Devonport, Plymouth

Devonport
Devonport skyline
Devonport Location within Devon
OS grid reference	SX455547
Unitary authority	Plymouth
Ceremonial county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PLYMOUTH
Postcode district	PL1
Dialling code	01752
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Plymouth Sutton Devonport
List of places UK England Devon 50°22′37″N 4°10′34″W / 50.377°N 4.176°W / 50.377; -4.176

Devonport (

View of Plymouth Dockyard in 1736 (by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck).

In 1690 the Admiralty gave a contract to Robert Waters from Portsmouth to build a stone dock at Point Froward on the east bank of the Hamoaze at the mouth of the River Tamar. Plymouth Dock, as Devonport was originally called, began around 1700 as a small settlement to house workers employed on the new naval base that was being built around Waters' dock.^[4] By 1733 its population had grown to around 3,000,^[5] and by 1801 it was already larger than both the nearby towns of Plymouth and Stonehouse together.^[6]

Devonport

By 1811 the population of Plymouth Dock was just over 30,000 and the residents resented the fact that its name made it sound like an adjunct of Plymouth. In 1823 a petition to King George IV requested the town should be renamed, and suggested "Devonport". The king agreed to the change of name, which took effect on 1 January 1824.^[7][8] To celebrate, the town built Devonport Column next to the recently completed guildhall; both were designed by John Foulston.^[2] Devonport was first incorporated as a municipal borough in 1837 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.

In July, 1849, the first outbreaks in what became a

In the mid-eighteenth century a defensive earthwork was constructed around the town and dockyard. Within these dockyard '

The high ground south of the town is called Mount Wise. Enclosed within the town ramparts, it was given its own redoubt in the 1770s, with eight guns and two mortars protecting the coastal approach to the dockyard. In earlier times, a

During the millennium decade, Devonport received government New Deal for Communities funding of £48.7 million; this enabled an extensive Regeneration programme to be carried out. Since 2009, the investments have begun to transform Devonport – physically, socially, demographically. Where once the area was run-down, depressed, and classified as 'deprived' in many categories, the 21st-century Devonport is beginning to achieve the city’s vision of … "The recreation of Devonport as a distinct place in modern Plymouth; a vibrant self sustaining community; a place of real quality, variety and interest, the pride of residents, attractive to visitors and a model of 21st Century living, working and playing."^[18]

The Admiralty's release of several land plots in Devonport has assisted the Regeneration project. One ex-MoD area, where new homes will be available from 2011, is the Admiralty House site at Mount Wise. Although there are pockets of regeneration work remaining to be completed, the waterfront district of Devonport is becoming one of the desired residential areas of the city of Plymouth.^[19]

In 2011, the Devonport Heritage Trail was introduced, complete with over 70 waymarkers outlining the route.^[20]

Facilities

Devonport has its own shopping street, a

Devonport is also home to the Devonport Playhouse, a

UTC Plymouth is a university technical college (UTC) which opened in September 2013 near Devonport Park. The UTC is situated on the former site of Parkside Community College,^[23] which closed in August 2008 due to falling enrolment.^[24]

The Torpoint Ferry service across the Hamoaze (River Tamar) operates from Devonport to Cornwall.

Devonport Naval base/Dockyard has, over the years, been known as "Guz" by

• R. F. Scott (1968-1912, Antarctica) British naval officer and explorer, born Devonport, led the heroic but ill-fated second expedition in 1910 to reach the South Pole. ^[26]
• N. T. Carrington (1777–1830), schoolmaster and poet.^[27]
• Charles Mathews, theatre manager and comic actor, lived here for several months before his death in 1835.
• Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha (1893–1957) was born in Devonport. In the 1945 general election he stood for the seat as a National Independent candidate, but was defeated by Michael Foot
  . In 1954 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hore-Belisha, of Devonport in the County of Devon.
• Ralph Alger Bagnold
  (1896–1990) was born here. He was a pioneer of desert exploration, and was the founder and first commander of the British Army's Long Range Desert Group. He also made significant contributions to the scientific understanding of desert structures.
• Guy Burgess (1911–1963), one of the Cambridge Five spy ring that betrayed Western secrets to the Soviets before and during the Cold War, was born here.

Charles Darwin spent two months in Devonport from October 1831 waiting for the weather to improve so that HMS Beagle could begin its journey to South America. The ship finally left on 27 December and Darwin later wrote that those two months were "The most miserable which I ever spent".^[28]

References

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Devonport.

• "Devonport" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. VII (9th ed.). 1878. pp. 138–139.
• Gill, Crispin (1993). Plymouth. A New History. Devon Books.
  ISBN 0-86114-882-7
  .