Please visit the Dartmouth Museum Page for more information.

Before 1066 no town existed on the site of modern Dartmouth, only the small village of Townstal at the top of the hill with the church of St. Clement's. After the Normans arrived they soon realised the value of this safe harbour for cross-Channel voyages, and by the l2th century it had become a port well enough known for supplying ships to become the assembly point for the European fleet setting off for both the 2nd and 3rd Crusades.

Foss Street began in the 13th century as a dam across a creek to power a tidal mill. Here it is seen in an early 20th century painting by Henry Wimbush.

The French rulers also brought new technology: they built a dam - the modern Foss Street - across the tidal creek to power two tidal grain mills and incidentally joined together the two villages of Hardness and Clifton which form the modern town.

The Dartmouth Corporation seal on its Royal Charter granted by Edward III in 1341, shows the King in a typical merchant cog of the 14th century.

The Kings of England held lands in France, and by the l4th century the Dartmouth merchants were growing rich in the Bordeaux wine trade. As a reward for supplying him with ships of war in many campaigns, the king in 1341 gave the town a royal charter with a self governing corporation whose coat of arms shows a ship with the King's head. In 1372 St. Saviour's Church was consecrated and became the town church, to save the long walk up to Townstal.

St Saviour's Church, consecrated in 1372. In the chancel lies the tomb of John Hawley. In 1373 the poet Chaucer visited the town, and much later wrote of a "Shipman of Dartmouth," one of the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales.

The Shipman was a skilled sailor, but also a pirate - the local seamen were notorious.

Brass rubbing of John Hawley, fourteen times Mayor and builder of the first Dartmouth Castle.

During the Hundred years war with France the danger of attacks from across the Channel led the King to order the leading merchant and Mayor John Hawley to build the first castle at the mouth of the town, completed around 1400, with a chain across the river to Godmerock on the Kingswear side to stop enemy ships.

An artist's impression of Hawley's castle. When a strong Breton force landed at Slapton in I404 hoping to capture Dartmouth, Hawley organised an army of peasants, which defeated the well-armed knights at the Battle of Blackpool Sands.

Hawley's brass lies in St. Saviour's church in the chancel which he built, and after his death his house was used as the borough Guildhall for nearly 400 years. Sadly, the Bordeaux wine trade ended with the loss of England's French lands.

Dartmouth After 1860

Dartmouth lacked good inland communications. The hills were so steep that only packhorses were used before the 1820's. Then the old Mill Pool was drained and a market built on the reclaimed land. A new road to Townstal was constructed and for the first time wheeled transport could enter and leave the town.

1865 The new broad gauge train steams out of Kingswear Station. The training ships Britannia and Hindustan are moored in the river. The old Higher ferry powered by two horses can be seen crossing the river. Despite this, Dartmouth did not emerge from the slump until the 1860's. In 1863 the Royal Navy decided to train naval cadets on the Dart and stationed first "Britannia", then the "Hindustan", in the river for the purpose. In 1864 the railway arrived in Kingswear. Both events boosted the economy. The old ships were replaced by the new Naval College on land, completed in 1905, and the Navy has been in the town ever since.

The railway station at Kingswear around 1880 with broad gauge trains. The Dolphin passenger ferry waits to take passengers across to Dartmouth. A new industry developed with the growth of steam-powered ships. The port became a bunkering station. At its height about 700 men, known as coal lumpers, loaded coal into the ships' bunkers while more worked on ships importing the coal.

Britannia Royal Naval College not long after it was completed in 1905. This Regatta photo shows the kind of large steam yachts built at Noss by Simpson Strickland.

On the river, during the 19th Century the local ferries were improved so that, by 1870, both the Higher and Lower Ferries could carry wheeled vehicles and were worked by steam. In the town, roads were widened by demolishing many old houses and an Embankment built by 1885. Shipbuilding revived when Philip & Son and Simpson Strickland competed for business. Simpson's who had moved to Noss in 1890 built steam sailing yachts for rich clients and thrived up until the First World War. Philip's built varied types of vessels and received orders from South America to the Far East.

Tourists landing from a paddle steamer on Slapton Sands in the early 1900's. From the early 20th century the town began to benefit from the tourist industry. People came by railway for holidays and enjoyed trips on steamers up to Totnes and out to sea.

Until the First World War the town prospered and although many men were lost, this war did not greatly affect the economy of the town. In 1918 Simpson Strickland was bought by its rival Philip's which became the main shipbuilding firm.

Philips and Son's shipyards at Sandquay around 1931, showing the floating dock.

After the war, between 1929 and 1935, the Embankment was extended enclosing Coombe Mud and linking up with the Higher Ferry to cope with growing numbers of cars. The general prosperity of the late 1930's ended abruptly with the outbreak of World War II.

Please visit the Dartmouth Museum Page for more information.