Town in Devon, England
Dartmouth
Dartmouth has a railway station that never saw a train, a naval college where a prince met a future queen, and a river that once launched crusaders.
Key information
- County
- Devon
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Britannia Royal Naval College, the River Dart, sailing and the Dartmouth Royal Regatta
- What locals are called
- Dartmothians
- Famous people
- Thomas Newcomen, John Hawley, Prince Philip (as a cadet)
- Football clubs
- Dartmouth AFC
About Dartmouth
The railway station with no railway
Dartmouth has a handsome railway station on the quayside, built in 1890, and no train has ever pulled into it. The line from Paignton stopped on the opposite bank at Kingswear, and the Dart was never bridged. Passengers stepped off at Kingswear and crossed by ferry. The station building on the Dartmouth side was built anyway, and it sold tickets for the whole journey. Today it houses a café and a ticket office for the steam railway and river boats. It's a fitting start for a town where the water has always mattered more than the land.
Crusaders, a chain and a castle built for guns
Dartmouth's deep, sheltered harbour made it a gathering point for fleets. Ships bound for the Second Crusade assembled here in 1147, and the Third Crusade fleet followed in 1190. By the late 1300s the town was rich on wine, cloth and fish, and a merchant and privateer named John Hawley was its leading figure. He was mayor several times. Many people think Chaucer's seafaring Shipman, who comes from Dartmouth, was based on him. Dartmouth Castle, begun in 1388 at the harbour mouth, is often described as one of the first English fortifications designed with guns in mind. A chain could be hauled across the river to a tower at Godmerock on the Kingswear bank, shutting the estuary to enemy ships.
Where the Mayflower limped in
In August 1620 the Mayflower and her companion ship Speedwell put into Dartmouth because the Speedwell was leaking. Repairs were made, they set out again, and the Speedwell sprang another leak. Both ships turned back, this time to Plymouth, where the Mayflower finally left alone. The town's other great export of ideas came from Thomas Newcomen, born here in 1664. His atmospheric steam engine, first working in the early 1700s, pumped water out of mines and paved the way for James Watt and the Industrial Revolution. A Newcomen engine is displayed in the town in his honour.
Where a prince met a future queen
The huge, red-brick Britannia Royal Naval College looks down on the town from the hillside. Officers were first trained on old warships moored in the river from 1863, and Aston Webb's grand building opened in 1905. In July 1939, King George VI visited with his family. Two young cousins were introduced: 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth and Philip of Greece, an 18-year-old cadet. She is said to have been smitten. They married in 1947. During the Second World War the Dart was crowded with landing craft. Thousands of troops, many of them American, embarked from the river for the D-Day landings in 1944.
Crab sandwiches, ferries and regatta fever
Dartmouth is a town of cobbled quays and steep, narrow streets. The Butterwalk, a timber-framed row of the 1630s on granite pillars, has carved beams and leans over the pavement. Charles II is said to have held court here in 1671, and it now holds the town museum. The Lower Ferry carries vehicles across the Dart on pontoons pushed by tugboats, while the Higher Ferry is the cable-operated crossing to Kingswear. Paddle-steamers and river boats run upstream to Totnes, past Agatha Christie's holiday home at Greenway. Food here means crab, mussels and oysters from the estuary, and the town hosts a food festival each autumn. In late August the Dartmouth Royal Regatta fills the river with racing yachts, rowing boats and fireworks. Locals, known as Dartmothians, have been celebrating it since the 1800s. On the sporting side, it's sailing first, with rowing and small-boat racing close behind. Dartmouth AFC keeps football going on the shore.