliamentary constituency:	Torridge and West Devon

Princetown is a town in Devon on the high moorland of Dartmoor. Princetown is the highest town on the moor and is best known as the site of Dartmoor Prison.

The town was created by Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, Secretary to the Duchy of Cornwall and Lord Warden of the Stanneries. In 1785 he leased a large area of moorland from the Duchy of Cornwall estate, hoping to convert it into good farmland using the lessons of the Agricultural Revolution. He called the settlement Princetown after the Prince of Wales and encouraged people to live in the area. When agriculture failed, the moors proving too harsh, Tyrwhitt turned to granite quarrying, which proved more successful, and in 1804 to the building of a prison.

The Princetown Railway, closed in 1956, was the highest railway line in England, its Princetown terminus being 1,427 feet above sea level.

Geography

The town is built on the solid granite massif of Dartmoor, surrounded by the high moorland. Here on the high moor the weather is harsh, and the grey stone buildings lend a grim aspect in which the prison seems most apt.

The town's road is the B3212 road between Yelverton and Two Bridges, and it has no neighbouring villages. Several footpaths across the moor start from the town, including one leading west to Sampford Spiney and one leading south to Nun's Cross and Erme Head.

Tor Royal Lane is a dead end road which leads down from the town to the site of the disused Whiteworks tin mine, about 2 miles to the south-east, which overlooks Fox Tor Mires, the presumed site of the "Grimpen Mire" to be found in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tale The Hound of the Baskervilles. (Conan Doyle stayed at the Royal Duchy Hotel in the town while writing and researching the story with his friend, Bertram Fletcher Robinson.) The hotel has long since closed and the building now houses the High Moorland Visitor Centre which provides a wealth of information and exhibits for those visiting the moor.

Other points of interest in the town include the prison museum and the town churchyard which houses the graves of French and American prisoners of war who were originally housed at the prison. The Church of St Michael has the distinction of being the only one in the United Kingdom constructed by prisoners of war and it is dedicated, as are many churches in high locations, to St Michael.

North Hessary Tor overlooks the town. The tor can be easily identified by the large television mast on top of it, a structure which provides a useful guide point for walkers from miles around.

Churches

St Michael and all Angels

• The Church of St Michael and All Angels is a tall granite-built church whose tower is visible for many miles over the moor. It was built between 1810 and 1814 using the labour of French and American prisoners of war held in the Prison, which stands opposite its gate. The church is no longer used for regular worship but remains a consecrated building in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
• The United Church of Princetown is joint church of the Church of England and Methodist Church. It stands somewhat anonymous and invisible in a unit in the town.

History

In 1780, a farm was reclaimed on the site of an ancient tenement near the Two Bridges, and in 1785, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt set about improving the moor at a place which he named Tor Royal, about half a mile south-east of Princetown. He made an estate and built a house in 1798. Later the road from Tavistock to Princetown was built, as well as the other roads that now cross the Moor.

Photograph of prisoners at the Dartmoor Prison, c. 1900.

Tyrwhitt later proposed that a prison be built on Dartmoor to house the thousands of captives of the Napoleonic Wars, who had become too numerous to lodge in the prisons and prison-ships at Plymouth. The prison was built in 1806 of solid, local granite, is on land of the Duchy of Cornwall to which all the Moor belonged (and the prison land is still owned by the Prince of Wales as Duke of Cornwall). It cost £130,000 to build and at one time had the capacity to hold between 7,000 and 9,000 prisoners. At once it began to receive French prisoners, and after the outbreak of the War of 1812 American prisoners were held in Dartmoor Prison too.

A small town grew up near the prison. Two large inns were built during the war. Many of the prisoners had prize-money to come from their own country; many others made their own in their hammocks at night, even forging Bank of England and local bank notes, which they passed off in the great daily market held in the prison. With the closing of the prison in 1816, the town almost collapsed, but the completion of the Dartmoor Railway in 1823 brought back many people to the granite quarries. The prison remained derelict until 1851, when it was reopened for prisoners serving long sentences. It has since been considerably extended.

People and economy

The Jubilee Memorial and Railway Inn, Princetown

Princetown is the most deprived ward in Devon, as when the Home Office changed its rules on where prison officers should live, staff moved out of the town and much poor-quality housing became available, which was then offered to the disabled, the unemployed and one parent families. With few facilities and little public transport these people became isolated. A charity has been formed, called "High Moorland Community Action", which aimed to improve the situation.

The closure of Bedford Square in nearby Tavistock to coach parking has driven many visitors away from that town and diverted the coach parties to Princetown. As a result, a considerable quantity of new housing has been built and more is under construction on the vacant lots where council properties used to stand, some of considerable size. This influx of private housing has had a beneficial effect on the town as a whole, as has the relocation of the Post Office to new premises at a time when many villages are losing their post offices).

In the summer Princetown tends to be popular with walkers and the sight of large groups of young people with rucksacks is especially common during the summer months. Bunkhouse, bed and breakfast and camping facilities are available in the town and there are also a handful of local shops where visitors can stock up on essential items. Conversely, it is also popular with retired visitors on coach tours.

The High Moorland Visitor Centre and National Park Information Centre is run by the Dartmoor National Park Authority and contains a standing exhibition about many aspects of Dartmoor.

Princetown has its own brewery producing the appropriately named Jail Ale and Dartmoor IPA. This used to be housed in the Prince of Wales pub, but now occupies a modern purpose-built building on the edge of the town. The two other pubs are the Railway (formerly "The Devils Elbow") and the Plume of Feathers and there are also cafés, one of which is situated in what used to be the town's police station.

Plume of Feathers

In recent years Princetown has seen the opening of both the Princetown Centre for Creativity in Duchy Square, on the site of the village supermarket, and a new village Community Centre.