Dartmoor Prison - Pt 1 Princetown
On a beautiful summer’s day, Dartmoor can be the perfect place to come: Big skies look down upon open moorland where streams and rivers trickle down through valleys that are crossed by old clapper bridges: It’s a place where ponies roam free, and skylarks flutter between the granite tors and prehistoric remains. You could say, that at times like this, Dartmoor is the perfect antidote to modern life. The problem is that it’s not always a beautiful summer’s day.
Dartmoor can also be a desolate and unforgiving place too. When south-westerly winds bring stormy weather across the Atlantic, the moisture-laden clouds unleash their contents onto the wilderness below turning everything into a quagmire – and that’s not all. The renowned Dartmoor fog can descend in minutes, and when you take into account that this is ‘hairy hands’ country with tales about wild dogs and ghostly paranormal activity, the moor becomes an altogether different place, and can seem more like hell on earth than paradise. It’s understandable therefore that this inhospitable place was deemed a good location to build a prison – and there’s nowhere more inhospitable than Princetown.
Lying at 1,430 ft above sea level, Princetown is the highest settlement in Devon, and consequently, one of the wettest. With its remote location and inclement weather, I think I would have preferred to have served my time in jail rather than try to escape: I mean, which would you prefer? A warm cell with a bowl of gruel, or dragging yourself across the boggy moorland on a dark foggy night with a pack of police dogs snapping at your ass? No contest as far as I’m concerned.
The thing is though, Princetown wasn’t initially conceived as a place to build a prison, but that’s how it ended up. So what happened?
Basically, towards the end of the 18th century there was a lot of interest in converting some of the open wild moorland into more productive farmland, and one of those who fancied the challenge was a gentleman called Thomas Tyrwhitt. Thomas (later Sir Thomas) wasn’t somebody who grew up farming the rolling fields of Devon, but mixing with well to do people on the ‘playing fields of Eton’ instead.
His background led him to become a friend and Private Secretary of the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV. The Prince of Wales, if you didn’t know, is the hereditary title traditionally given to the monarch’s eldest son, but the prince also invariably inherits the title of Duke of Cornwall.
The Duke unsurprisingly earns income from the Duchy of Cornwall, but the Duchy isn’t the same thing as the county of Cornwall. The Duchy is in fact a series of vast estates, some of which are in Cornwall, and some of which aren’t, and that includes the largest estate of all – the Forest of Dartmoor.
In 1785, through his lofty connections, Thomas Tyrwhitt leased 2,000 acres of Duchy moorland with the intention of creating a profitable farm, and he started his venture at Tor Royal (around half a mile south-east of Princetown).
Tyrwhitt’s vision was to provide a thriving place to live and work, but he found that farming on Dartmoor was a bit different to farming in the shires. It would have required huge amounts of both fertiliser and manpower, and apart from growing flax, it became unprofitable. Even today, the High Moor is restricted to grazing.
The settlement, which he named Prince’s Town, is still really only the size of a village today. The oldest building is the Plume of Feathers pub which was built in 1785 and named after the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales. In actual fact, it looked as though it was going to remain just another unremarkable hamlet were it not for the fact that an unexpected opportunity allowed Tyrwhitt the chance to expand the village, and at the same time his bank balance: In Part 2 I’ll be describing what that opportunity was and how it changed Princetown.
POSTED – JANUARY 2023
Originally posted 2023-01-08 11:27:03.
I will well be reading the next part tomorrow.
Great! A lot of people have heard about the prison but unfamiliar with its history.
Oh yes. it is aname that way so yes, it is good to se th history. I had to have a wee smile at the name, Tyrwhitt.
LOL. I knew a girl once whose surname was Clair and her parents chose to call her Heidi. Did they not think it through?
Obviously not.
I do see what you mean about staying put in prison 😄 I hadn’t realised any part of the Duchy of Cornwall was actually in Devon. Thank you as always for the engagingly told history lesson!
And thank you, as always Sarah, for checking it out 🙂
Well, Malc, I never thought I’d say I’d actually choose to do a stint in prison, but when you put it like that… :-0
A wonderfully evocative description of the two very different faces of Dartmoor, and although it seems as if the place is almost schizophrenic in character, I can see why it nevertheless has an irresistible pull for so many folk. It’s wild – and unpredictable – in every sense, and I love that. All that atmosphere! And there’s the added benefit of those gorgeous (and presumably very hardy!) ponies…
The story of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt’s ‘Prince’s Town’ ambition has got off to a great start, and I can’t wait to read what happened next in Part 2, so don’t leave us hanging for too long! 🙂
Thanks for your lovely email, and I’ll respond very soon. It’s my birthday tomorrow, so it’ll be later in the week or early next week. I hope the troubles with your website have indeed now been resolved and that our blogs can start properly talking to each other again. In the meantime, a great read, as always. 🙂
Happy Birthday Alli. I hope you’re doing something nice today. Are you going to visit any bars? – and I don’t mean those like they have in Dartmoor Prison 😊
Thanks for your comments. They’re always worth waiting for, and it looks like the Lincoln Imps have gone somewhere else to cause mayhem, as my website seems to be working ok now. I still think that the notifications are suspect though.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to your next email and thanks for your kind words. Have a lovely day 😊
Hi Malc, thanks again for the lovely card. So appropriate, and I forgot to say another thing, that we’ve seen more rainbows since we moved here than I think we’ve seen in the last couple of decades! There’s got to be a pot of gold there somewhere… 🙂 As for bars, well I visited a lot of chocolate bars! With a long day out among the castles and mountains though, it was home for a bottle of my favourite wine, some games and a takeaway from the best Chinese we’ve ever had. Used it once or twice on the castle quest, together with the best Indian too!
Back to the comment malarkey, sadly your replies are still not popping up in my dashboard thingy, so I’m returning to the post to keep in touch, but at least I know to do that now. Looking forward to the next instalment of ‘Prince’s Town’! 🙂
You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve got this notification on my dashboard, so at least half of it’s working. Who knows what goes on in the technology world? We’ve had an internet outage the last couple of days and Openreach disconnected my line to fix it and forgot to reconnect it again! All you need to know is that I ALWAYS reply to your comments.
Anyway, it looks like you’ve found the end of the rainbow already. I’ve always thought that life is much like a long walk. The trek uphill can be a real struggle at times, but when you reach the top and look across to the horizon you know why you’ve persevered 😊
Sage words indeed, Malc. Thank you. 🙂
Yet another place I have yet to visit. I think I’ll pick a nice day for the trip though.
LOL. I think you should 🙂
I like the descriptive narrative in the first couple of paragraphs, it made me feel is if I was there. An interesting piece of Dartmoor history and I’m looking forward to part 2. Good to see the ‘like’ button is back properly, I hope you managed to sort out your WP issues 🙂
Thanks Eunice and I obviously hope you enjoy Pt 2 (and Pt 3) as well. It looks as though the gremlins have gone on holiday for the time being, but always check back in case you don’t get notification of my replies. I always reply to comments.
How wonderful, you have left the suspense in a history article… just like in a novel!
Your posts must be rubbing off on me then Luisa. Thank you! 🙂
Rather thanks to you for your kindness 😘
😘
I am a fond reader of Regency Romances, where the Prince Regent is routinely referred to as Prinny. I had a feeling when you started with your wonderful inrto to Dart Moor that Prinny might figure into this somehow. Can’t wait for part two. I really felt like I was reading an intro to a Daphne Du Maurier novel. Well done, Malc. Since I read Joanna’s and Francisco’s blogs/comments also, its like wandering into a local pub and catching up on things.
What a lovely comment Pat. Sounds like we should meet up in the Plume of Feathers then – or perhaps the Prince of Wales which is the brewey tap for the Dartmoor Brewery 🙂
If I ever get to Dartmouth, and the pub offers something besides beer, consider the invite accepted. There are several of us who seem like old friends who we run into at various establishments in WordPress. I like the cross comments in blog post comments.
There’s always something other than beer on offer Pat 🙂
Fascinating, Malc, for more than one reason, and I will tell you why after reding part 2. I love your descriptive power and the pictures add brilliantly to the story.
Joanna
Thank you Joanna. It’s always great to hear that you enjoy these posts. It means a lot you know. I just hope you get to read this response as I always reply but it seems that some people don’t get a notification to say that I have. I’m also intrigued to find out what lies behind your comment 🙂
I ot it, and than you, but you will have to wait, and the story will take your breath away!
Joanna
I’d better get on with Pt 2 pronto in that case 🙂
You better!
Joanna
LOL 🙂
A most interesting place. I am always attracted to places where the weather is dramatic, unstable and rather dangerous, it adds a certain fragility to the city or town. Loved the pics, the brooding clouds and the ponies were absolutely beautiful. Your words, narrative style and descriptive powers make places truly come alive and folks like me, who love to travel, want to visit… Cheers and all the best to you.
Thanks F. I always love your comments even if I don’t think I deserve them. I hope you get to read the follow up posts as I think you’ll enjoy those too.
Most certainly I will Malc. You deserve all the good comments that naturally come your way as you provide information that is well delivered and quite interesting. All the best.
Thank you my friend. I hope you have a good week ahead and recover from the lurgy
Cheers Malc, I am getting better…
Great!
👍