Plymouthhistory
Plymouthhistory Summer 2014 Issue No.1 A journal for the study and celebration of Plymouth and its history
- Page 2 and 3: Plymouthhistory There must be a beg
- Page 4 and 5: Plymouth History Centre News After
- Page 6 and 7: By 1700, the townspeople must have
- Page 8 and 9: A New Theatre Royal In 1810, John F
- Page 10 and 11: The Palace had been opened just 7 m
- Page 12 and 13: Haunted Plymouth “Spellbinding”
- Page 14 and 15: Demand for housing grew and workers
- Page 16 and 17: Unfortunately, much of this land wo
- Page 18 and 19: This easy access to alcohol led to
- Page 20 and 21: Children were often the victims of
- Page 22 and 23: Dept. of Jannerology EXAMination We
- Page 24 and 25: The Strange Death Of Henry Hall Hen
- Page 26 and 27: To the Right Hon. George Earl of Ma
- Page 29 and 30: Recommended, Uniquely Plymouth! Jan
- Page 31 and 32: Not all those who left Plymouth on
- Page 33 and 34: Plymouth's offensive capabilities m
- Page 35 and 36: HIDDEN HERITAGE The new Heritage Ce
- Page 37 and 38: The Argyle handbook of this year de
- Page 39 and 40: Notorious By Laura Quigley © Willi
- Page 41 and 42: Plymouth in pictures Here is a sele
- Page 43 and 44: This month there was some great new
- Page 45: Please consider joining Plymouth Hi
<strong>Plymouthhistory</strong><br />
Summer 2014 Issue No.1<br />
A journal for the study and celebration of Plymouth and its<br />
history
<strong>Plymouthhistory</strong><br />
There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing<br />
unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory – Sir<br />
Francis Drake, Portugal 1587<br />
Contents:<br />
EDITORIAL:<br />
THE NEW PLYMOUTH HISTORY CENTRE<br />
EXITS & ENTRANCES– Stories from Plymouth’s<br />
Theatre History by Laura Quigley<br />
EDITOR:<br />
Andrew Jago<br />
COLUMNISTS:<br />
Laura Quigley,<br />
Marc Partridge,<br />
Stephen Luscombe.<br />
BOOKS FROM OUR LOCAL AUTHORS<br />
PLYMOUTH, DEVONPORT AND STONEHOUSE:<br />
FROM THE PEACE OF 1815 TO THE 1860'S by Marc<br />
Partridge<br />
DEPARTMENT OF JANNEROLOGY Plymouth<br />
knowledge exam. A signed copy of Laura Quigley's<br />
brilliant “Bloody British History: Plymouth” to be won!<br />
THE A7 PROJECT<br />
THE STRANGE DEATH OF HENRY HALL<br />
EMPIRE IN YOUR BACKYARD (PT I ) by Stephen<br />
Luscombe<br />
LIVES OF THE GREAT WAR: BILLY BAKER<br />
NOTORIOUS by Laura Quigley<br />
MUTINY: THE STORY OF HMS JACKAL<br />
CONTACTS<br />
If you have a letters, articles, family<br />
histories, reviews, or any other<br />
comments to make, please contact the<br />
Editor at the following:<br />
editor@plymouthhistory.co.uk<br />
For subscription information, please<br />
contact the following:<br />
subscriptions@plymouthhistory.co.uk<br />
NEWS FROM ARGYLE FANS TRUST<br />
VOTE FOR THE GREATEST JANNER EVER!<br />
The views, conclusions and opinions expressed in signed articles, letters and other items published in “Plymouth History Magazine” are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect<br />
those of the views, conclusions and opinions of “Plymouth History Magazine. The views, conclusions and opinions expressed in unsigned articles, news reports, reviews and other items<br />
published in “Plymouth History Magazine” are the responsibility of Plymouth History Magazine and its editorial team.<br />
We occasionally use material we believe has been placed in the public domain. It is not always possible to identify and contact the copyright holder; if you claim ownership of something we<br />
have published we will be pleased to make a proper acknowledgement.<br />
The contents of Plymouth History Magazine including the compilation of all materials and the unsigned articles,essays, news reports, reviews and other items are copyright ©2013 Plymouth<br />
History Magazine. The authors of signed articles, news reports, letters, reviews and other items retain the copyright of their respective contributions. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this<br />
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise circulated in any form, by any means including, digital, electronic, printed, mechanical, photocopying,<br />
recording or any other, without the prior permission of Plymouth History Magazine. The unauthorised reproduction or circulation of this publication or any part thereof, whether for monetary<br />
gain or not, is strictly prohibited and may constitute copyright infringement as defined in domestic law and international agreements and give rise to civil liability and criminal prosecution.
3<br />
<strong>Plymouthhistory</strong><br />
Welcome to the first edition of the Plymouth History e-Magazine!<br />
First of all, many apologies for the long delay. Lots of minor, but troubling and time consuming<br />
technical difficulties that, hopefully, we have seen the back of. Many thanks for your patience, and<br />
for subscribing and downloading the magazine; we hope that it's worth it!<br />
We think we have assembled a formidable team of contributors for this first edition, whose<br />
knowledge is second to none and whose willingness to share that knowledge is gratefully<br />
acknowledged here.<br />
Laura Quigley is an award-winning Plymouth-based writer who writes all kinds of fiction, nonfiction,<br />
theatre and articles. This month's competition prize (see page 22) "Bloody British History<br />
Plymouth" was a best-seller, and "South West Secret Agents", telling true stories of espionage in<br />
World War 2 is due for release with the History Press in September 2014.Her next publication<br />
though is pure fiction, out in July 2014 and it's the start of a time-travelling fiction series for all<br />
ages, called “Spirit and the Magic Horsebox” (see page 41).<br />
Marc Partridge may not be a familiar name to you (yet!) but most of you would have seen or liked<br />
Marc's fantastic “Plymouth History Appreciation Society” Facebook page. Photograph rich and full<br />
of historical detail, both ancient and modern. As can be seen in this issue, Marc has a superb<br />
knowledge of crime and policing in Victorian Plymouth which we are sure you will be seeing more<br />
of in the future.<br />
Last, but far from least is Stephen Luscombe. His magnificent website at www.<br />
britishempire.co.uk is a work of epic proportions with many illustrations. With grateful thanks to<br />
Stephen, the Plymouth section of his site will be serialised in this magazine.<br />
We believe that there is a real boost in interest in the history of our great city – the individuals<br />
named above and groups and organisations such as Hidden Heritage, the SHIPS Project and The<br />
War In Plymouth Project amongst others, are testimony to that. Their willingness to engage and<br />
freely share knowledge on the various social media platforms is a much needed and welcome<br />
breath of fresh air. Perhaps, even more importantly, the sharing of that knowledge on social<br />
media is leading to huge interest from younger generations. Long may it continue!<br />
RESURGAM!<br />
Andrew Jago, Editor
Plymouth History Centre News<br />
After 15 years of uncertainty, as well as the threat that Plymouth's archives and records collection could be<br />
taken away from the city, we are absolutely delighted that there has been progress on the long awaited<br />
Plymouth History Centre.<br />
The hope is that building work to transform the current site of the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, due to<br />
start in January 2016, will be completed by July 2018.<br />
The new History Centre will house the archives and records of Plymouth & West Devon Record Office<br />
(PWDRO), the Museum and Art Gallery, the reference library and the South West Film & Television Archive<br />
(SWFTA) currently based at the Melville Building of the Royal William Yard. It is thought the project will cost in<br />
the region of £21million. Plymouth City Council have committed £5million and there is an ongoing bid to the<br />
Heritage Lottery Fund for an investment of £12million. The remainder will be sourced from smaller bids.<br />
Only 5% of the city's magnificent collections are on currently on display at<br />
the existing site (left) and the new History Centre will provide enough space<br />
for much bigger and better exhibitions and much improved facilities for an<br />
expected doubling visitors and researchers. In addition to the<br />
refurbishment of the Grade II listed library and museum buildings and the<br />
St Lukes Church building in Tavistock Place, the development will see an<br />
extension built at the reverse of the current library building.<br />
An aerial view of the projected development (right) shows the<br />
extent of the plans. Plymouth City Council and PWDRO are<br />
calling on the public for their input and ideas which you can<br />
give through their website or by emailing the team at<br />
pwdro@plymouth.gov.uk. They are also asking for stories and<br />
photographs to use on the website. For more information, visit<br />
http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/loveourpast where you can also<br />
follow all the developments and bid processes as they happen.<br />
Those on Twitter can keep up to date by following<br />
@LoveOurPast or by visiting and liking the Love Our Past<br />
Facebook page.<br />
In many ways it is understandable that there is some<br />
scepticism, but we believe that this is an opportunity for<br />
all of us to get involved and help show what Plymouth<br />
has to offer, to celebrate it's often neglected but<br />
nevertheless, fantastic history. The artistic impression of<br />
how the History Centre may look (left) looks superb.<br />
LOVE OUR PAST!<br />
Images and artwork courtesy of Love Our Past and<br />
Plymouth City Council.
About the author<br />
Having earned a First Class Honours Degree in<br />
Drama and an MA in Film and Television, Laura<br />
Quigley spent years in educational management<br />
and publishing before receiving awards for her<br />
writing for theatre and publishing her own local<br />
histories: The Devil Comes to Dartmoor and Bloody<br />
British History Plymouth. She regularly gives talks<br />
to Buckland Abbey and Hidden Heritage and she’s<br />
currently working on South West Secret Agents,<br />
true stories of WW2 espionage in the West Country,<br />
out in 2014.<br />
Exits & Entrances: Stories from<br />
Plymouth's Theatre History by Laura Quigley ©<br />
Early Days<br />
In the 1400s, travelling players in Plymouth were considered vagabonds and thieves and often<br />
whipped out of town. Early Plymouth had little time for their theatricals which were frequently<br />
bawdy or satirical, playing to the base pleasures of the crowd, and like many authorities, the<br />
Mayor of Plymouth was eager to see such unholy offerings removed.<br />
However the Tudor monarchs brought with them a love for entertainment and in 1515, strolling<br />
players called The King’s Joculars appeared at the Town Gates and started a tradition. In 1539, a<br />
juggler and six players were paid for entertaining the Mayor and his brethren at the Mayor’s house.<br />
During the Elizabethan age visitors from London could expect some theatrical offerings, though it<br />
would be a long while before Plymouth had its own theatre and even longer before theatre was<br />
seen as respectable entertainment. There was a small arena under the Hoe for bull baiting, a<br />
popular Elizabethan pastime that I for one am glad did not continue. I’m reliably informed that the<br />
adrenalin from baiting the bull makes the beef very tender but for me this is a cruel substitute for<br />
‘dinner and a show’.<br />
By 1604, puritan feeling was growing in the town, and strolling players were again evicted, on one<br />
occasion paid NOT to play for the townspeople. Perhaps they just weren’t very good. On May Day<br />
the same year, Morris Dancers and musicians still performed upon the Hoe, yet in 1628 again<br />
another poor street performer was paid off “to be gone”.<br />
17 th century Morris Dancers<br />
The English Civil War would see all forms of<br />
entertainment banned by the puritan authorities,<br />
including swearing, drinking, gambling, make-up,<br />
ostentatious costume and any form of theatrics. Even<br />
after the war, when the town’s authorities had been<br />
pardoned by King Charles II, there seems to be little<br />
support for theatre The only spectacles were hangings,<br />
duckings, throwing rubbish at some poor soul in the<br />
stocks and the annual drunken re-inactments of Freedom<br />
Day, commemorating when Plymouth fought off an attack<br />
by the French in 1403.
By 1700, the townspeople must have been desperate for some ‘light entertainment’ but in 1728,<br />
an economic depression hit Plymouth, with shops emptying at an alarming rate. The town couldn’t<br />
afford to maintain paupers, let alone any travelling actors. The authorities were determined to<br />
discourage all tendencies to vice and immorality and any ‘actors of interludes’ were sentenced to<br />
prison with hard labour at ‘the pleasure of the Corporation’.<br />
The First Theatre<br />
Wars against the French brought prosperity back to Plymouth and the first theatre was built in two<br />
rooms in Hoegate Street (then Broad Hoe Lane) at the back of the Plymouth Gin distillery. A ‘lurid<br />
allegorical scene’ was performed at exactly 6.30pm every night (except Sundays I presume) and it<br />
was just the sort of disreputable heatre the authorities had feared. Of course, every show was a<br />
sell-out.<br />
This first theatre had no licence. All stage plays were banned by local statute, so the manager<br />
advertised the performances as concerts. But the people knew exactly what they were getting.<br />
In 1749, the Brandy Company performed The Beaux’ Strategem, a lewd comedy about two<br />
handsome but impoverished young men who seduce heiresses and steal their money. The Brandy<br />
Company were so called because the majority of the members drank themselves to death.<br />
Theatre had finally arrived in Plymouth!<br />
The Beaux Stratagem, performed<br />
in Plymouth in 1749<br />
Frankfort Gate<br />
By 1758, the theatre had outgrown its premises on Hoegate Street<br />
and they moved into three partly finished houses opposite<br />
Frankfort Gate. Fortunately they opened in good weather in June<br />
as the houses still had no roof. Within three weeks, the company<br />
had taken £1800 in ticket sales – an extraordinary sum for the time<br />
– and soon the new coach service from London was bringing in<br />
some renowned performers.<br />
The theatre changed hands, the new owner Miss Capdeville<br />
enchanting the crowds with her dances, often performed in men’s<br />
clothes - very risqué in the 18 th century. One popular play was The<br />
Revels of the Royal Volunteers of Plymouth, a satire on the<br />
manners of those ladies who accompanied the soldiers to their<br />
tents, with music offered by the Regimental band. Base pleasures<br />
indeed. ‘Grace’ and ‘Virtue’ took to the stage, but they were the<br />
names of characters, not the characteristics of the play.<br />
Mr Bernard and Mr Barrett became joint owners of this Plymouth Theatre and Mr Bernard was<br />
renowned for introducing a fresh ‘wife’ into polite local society at the start of every season.<br />
Of the actresses, Mrs Bradshaw was the most popular, but she met a tragic end. She’d adopted<br />
a daughter and scandalous rumours spread that the girl was in fact her illegitimate child. While<br />
performing in Plymouth, she discovered the gossip and broke down during a dance. The<br />
audience hissed her and Mrs Bradshaw was seized with fits on stage then carried home to die<br />
insane.<br />
The actress Mrs Sumbell, was not so affected by propriety. When George III visited Plymouth in<br />
1789, she sat astride a gun on the deck of her boat belting out “God Save the King” to the<br />
cheers of spectators.
Two Theatres<br />
A theatre was opened in Dock, later known as Devonport,<br />
on the site of what was then Cumberland Gardens. In<br />
1793, Messieurs Bernard and Barrett argued and Barrett<br />
opened yet a third theatre, an improved wooden structure<br />
on George Street, which he called “The New Theatre” but<br />
this was soon abandoned. Mr Bernard’s company then<br />
performed alternate nights at the Plymouth and Dock<br />
Theatres.<br />
In 1801, both the Plymouth Theatre and the Dock Theatre<br />
were taken over by Mr S. Foote (formerly known as<br />
Freeman). He re-named the Plymouth establishment the<br />
Theatre Royal, though no-one knew on whose authority,<br />
but he declared “it’s a good travelling name and avoids<br />
troublesome enquiries”. To his credit, King George III had<br />
visited in 1789, and Mr Foote actually bothered to apply<br />
for a licence and performed in all the shows himself. His<br />
pretty daughter also became a popular actress, playing<br />
Juliet at just twelve years old. (For a time, the Dock<br />
Theatre was also called the Theatre Royal which must<br />
have caused some confusion!)<br />
George III visited the Plymouth Theatre in<br />
1789<br />
Meanwhile the Dock Theatre became notorious for drunken behaviour, with the sailors passing<br />
bottles of rum to the women who sat segregated in the audience. In the pit, tradesmen were<br />
assailed with insults and pelted with orange peel. Riots regularly broke out in the aisles. In 1808, a<br />
lady was ‘insulted’ as the lights went down and officers fought in the upper boxes. Police were<br />
called, and the naval officers used their whips and bludgeons against the police. The ringleader<br />
was publicly stripped of his uniform and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement. Local<br />
magistrates asserted their right to free tickets so they could attend to preserve the peace, but they<br />
failed to prevent the debauchery.<br />
One performance of Othello at Dock was so good that when Desdemona was being strangled by<br />
Othello, one man in the audience raced to her rescue, tearing Desdemona from Othello’s grasp.<br />
The poor actor playing Othello bolted home terrified, still in black-face, his dagger in hand.<br />
Smith and Winson took over Plymouth’s Theatre Royal and tried to attract a better clientele, but<br />
local patrons preferred buffoonery to high drama. The next manager Mr Sandford increased the<br />
prices by a shilling to pay for improvements, but the actors and the audience rebelled, defiantly<br />
blowing trumpets and singing lewd songs throughout the show. A crowd of sailors took over the<br />
stage and in the mayhem the manager reduced the prices.<br />
Theatre Royal patrons particularly enjoyed the performances of Mr. Hayne, a local actor of<br />
tragedies, because he would interrupt his speeches with attacks on the misbehaving audience. As<br />
Othello, played by Hayne, addresses the Senate in the play, Hayne would repeatedly turn to<br />
members of the audience and shout abuse: “I'll have everyone of you in custody before you are<br />
aware of it.” And “That young woman with blue ribbons is as bad as any of you” and “What, are<br />
you at it again?”. Before the speech was over, he’d be calling for the constable, much to the<br />
amusement of the crowd. Some ladies in the audience got their own back when Hayne was<br />
playing Richard the Third, sewing beneath his robes a long and curly demonic tail which protruded<br />
as he sauntered across the stage. As he began his opening speech “Now is the winter...”, it stood<br />
erect like a giant phallus. The audience were apoplectic with laughter.
A New Theatre Royal<br />
In 1810, John Foulston won a competition to design a new theatre, hotel and assembly rooms on<br />
George Street. His neo-classical design, with a portico of 30 foot columns, opened in 1813. Its<br />
foundation stone contained a vase of Plymouth porcelain and gold and silver coins for luck. With<br />
thick walls, Foulston believed he had built the only fireproof theatre in the country, but<br />
unfortunately it did catch fire in 1878, and had to be refurbished.<br />
While Foulston’s Theatre Royal was being built, John Kelland defied the local laws by opening a<br />
theatre in his tavern the Fox and Goose near Frankfort Place. The magistrate declared this an<br />
incentive to vice. Kelland was reprimanded and the young actors put in the dock and required to<br />
improve their behaviour. So much for community theatre.<br />
The old Plymouth Theatre at Frankfort Gate did continue for a time and in 1825 presented a short<br />
season of “A Grand Serious Pantomime in four Acts” called “Haradin, the Chief of Turks”, but this<br />
establishment does not appear to have lasted much longer.<br />
The new Theatre Royal opened with Shakespeare’s As You Like It and a version of The Taming of<br />
the Shrew, but the local audience were more interested in singing "Paudeen O'Rafferty," a<br />
disreputable song at the time that was forbidden. Fights broke out and the Mayor had to suppress<br />
the disorder by sending in the constables.<br />
Nineteenth century audiences demanded<br />
spectacle and the Theatre Royal delivered<br />
dramatic aerial effects, flames and herds of live<br />
horses. In 1815, the famous circus performer<br />
Andrew Ducrow ascended the gallery standing<br />
on his head on top of a balloon, with two boys<br />
suspended from the basket.<br />
Foulston's Royal Hotel, Theatre & Assembly Rooms, Plymouth.<br />
In spite of all this, the theatre did not make<br />
money, and the manager Mr Brunton<br />
complained that there was a high ‘moral<br />
principle’ in certain classes that was<br />
undermining theatre in Plymouth. As he<br />
relinquished the lease, Mr Brunton argued<br />
against his critics that drama must show all<br />
aspects of society, the vice as well as the<br />
virtue.<br />
Mr Davenport took over the Theatre Royal’s lease in 1837, announcing he had the fortune to<br />
maintain it, but it was quickly discovered he was interested only in getting himself onto the stage.<br />
His performance of Virginius in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was so dire that the audience boo’d<br />
him. He ignored them and went on to attempt Othello – well, that small portion of the text he could<br />
remember. Defying all his critics, Mr Davenport insisted on being in every play.<br />
Mr Hay, the next manager, was censured by the Corporation as his plays were considered<br />
immoral. Eventually Mr Hay fell behind in the rent and was forced to leave, declaring it was<br />
impossible to make the Theatre Royal pay:<br />
“It is too large for the town; very frequently it is a mere wilderness; it presents a most<br />
melancholy and comfortless sight; and it is impossible for the actor to dispel the prevailing<br />
sadness."<br />
While Mr Hay was all melancholy, the Dock Theatre was succeeding with comedy in the form of a<br />
performer called James Doel who only had to walk on stage and say “What are you laughing at?”<br />
to have the audience in stitches. In 1824, it became the Devonport Theatre which eventually<br />
closed in 1899 to be reopened on Fore Street the same year. Also private theatricals thrived in<br />
local mansions including Saltram House, making the Theatre Royal difficult to fill.
Mr J. R. Newcombe from Bath made a bid for the management of the ailing Theatre Royal but<br />
season after season passed without profit, the dress circle usually empty and the outbreak of<br />
cholera in Plymouth did his business no favours. Mr Newcombe never lost heart and the<br />
audiences that turned up saw some of the best performers in the country, local stories being<br />
warmly received, most noteworthy being The Five Fields Tragedy, or the Assassin's Bridge : A<br />
Tale of Stoke, in 1787. He even staged the famous Drake and the bowling green scene in a play<br />
about the Spanish Armada.<br />
His tenure would be marked by tragedy. During a local amateur performance, the auditorium was<br />
filled to overflowing when the performers entered the stage. Mrs Kirby as a Country Belle came<br />
downstage towards the footlights wearing a light muslin dress and was instantly enveloped in<br />
flames. For a moment, everyone was paralysed with horror then several men rushed to her rescue<br />
with coats and rugs. The hysterical spectators dispersed to the news that the poor Mrs Kirby was<br />
horribly injured. She did not survive.<br />
During the pantomime season of 1863, shortly after the house had emptied, Mr Newcombe<br />
noticed a suspicious smell and scoured the theatre. He saw nothing to alarm him and went to bed,<br />
where still worried he rose within the hour and returned to find the Theatre Royal in flames. The<br />
props room was ablaze and the firefighters made a hole in the roof so the water could reach the<br />
fire, but this seemed only to spread it further. The firemen were forced to retreat and the rafters<br />
shook and came crashing down. The country was illuminated by the flames for miles. Thousands<br />
were evacuated from their homes as the Citadel’s guns fired in warning. The conflagration<br />
enveloped the western part of the building and engineers saved the rest by hacking at the roof<br />
with hatchets. The ballroom floor collapsed into the tearoom below with such force that the floor<br />
sank several inches.<br />
In June 1878, fire struck again. The play had just finished when the acting manager, another Mr<br />
Newcombe, saw smoke issuing from the upper windows. In a couple of hours, the theatre was<br />
gutted again and nothing remained but bare walls. It finally reopened in January 1879.<br />
The Palace of Varieties<br />
In 1898, an elegant Theatre of Varieties was built on Union Street<br />
replacing a noisy marketplace that was called “The Fancy Fair”. Designed<br />
by Mr W.H. Arber of London, with tiled panel reproductions of Sir Oswald<br />
Brierly’s famous Armada paintings, the new theatre was named “The<br />
Palace”. A handsome Sicilian marble staircase led to the balcony and<br />
foyers and the stalls were reached through an avenue of mirrors. In the<br />
proscenium over the stage, a huge Union Jack was displayed along with a<br />
fresco of the knighting of Drake, and the dome and balcony were filled<br />
with paintings of naval and military triumphs. Along with the building of the<br />
Western Hotel next door, the total cost was £185,000.<br />
Over the years, the Palace would attract the great names of variety including Charlie Chaplin,<br />
Gracie Fields, Lilly Langtry, Anna Pavlova, Harry Houdini, George Formby, Louis Armstrong, Old<br />
Mother Riley and Tommy Handley of ‘It’s That Man Again’. Laurel and Hardy were to perform there<br />
in 1954, but Stan Laurel had a minor heart attack following a bout of flu and they sadly had to pull<br />
out. Their faces however still decorate the interior. Shows continued throughout the Plymouth Blitz,<br />
despite the theatre being hit with incendiary bombs.<br />
Variety performers had previously used St. James's Hall in Union Street which had been<br />
built in 1866 by Mr Henry Reed, musical director at the Theatre Royal and Mr J R<br />
Newcombe’s son-in-law. In 1872 the famous Barnum circus star General Tom Thumb<br />
appeared there. In 1898 the Hall was closed to prevent competition with the new theatre<br />
and performers were transferred to The Palace.<br />
Having lost the lease to his father-in-law’s Theatre Royal, Henry Reed then constructed<br />
the Grand Theatre in Union Street but it could not compete with the existing theatres and<br />
the owner of The Palace easily induced Mr Reed to sell The Grand Theatre for £17,000.<br />
The Grand became a very popular film theatre until it was destroyed in the Plymouth Blitz<br />
Tom Thumb<br />
of March 1941.
The Palace had been opened just 7 months when fire broke out. There are<br />
several versions of the story, but contemporary writer Henry Whitfield<br />
describes a sketch involving a cannon and scraps of burning paper flying into<br />
the wings. The audience was hurriedly evacuated but the fire curtain was not<br />
lowered and the interior was engulfed in flames, destroying all the fabulous<br />
artwork.<br />
The Metropole<br />
The Devonport Theatre closed in 1899, but the builder of the Grand Theatre had also built the<br />
Empire Theatre in Devonport in 1893. This was redesigned and renamed the New Metropole<br />
Theatre in 1896 when Mr F R Benson's Shakespearean and Old English Comedy Company were<br />
expected to stage a different classic play every night. It was frantic, with amusing consequences<br />
for the audience.<br />
During their performance of MacBeth, an ageing actor ascending as an evil spirit suddenly crashed<br />
to the stage and sat there disconcerted by the audience’s laughter. The following night this same<br />
actor played Hecate which involved another lift from the stage and he demanded something more<br />
secure. A roped platform was duly substituted but the actor allowed his foot to dangle off the edge.<br />
Then he was too quickly lifted into the air. Instead of Hecate’s sage advice as he departed this<br />
world, there was a crash and Hecate screaming “Oh my toe, my toe!”.<br />
The following night, a poor lad playing a Captain had to wait until the Third Act for his cue to say<br />
“Here comes the King!”. He kept nervously asking his fellow thespians ‘when’s it my turn to go on?’<br />
He finally got his chance and walked onto the stage to stand there speechless. He’d forgotten his<br />
line. He hurried off embarrassed then returned to giggles from the audience, to announce “Here<br />
comes the King!”. No King. The trumpet played a fanfare. Still no King. Frantic whispers offstage.<br />
“Where’s the bloody King?”. The Captain said his line again. The trumpet played the fanfare, and<br />
five mortifying minutes later, a backstage battle ensued and the King was unceremoniously shoved<br />
onto the stage, his costume just held up in front of him. The King had found out at the very last<br />
minute that his robes didn’t fit.<br />
The New Metropole soon became a movie theatre, the New Alhambra, and was then sadly<br />
destroyed in the Plymouth Blitz of April 1941. The Palace stands empty and looking unloved,<br />
though there is talk of renovations, but there is still plenty of theatre in Plymouth. The Plymouth<br />
Theatre Company is still going strong after 114 years<br />
http://www.plymouththeatrecompany.com/whatson.html<br />
In 1962, the new Theatre Royal opened on the Royal Parade with Leonard Rossiter giving the<br />
opening address and Gene Pitney heading the bill. It has just been refurbished and happily, even<br />
in these difficult times, now seems to go from strength to strength.<br />
References:<br />
http://www.plymouthdata.info/Theatres.htm<br />
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Royal,_Plymouth<br />
Plymouth Municipal Records (Plymouth and West Devon Record Office)<br />
Whitfield, Henry Francis (1900) Plymouth and Devonport in Times of War and Peace, E. Chapple.<br />
Also see:<br />
My article on the Plymouth Palace on the website for Our Place Our Base: http://news-opob.com/plymouth-palace/<br />
Programmes and playbills from many of the shows are available online, beautifully displayed by Plymouth’s Library Services here:<br />
http://www.flickr.com/photos/plymouththeatrehistory/sets/72157603477561856/with/964625279/
Plymouth History e-Magazine recommends...<br />
Share the joy of knowledge by buying one of these fantastic titles from your local<br />
Plymouth authors!<br />
From Laura Quigley - available at all good<br />
retailers in paperback and e-book formats.<br />
Bloody British History:Plymouth<br />
“Brilliant!”<br />
“All killer – no filler”<br />
The Devil Comes to Dartmoor<br />
“Another great book by Laura Quigley”<br />
“I love it”<br />
(Amazon reviews)<br />
www.thehistorypress.co.uk<br />
Bloody British History:Plymouth<br />
Plymouth has one of the darkest and most dreadful histories on record. Beginning with the discovery of the bones of<br />
cave men nearby and rushing through French attacks, Breton raiders, outbreaks of leprosy and the plague, Civil War<br />
sieges and the Spanish Armada, dreadful murders, savage deeds and all the way through to the dire consequences of<br />
the Nazi attacks during the Blitz, this book is a gripping, terrifying, disgusting and glorious insight into the life and times<br />
of Plymouth throughout the ages. WARNING: Contains dreadful battles! Horrible accidents! Wicked pirates! Murderers,<br />
smugglers and malefactors galore! Heartless slavers, Victorian sinners, and historical legends such as Pocahontas<br />
and Sir Francis Drake! Do not read alone at night!<br />
The Devil Comes to Dartmoor<br />
Many will have heard of the ghostly white lady haunting Tavistock - the notorious Mary Howard, accused of murdering<br />
her four husbands. A few may know the true story of her lover, George Cutteford, the puritan lawyer who died illegally<br />
imprisoned in the horror of Lydford Gaol, persecuted by Mary's fourth husband - Sir Richard Grenville, the most<br />
notorious and sadistic royalist general in the Civil War. But fewer still will know the secrets George Cutteford died to<br />
protect - secrets that would destroy his own family; end Grenville's career in shame; and make a boy with no name the<br />
richest landowner in Devon. Gathered from the varying historical accounts, and with new primary matieral unearthed in<br />
an old fish market in London, comes this haunting true story of love, treachery and revenge in seventeenth-century<br />
Devon.<br />
'Being Silent They Speak' by David J.B.Smith<br />
“ A stunning debut from an amateur researcher”<br />
(Family Tree Magazine review)<br />
“This is a well-written, well-researched book...”<br />
A very good read!!!”<br />
(Amazon reviews)<br />
Available in paperback and e-book editions from all<br />
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For more information, visit:<br />
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Being Silent They Speak<br />
His Majesty’s Submarine Unbeaten was last heard from via a signal sent to Flag Officer Submarines on 1 November<br />
1942. The signal simply stated: ‘Operation Bluestone completed’. After this date the 58-metre British U-Class<br />
submarine inexplicably disappeared. Unbeaten was fully operational for just over two years. During her short tenure<br />
she successfully returned to war-torn Malta many times, symbolically flying her Jolly Roger. Being Silent They Speak<br />
endeavours to highlight the varied triumphs, tragedies, events and sacrifices of submarine life during World War II.<br />
This meticulously researched true story follows Unbeaten through her build at Vickers of Barrow, her war deployment<br />
to Malta and back, and then on to the submarine’s final departure from Holy Loch. The crew of Unbeaten were the<br />
last to see the legendary British submarine HMS/M Upholder before her Commanding Officer Lt. David Wanklyn VC<br />
and his indomitable crew also disappeared forever. Several submarines have had books written about them.<br />
Unbeaten’s activities were no less daring than those of Upholder or any other submarine taking part in World War II.<br />
Exactly 70 years on, this compelling and revealing book encompasses all of Unbeaten’s war patrols and expands on<br />
her final clandestine tasking in November 1942. The account of this secret operation, concludes with an extreme<br />
twist of fate, which could leave the final chapter open forever and the last crew of Unbeaten still on patrol.
Haunted Plymouth<br />
“Spellbinding”<br />
“Very good read”<br />
(Amazon reviews)<br />
Available from all good retailers<br />
Coming Out now soon “Haunted - Dartmoor”<br />
For more info, visit:<br />
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From heart-stopping accounts of apparitions, manifestations and supernatural phenomena, to first-hand encounters<br />
with phantoms and spirits, this collection of spooky sightings from around the city of Plymouth is guaranteed to make<br />
your blood run cold. Richly illustrated with over 100 pictures, "Haunted Plymouth" contains a chilling range of tales.<br />
From the ghost of Sir Francis Drake on Plymouth Hoe, poltergeist activity in one of the city's Elizabethan inns and the<br />
shade of a lady in white at Widey Court, to French prisoners of war at Devonport Dockyard and a phantom pair legs at<br />
a Mutley house, this gathering of ghostly goings-on is bound to captivate everyone interested in the paranormal history<br />
of Plymouth and will chill all but the sturdiest of hearts.<br />
A Secret Step<br />
“Accurate and insightful”<br />
“A bit of a Ripper”<br />
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Available at all good retailers. For more info, please visit:<br />
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‘A Secret Step’ is a gripping and compelling story combining Jack the Ripper and the Blitz, the East End’s two most<br />
historical moments.<br />
When Jack The Ripper stalked Whitechapel, Percy Miller was ten years old. Destined to be a mobster, He lived up to<br />
expectations. Billy, his grandson was ten when the Luftwaffe bombed the same streets. He took the Blitz in his stride.<br />
Could war offer him a way into respectable society?<br />
In 1888 Percy Miller was ten years old, growing up in the slums of Whitechapel, in the East End of London. It was also<br />
the year that Jack the Ripper was wreaking havoc in the area.<br />
Percy got caught up in the shocking events and ended up traumatised by the murders in a time before ‘trauma’ had been<br />
invented. He lived but could never tell the tale. It was no surprise to anyone that he ended up settling into the life of a<br />
career criminal.<br />
It was another fifty years before the East End saw violence on a scale to eclipse the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 and<br />
once again Percy was right in the thick of it.<br />
The Blitz of London was truly a terrifying thing to live through. Percy, against all the odds, was now a grandfather of one.<br />
Billy Miller, Percy’s grandson was ten years old when the Blitz began in September 1940.<br />
To Billy the air raids were times of excitement and adventure. Without adult supervision Billy and his friends were free to<br />
roam as the bombs rained down. Their criminal instincts were not easy to shake off until Billy turned one daring rescue<br />
into a game..
Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse:<br />
From the Peace of 1815 to the 1860s<br />
The story of the early nineteenth-century Plymouth district is a tale of growth and expansion. It is<br />
also indicative of a nationally occurring theme of urban centres attracting poor and unemployed<br />
people, sparking a rise in all types of criminality and more importantly, a rise in the fear of crime.<br />
The cessation of the wars in Europe (French Revolutionary Wars 1792–1802 and the Napoleonic<br />
War 1803–1815) brought peacetime to Plymouth, Stonehouse and Plymouth Dock, as Devonport<br />
was then known as. How the towns dealt with the difficulties of peace and urbanisation, along with<br />
their failures to deal with these issues, gives each town an individual historiography. Each town<br />
shall now have their social conditions examined separately, and the chapter will culminate with an<br />
investigation into the primary common denominator between the places – crime.<br />
Although Plymouth was better equipped than its neighbours to deal with the mass invasion of<br />
unemployed sailors, soldiers and locals who depended on war for employment, the town still<br />
suffered. The first two decades of the century saw an expansion of Plymouth as new affluent<br />
suburbs were built to accommodate those who had profited from the wars, such as naval captains<br />
and army officers. Wealthier classes were moving to the new neighbourhoods in the west (Millbay)<br />
and north-west (New Town). This left the poorer inhabitants to crowd themselves into the large old<br />
buildings in the centre that the wealthy people vacated.<br />
By the late 1820s, Plymouth’s population had risen dramatically. An account from the<br />
Victorian historian Henry Whitfeld indicates that the increasing population resulted in mass<br />
unemployment, giving rise to gangs of desperate, bored young men and women ‘infesting’ the<br />
town.<br />
by<br />
Marc<br />
Partridge ©<br />
Girardet's famous picture of Napoleon aboard HMS Bellerophon in<br />
Plymouth Sound portrays the clamour of the people of the Three<br />
Towns to see him, and the carnival-like atmosphere as they<br />
celebrate the peace that his downfall would bring.
Demand for housing grew and workers’ housing was built to alleviate overcrowding in the older<br />
sections. But these houses could only be built in the spaces unoccupied by the estates of wealthy<br />
families in the district. The land required was found below both Stonehouse Lane and King Street<br />
in the west, the Cobourg Street area in the north, and on the hill above Regent Street in the east.<br />
The suburban villas of the previous decade were therefore swallowed up as large numbers of<br />
streets were built around them. The poor flocked to these new areas, only to find that conditions<br />
were only marginally better thanin the old town. For instance the newly built Claremont Street, just<br />
off the North Road, averaged only one privy to sixty-six people.<br />
Plymouth during the early nineteenth century was also not a safe<br />
place for visitors. Opportunistic thieves hid in the ancient slums during<br />
the day, but at night they ventured outside the confines of the town to<br />
rob those making their way along the approaches. One notorious<br />
gang, known as the Robinson Gang, robbed inns all over the district<br />
and even attempted to rob banks in both Plymouth and Devonport<br />
prior to their capture in 1829. An account of the social conditions at<br />
the time, describes the north-western part of Plymouth (what was<br />
known as the New Town district, around King Street and York Street)<br />
as a place overrun by ‘[b]ullies and thieves, vagrants and youthful<br />
depredators, united in the use of signs, marks and slang language.’<br />
But the crime was a consequence of the economic situation; the town<br />
simply did not have the resources to keep its natives in employment,<br />
let alone the migrants who were adding to the population.<br />
One particular set of migrants who lived in difficult conditions were the Irish. They arrived in<br />
Plymouth to work on the railway lines and docks during the 1840s. The 1851 census indicates<br />
that they were congregated, and effectively segregated, away from the English. The majority were<br />
crammed into the “Irish ghetto” north of Stonehouse Lane, around Quarry Lane and Quarry<br />
Court. These slums were the scene of many violent incidents. But social and sanitary conditions<br />
did improve. Under the 1848 Public Health Act, which Plymouth finally adopted in 1854, streets<br />
were widened, some older slums were demolished, and sewerage and proper paving were laid in<br />
streets that previously contained neither. Despite the quality of life becoming slightly more<br />
tolerable, certain crimes, particularly those associated with drinking and prostitution, were still rife<br />
in the town. This is due to three primary reasons. Firstly, new housing was not adequately built to<br />
accommodate those evicted by slum clearances, therefore overcrowding just moved locality.<br />
Secondly the surge of migrants from the countryside and Ireland in the 1840s and 50s reduced<br />
employment opportunities for both local men and women. Finally, military wives and widows were<br />
not looked after by their husbands’ employers (or in some cases their husbands) financially, so<br />
crime and prostitution were their only realistic choices to avoid the workhouse.
Women, as well as the unemployed and poor in general, were to find life equally as difficult in<br />
Devonport during the first half of the nineteenth-century.<br />
By the end of the eighteenth century, Devonport had grown beyond its walls. The young town<br />
was a flourishing and busy place, but the thriving business of the Georgian era would lessen as<br />
the nineteenth century progressed. The growth that enabled the town to become more populous<br />
than its older neighbour slowed, and Plymouth regained its status as the more populous borough.<br />
Overcrowding in the town’s older dilapidated buildings was rife. Yet it was not all shanties and<br />
ruins. Nettleton’s Guide from 1836 states that Fore Street was the ‘handsomest commercial street’<br />
in the whole district. The town contained many buildings of grand design and, as in Plymouth,<br />
many of them were designed by architect John Foulston. Devonport thrived on war and the<br />
resulting business such an endeavour entails, it did not thrive in peace time. As early as 1823 it<br />
was noted that ‘the town affords a melancholy proof of the assertion, that peace has come<br />
unattended by its usual blessings; instead of being all life and bustle as heretofore it is now quite<br />
the reverse.’ It is then not surprising that when cholera made its first attack on the district in 1832,<br />
Devonport and its cramped streets suffered desperately. A second visitation of cholera in 1849<br />
would kill a further 720 people in the town.<br />
Although North Corner was the oldest and<br />
most notorious district, the worst conditions<br />
was found toward the south-west, in the<br />
area known locally as the Cribs. Located<br />
between the market and the dockyard wall,<br />
the Cribs contained a number of notorious<br />
lanes known for their abject poverty,<br />
including Doidge’s Well and Braggs Alley. .<br />
The Cribs were essentially a network of lanes, tunnels<br />
and courts that once entered, as contemporary<br />
accounts claim, would have a visitor ‘despair of escape<br />
from these infernal regions.’ The poorer people of<br />
Devonport were quite literally stuck. Hemmed in by the<br />
sea to the south and Crown establishments in the west,<br />
only east toward the parish of Stoke Damerel, or north<br />
towards the Ford and Swilly estates, could provide the<br />
land any expansion of workers’ housing desperately<br />
needed.
Unfortunately, much of this land would not be purchased by the town’s corporation and developed<br />
until the last decades of the century (Ford was developed primarily in the 1880s and Swilly in the<br />
1920s). Therefore in 1861 the population of 50,440 were housed in approximately 5000 buildings<br />
contained within the older town itself and the northern suburb of Morice Town. Like Devonport,<br />
Stonehouse was also geographically contained.<br />
Stonehouse had been home to a small number of the elite and a large population of working<br />
poor for centuries. The nineteenth century was no different, only the numbers were increased. By<br />
1801, a grand set of houses, known as Durnford Street, had been built off Stonehouse’s ancient<br />
central four streets (Chapel, Newport, Edgcumbe and Fore Streets). Another new road off<br />
Durnford, called Emma Place, was also built with a striking town hall at the end of it. Both of these<br />
roads were constructed to house the higher echelons of the navy. But even the paving and lighting<br />
in the new streets were virtually non-existent, and conditions in the older streets were notoriously<br />
poor. Consequently, the peace of 1815 was as harsh to Stonehouse as many unemployed military<br />
personnel simply stayed in the township. The population of the poor increased and workers’<br />
housing was built. Stonehouse experienced Plymouth and Devonport’s dilemma of how to combat<br />
overcrowding. The town was both geographically and municipally hemmed in on all sides and it<br />
quickly began to fill up. By 1841 the population stood at 9,712, with the vast majority of the people,<br />
as well as many of the local Royal Marines and their families, crammed into the poorer housing<br />
that sprang up behind Durnford Street and eastward from High Street.<br />
The growth of Stonehouse between 1815 and 1850 can be attributed not only to migrants and<br />
a poorer economic climate forcing people to stay, but to the extension of Edgcumbe Street and the<br />
construction of the adjoining Union Road, which later became known as Union Street. This artery<br />
joined Plymouth and Devonport, making Stonehouse the central area, bringing many visitors and<br />
much needed commerce to the township. As Stonehouse grew eastwards, Plymouth’s streets<br />
came west to meet it and Devonport’s suburbs would later do the same from the north.<br />
By 1851, the urban area of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport’s combined population<br />
made it the fifth largest provincial district in England. This huge rise in population, can be traced to<br />
a local ambition to join the Three Towns with easier road access and one man’s vision. The<br />
architect John Foulston laid plans for the “New Road” to link Plymouth,Stonehouse and Devonport<br />
through an area only ventured through by the very brave, due to the boggy land of the route and<br />
highwaymen.
The prospect of a town extension being created over marshland was met with trepidation. The<br />
town fathers favoured the development of the current safest route to Devonport; through King<br />
Street, then along Stonehouse Lane and down High Street in Stonehouse itself, to the bridge<br />
leading to the south-eastern gate of Devonport. Foulston was adamant however that he could<br />
build across the marshland which was once known as the Sourpool, and he was soon proved<br />
correct as the road itself, though devoid of buildings, was opened in 1815. By 1820, the<br />
Stonehouse half of Union Street was complete and it was not long before the Plymouth end joined<br />
up to it. During the 1820s, Union Street was in its prime, home to some of the district’s elite. But it<br />
was not long before this new suburbia became part of the inner sanctum of the expanding urban<br />
district.<br />
In the 1830s, the first Millbay dock began construction. Then in 1840, Thomas Gill, who<br />
owned the West Hoe Estate, established a pier and works at the mouth of Millbay and deepened<br />
the seabed. This new dock attracted a great deal of interest from the unemployed labouring class<br />
of the Three Towns and the back-streets and lanes around Union Street began to develop into<br />
new neighbourhoods, physically joining Plymouth to Stonehouse. The problem though was that<br />
the basements of the large houses and the new streets tended to flood as some were built below<br />
sea-level. The flooding, along with the 1832 cholera outbreak, caused the wealthy inhabitants to<br />
leave the area, which was still commonly known as “The Marsh”. By the mid-1840s, Millbay and<br />
New Town were most certainly lower class neighbourhoods. The construction of the Great<br />
Western Railway Line out from the docks also brought more of the labouring class to the area. At<br />
this time, many Irish railway workers came and evidently settled with their families, although as<br />
previously stated they were mainly confined to certain areas.<br />
By the mid-nineteenth century, the entire conurbation was<br />
overcrowded and dirty. Streets merged with each other, giving no<br />
indication where one borough ended or began. Grand roads for the<br />
wealthy wishing to escape the overcrowded centre, and workers’<br />
housing, had almost doubled the geographical size of the urban area<br />
within forty years. But underneath the glamour of the Theatre Royal and<br />
wealthy mansions on the Hoe, and in the lanes behind the eminent<br />
centres of learning, there were problems; prostitution, theft, and drinkrelated<br />
violence occurred frequently.<br />
During the middle decades of the century, a person wanting a drink in Plymouth did not have<br />
to look very far. Even if he could not find a public house in the street where he stood, there<br />
would probably be a beerhouse. These establishments could be owned by anyone who paid a<br />
small fee to brew the beer, and were much easier to operate than a public house.
This easy access to alcohol led to the police cells being full on a regular bases. In the worst<br />
streets they became brothels, and magnets for criminals to reside in and “lay low”. This became<br />
apparent as the police were being called to assist with violent incidents involving drink,<br />
prostitution, and robberies, in the same streets over and over, such as Pembroke Street and<br />
Cornwall Street in Devonport, Fore Street and Edgcumbe Street in Stonehouse, and King Street,<br />
Castle Street, and the infamous Granby Street in Plymouth. But no street surpassed one for<br />
regularity of being the location of drunken debauchery, and that was Union Street. A letter printed<br />
in a local newspaper describing a typical scene in the Stonehouse half of Union Street from 1858<br />
exemplifies the problem of having an abundance of these beerhouses .<br />
in residential areas. It also calls the reader to question what effect the county authorities had on<br />
curbing drunkenness and what were they doing to protect the public from those who would abuse<br />
drink:<br />
To the Editor of the Plymouth Journal<br />
SIR, I beg, through the medium of your valuable paper, to call the attention of the<br />
magistrates and police authorities of Stonehouse to a problem of no mean order. In<br />
Union Street there exists three beerhouses, which may be described as bad, worse and<br />
worst (sic) as regards the nuisance they are to the whole neighbourhood. From the<br />
windows of these houses females of doubtful character, by gestures, endeavour to<br />
allure the passer-by. At eleven-o’clock, when the squeak of the fiddle ceases, we are in<br />
hope of peace, but the turn out of the bad people of both sexes often gives rise to<br />
disgusting scenes. They fight, they curse, and such horrid curses; the obscenity of their<br />
language is so revolting, as to show how much they must be brutalized by the<br />
abominable traffic of which they are at once slaves and victims. Such a state of things<br />
calls loudly for interference; as a rate and taxpayer, I consider I have a positive right to<br />
ask the magistrates and the parish authorities to protect me against violations of<br />
decency, and to keep the landlords of these houses within the limit (as to harbouring<br />
prostitutes and disorderly persons) which the law enacts
Prostitution was endemic in the district, as it was in all naval and dockyard towns. Prostitution<br />
has existed in Plymouth for centuries. The main prostitution district during the first half of the<br />
nineteenth century was above the Barbican and commercial docks, centred around Castle Street<br />
(appendix F, p. 104), also known as ‘Damnation Alley.’ But a relocation of the commercial docks in<br />
the late 1840s, and new licensing laws used in the 1870s, led to prostitution being spread to the<br />
west of the town and over a larger area. Prostitution was ignored, or accepted and in some social<br />
circles even expected by women who, for many reasons, could not gain employment. Yet after<br />
centuries of toleration, wealthy mid-Victorians and clergy decided that something ought to be done<br />
about this vice due to the criminal activities attached to the “profession”. The immorality of the<br />
nation was making headlines as religious authorities and philanthropists criticised the general lax<br />
attitude to vice by the authorities, namely the police and the Admiralty. Then the Admiralty and<br />
Home Office decided that to stem the flow of military personal taking time off due to sexually<br />
transmitted disease, some regulation was in order. The result of this state-intervention was the<br />
highly controversial Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869; which is explored later in<br />
this study.<br />
.<br />
Even without the troubles of prostitution-related crime and<br />
disorder, alcohol caused or played a part in a great number<br />
of offences from murder to public obscenity. For example, in<br />
1850, Plymothian William Ambrose was walking with his<br />
friend William Thomas after an evening of drinking in<br />
Stonehouse Lane. Ambrose decided to escort the worse-forwear<br />
Thomas back to his home in Morice Town and the<br />
quickest route to the Devonport suburb was up Stoke Hill.<br />
Unfortunately for the two men, this meant walking to the end<br />
of Stonehouse Lane, past the junction with Quarry Lane.<br />
Both were pursued and knocked down by Irishmen next to<br />
the junction and Ambrose later died of his head wound.<br />
The two Irishmen, who had drunkenly boasted of their part in the assault, were quickly arrested,<br />
convicted and sentenced to transportation for life<br />
.Later, in 1856, husband and wife, John and Mary Long, were arrested in Plymouth for being drunk<br />
and disorderly. The police officer at the trial alleged the couple had consumed over a gallon of ale.<br />
In 1858 William Parker was charged after a policeman, upon hearing a great commotion and<br />
expecting to find a brawl upon his arrival, had found Parker arguing with his own shadow in<br />
Whimple Street. Reading these stories in their morning paper may have amused the wealthier<br />
inhabitants of the town, but for the people who resided in the poorer districts, the evenings were a<br />
scary place to be outside. Unfortunately for the young, even their homes could not shield them<br />
from the effects of alcohol abuse
Children were often the victims of their parent’s alcoholism, sometimes from violence, but more<br />
often from neglect. Plymouth’s Superintendent Gibbons, whilst acting on information given to him,<br />
visited the dilapidated eighteenth-century home of a naval officer’s widow in 1851. He found the<br />
wretched-looking woman downstairs and two children, a fourteen year old girl and twelve year old<br />
boy, in another room. The children were reportedly covered in filth and vermin, and the girl was<br />
literally naked. What Gibbons found upstairs though disturbed him most of all. In a bedroom was<br />
the eldest daughter, aged twenty-two, holding her new-born baby, both of whom were in a state of<br />
malnourishment. No food was found in the house. Even though it was claimed by the widow she<br />
had a pension of ninety-four pounds a year, it was almost entirely spent on drink.<br />
But the epitome of Plymouth’s drinking problem can be exemplified with a study of a particular<br />
infamous local man and his decline.<br />
Robert “Bob” Cowley was a Plymouth-born fisherman and regularly found himself waking up<br />
in the police cells with no knowledge of the previous night. By the mid-1850s he was known<br />
throughout Plymouth as “Notorious Bob” due to his increasing visits to the courts and regular<br />
appearance in the stocks in Plymouth market. In 1856 he appeared before magistrates almost<br />
once a month and sometimes more. One magistrate even ordered that Cowley was to just be<br />
imprisoned in the cells when found intoxicated and released when sober so as to not “waste” the<br />
court’s time. In 1858 he was found drunk and brought before the magistrates. He declared he had<br />
not drank for sixteen months, and only just relapsed. The magistrate discharged him on the<br />
promise he would make another attempt to give up the drink. But less than a week later, he was<br />
back for his usual offence, but this time things were different. The court correspondent reported<br />
that the defendant looked very ill and that he shook involuntarily. It was also shown by the police<br />
that a landlady took all his money and valuables in return for drink, allowing him to stay in her<br />
public house for six weeks. The court magistrates took a dim view of the landlady and the charge<br />
was dismissed.
As he left the court, Bob declared that he had not ate more than a sixpence worth of food for five<br />
weeks. No reaction to his statement was recorded. Cowley spent the next few years being sent to<br />
the workhouse. Yet every time he was released he would be given drink and became a morbid<br />
source of amusement for the locals, until he died.<br />
Bob Cowley’s story was not unique, each of the three towns had characters whose reputation<br />
for alcohol-related court appearances resulted in notoriety, and the death of one merely witnessed<br />
the rise of yet another. In 1862 the Plymouth magistrates were already labelling another man as<br />
the ‘new Cowley’. But drink had more extreme consequences for some. Drunken arguments,<br />
fights and frolics would result in serious crimes being committed and sentences obviously<br />
increased in harshness as a consequence.<br />
Another type of crime also prevalent in the district was smuggling. The smuggling networks<br />
were embedded into the fabric of the entire region, not just the towns . This is because of its<br />
prevalence throughout the centuries. Even Plymouth’s greatest heroes, Drake, Hawkins and<br />
Raleigh, were perceived by many around the world merely as glorified pirates. Henry Whitfeld’s<br />
huge undertaking, Plymouth and Devonport in Times of War and Peace, is inundated with<br />
anecdotes and reports of smuggling. His very first sentence of the relevant chapter is a good<br />
indicator as to how endemic this crime really was, ‘[e]xtremely lax was public sentiment as to<br />
smuggling.’ Therefore if the police could enforce the anti-smuggling laws and influence a cultural<br />
shift in the social acceptance of the crime, only then could they truly claim to be an efficient force.<br />
But the local police would have help in combating this crime, from the original Dock police, the<br />
Dockyard Police, then the Metropolitan Police who searched the smugglers out, and to the<br />
customs officials who watched the stores and landing stages. The role of these particular law<br />
enforcement agencies will be discussed in later chapters.<br />
By 1850, overcrowding (people per house) in Plymouth was double the national average and<br />
higher at that point in time than London and Liverpool. By the 1860s, there was 848 public houses<br />
and beer-shops in the district, a combined population of over 130,000 people, plus thousands of<br />
military personnel both domestic and foreign, and three separate areas of police jurisdiction. This<br />
made the district a vibrant, but often brutal, place to be. With no suggestions of amalgamation<br />
accepted by the various councils, bringing order to the entire district through the efforts of three<br />
separate and distinct police forces was a challenge. Yet it was one which the superintendents and<br />
chief constables had to meet. To fail to do so would have dire consequences on one of the largest<br />
centres of population and arguably the most important military hub in the entire country.<br />
Part of an unpublished thesis available in full from the electronic library resource at the<br />
University of Plymouth, Policing in Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse, 1835-1886<br />
©Marc Partridge.
Dept. of Jannerology<br />
EXAMination<br />
Welcome to the first Dept. of Jannerology exam. For our first prize<br />
we are delighted to offer a signed copy of Laura Quigley's brilliant<br />
book, “Bloody British History: Plymouth”. To be in with a chance to<br />
win and in the process become an honorary “Jannerologist”, please<br />
send your answers to: editor@plymouthhistory.co.uk.<br />
1.Smeaton's Tower is the subject of the PHM cover picture; what year was the upper section, now<br />
on Plymouth Hoe, first opened to the public?<br />
2.So called “Damnation Alley” was once reputedly “the worst street in Plymouth”; by what name do<br />
we now know it?<br />
3.The Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom of 1859 resulted in the<br />
construction of the many fortifications which ring Plymouth; which Prime Minister instigated this?<br />
4.Devonport Column, designed by John Foulston, is a noticeable feature on the Plymouth skyline.<br />
What year was it finished; what does it commemorate; and, what is missing? (3 answers)<br />
5.<br />
There are 6 discernible elements to the modern city of<br />
Plymouth coat of arms (pictured). What are they and what<br />
does each mean or symbolise? (6 answers)<br />
6.By the Door of Unity at the Prysten House near St. Andrew's Church, stands a memorial to two<br />
United States Naval officers. What are their names, and what was the name of their ship? (3<br />
answers)<br />
There is a total of 15 points on offer, so to be in with a chance to win this great prize, please<br />
send your answers to: editor@plymouthhistory.co.uk. Only entries received at this email<br />
address by 31 st August 2014 will be counted. The entry with the most correct answers<br />
wins. In the event of a tie, those entries with equal most points will be picked at random.<br />
Editors decision is final.<br />
So, thinking caps on, and good luck!
The SHIPS Project:Shipwrecks and<br />
History in Plymouth Sound<br />
Mission<br />
Come and help us search for ships<br />
lost near Plymouth, dive them and<br />
find out their history.<br />
Contact: pete@promare.co.uk<br />
The SHIPS Project was formed to promote the maritime heritage of Plymouth.<br />
and aims to record, document and publish the remains of shipwrecks, aircraft, hulks, lost anchors and any<br />
other objects on the seabed<br />
The project is being run by a local group of divers and shipwreck enthusiasts<br />
The SHIPS Project is interested in the maritime history of Plymouth from the earliest occupation by humans<br />
until the present day and is funded by ProMare UK<br />
The A7 Project has been granted a licence by the Ministry of Defence to survey the wreck site of<br />
HMS A7 in Whitsand Bay.<br />
The submarine sank with the loss of all hands in January 1914 while taking part in simulated<br />
torpedo attacks. Tragically there was only enough air in the submarine for six hours, and all 11<br />
crewmen perished. Despite numerous salvage attempts, the submarine has remained buried in<br />
the ocean floor about 135ft below the surface. The cause of the disaster has remained a mystery<br />
ever since, and the bodies of the submariners still remain inside.<br />
Permission to conduct a ‘non-intrusive’ underwater archaeological survey of the wreck has now<br />
been granted. Project leader and Plymouth University lecturer, Pete Holt said, “As part of what<br />
we’ll be doing we’ll have to investigate how it happened. From my point of view, I’m very interested<br />
because the story is very strange. She was found with her stern buried 20ft in the sand. The Royal<br />
Navy tried to pull her out with tugs but she wouldn’t budge. That’s one of the reasons why she is<br />
still down there.”<br />
The project is aiming to record the condition of the wreck; conduct a comprehensive geophysical<br />
survey; and carry out a photographic and recording survey of the submarine hull and external<br />
fittings.<br />
Another key aspect of the project will be the creation of a 3D virtual reality computer model of the<br />
submarine and wreck site. The volunteer team will also research the story of the boat. A series of<br />
public lectures and a museum display will also be organised after the survey work.<br />
Pete said the site is a designated military maritime grave and will be treated with the “utmost<br />
respect”.“No divers will enter the hull”, Pete added.<br />
A final report is expected by the end of the year.
The Strange Death<br />
Of<br />
Henry Hall<br />
Henry Hall was born in East Stonehouse, Devon in 1661 and he was the oldest known member of<br />
a renowned family of lighthouse keepers that includes Grace Darling.<br />
In the early hours of 2 nd December 1755, while working on the Eddystone Lighthouse, Hall<br />
realised that sparks from kitchen stove chimney had set the lighthouse roof ablaze. He attempted<br />
to extinguish the fire by throwing buckets of water upward "four yards higher than his head", onto<br />
the underside of the burning roof. Soon, two other lighthouse keepers joined the fight and the<br />
three tucked their heads while blindly hurling buckets of water overhead at a frantic pace.<br />
During the battle with the blaze, Hall looked up to check their progress. As he did so, a shower of<br />
molten lead fell from the lighthouse roof onto him, burning his head, neck, and shoulders and<br />
almost unbelievably, falling into his open mouth which he then involuntarily swallowed. Despite the<br />
intense pain, Hall continued fighting the fire until the blaze grew so large the three men were<br />
forced to retreat from the lighthouse tower. The fire raged for the five days.<br />
Several hours later, the three men were spotted by a passing boat. Sailors threw ropes to the men<br />
and hauled them aboard. They were taken to East Stonehouse where Hall was treated by Dr.<br />
Edmund Spry. According to Dr. Spry, “Hall spoke with a hoarse voice, scarce to be heard, that<br />
melted lead had run down his throat into his body”. Hall added that he was suffering from intense<br />
internal pain. At first, Dr. Spry did not believe Hall’s claims feeling that anyone who swallowed<br />
molten lead would have surely died on the spot. Hall however, appeared to be perfectly fine other<br />
than the burns about his head and neck.<br />
In the days following, Hall was able to eat, drink, and take medicine. After several days, it<br />
appeared as if Hall was on the mend and the claims of swallowing molten lead were dismissed as<br />
the ramblings of an injured and shaken old man. However, on the sixth day, events took a tragic<br />
turn. Hall’s health began to decline and by the 10th day, Hall could no longer eat or drink. He died<br />
on December 8, 1755 aged 94 years.<br />
Dr. Spry conducted an autopsy on Hall and to his surprise, inside the confines of Hall’s stomach<br />
was a seven ounce layer of solid lead (see above). Dr. Spry immediately wrote an account of the<br />
incident and sent it to The Royal Society who met the report with great disbelief. In response to<br />
their scepticism, Dr. Spry initiated a subsequent series of experiments on dogs and chickens,<br />
pouring melted lead down the animals’ throats to test their reaction. The results of Dr. Spry’s<br />
efforts proved that indeed, it was possible to survive, for a limited period of time, after such an<br />
extreme and bizarre event. Spry’s animal experiments would go down in history as the first fully<br />
documented and reported British scientific experiments on animals.<br />
The piece of lead taken from the stomach of Henry Hall,<br />
weighed 7 ounces (approx 200g). It now resides in the<br />
National Museum of Scotland. (Picture by kind permission National<br />
Museum of Scotland)
There follows Dr Spry's full report of the incident from 1755 and the text of the original report<br />
from 1756 of experiments that he conducted on animals in an effort to test the effects of<br />
swallowing molten lead.<br />
On Thursday the fourth of December, 1755, at three in the afternoon, Henry Hall, of Eaststone-house,<br />
near Plymouth, aged 94 years, of a good constitution, and extremely active for<br />
one of that age, being one of the three unfortunate men, who suffered by the fire of the lighthouse<br />
at Eddy-stone, nine miles from Plymouth, having been greatly hurt by that accident,<br />
with much difficulty returned to his own house. I being sent for to his assistance found him in<br />
his bed, complaining of extreme pains all over his body; especially in his left side, below the<br />
short ribs, in the breast, mouth and throat. He said likewise, as well as he could, with a<br />
hoarse voice, scarce to be heard, that melted lead had run down his throat into his body.<br />
Having taken the proper care of his right leg, which was much bruised and cut on the tibia, I<br />
examined his body, and found it all cover’d with livid spots and blisters; and the left side of<br />
the head and face, with the eye, extremely burnt; which having washed with linen dipt in an<br />
emollient fomentation, and having applied things used in cases of burning, I then inspected<br />
his throat, the root of his tongue, and the parts contiguous, as the uvula, tonsils, &c., which<br />
were greatly scorched by the melted lead. Upon this I ordered him to drink frequently of<br />
water-gruel or some such draught; and returning to my own house, sent him the oily mixture,<br />
of which he took often two or three spoonfuls.<br />
The next day he was much worse, all the symptoms of his case being heightened, with a<br />
weak pulse; and he could now scarce swallow at all.<br />
The day following there was no change, except that, on account of his too great costiveness,<br />
he took six drachms of manna dissolved in an ounce and half of infusion of senna, which<br />
had no effect till the day following; when just as a clyster was going to be administered, he<br />
had a very fetid discharge by stool.<br />
That day he was better till night, when he grew very feverish.<br />
The next day, having slept well the preceding night, and thrown up by coughing a little<br />
matter, he was much better.<br />
He began now to speak with less difficulty, and for three or four days to recover gradually;<br />
but then suddenly grew worse; his pulse being very weak; his side, which grew worse daily<br />
from the first, now reddened a little swelled; to which I applied the emplaster of gums. But all<br />
methods proved ineffectual, for the next day being seiz’d with cold sweats and spasms in<br />
the tendons, he soon expired.<br />
Examining the body, and making an incision thro’ the left abdomen, I found the<br />
diaphragmatic upper mouth of the stomach greatly inflamed and ulcerated, and the tunica in<br />
the lower part of the stomach burnt; and from the great cavity of it took out a great piece of<br />
lead of the shape and weight here described.<br />
It will be thought difficult to explain the manner, by which the lead entered the stomach: but<br />
the account, which the deceased gave me and others, was, that as he was endeavouring to<br />
extinguish the flames, which were at a considerable height over his head, the lead of the<br />
lanthorn being melted dropped down, before he was aware of I, with great force into his<br />
mouth then lifted up and open, and that in such a quantity, as to cover not only his face, but<br />
all his clothes.<br />
Plymouth<br />
19 Dec. 1755
To the Right Hon. George Earl of Macclesfield, President to the Royal Society.<br />
Plymouth, Jan. 30, 1756.<br />
My Lord,<br />
As the late case I took the liberty of troubling your lordship with, was so very singular, as to make<br />
it by some gentlemen greatly doubted, on account of their imagining, that the degree of heat in<br />
melted lead was too great to be borne in the stomach, without immediate death, or at least more<br />
sudden than happened in this case; I herein can not only convince your lordship of its fact, by my<br />
own and (if requisite) the oaths of others, but also by the following experiments, which from<br />
similarity of circumstances must not only render that probable, but (in the most convincing<br />
manner) the absolutely possibility of my assertion.<br />
I extracted in three pieces, from the stomach of a small dog, six drachms one scruple of lead,<br />
which I had pour’d down his throat the day before.<br />
N.B. The mucous lining of the oesophagus seemed very viscid, and the stomach much<br />
corrugated, tho’ its internal coat was no-ways excoriated.<br />
The dog had nothing to eat or drink after; nor for twenty-four hours before the experiment, when,<br />
being very brisk, I killed him.<br />
I also took from the stomach of a large dog (in several pieces) six ounces and two drachms of<br />
lead, three days after thrown in.<br />
The pharynx and cardiac orifice of the stomach were a little inflamed and excoriated; but the<br />
oesophagus and stomach seemed in no manner affected.<br />
I gave this dog an half pint of milk just before I poured down the lead; very soon after which also<br />
he eat thereof freely, as if nothing ailed him; which he daily continued to do, being very lively at<br />
the time I killed him. From the crop of a full grown fowl, I (in company with Dr. Huxham, F.R.S.)<br />
extracted of lead one solid piece, weighing two ounces and a half, together with nine other small<br />
portions, weighing half an ounce which lead was thrown down the fowl’s throat twenty-five hours<br />
before.<br />
The fowl was kept without meat for twenty-four hours, before and after the experiment, eating<br />
(being very lively just before we killed him) dry barley, as fast, and with nigh, if not quite, the same<br />
ease as before.<br />
The mucus on the larynx and oesophagus was somewhat hardened.<br />
The external coat of the crop appeared in a very small degree livid; and the internal, somewhat<br />
corrugated.<br />
The barley was partly in the oesophagus, tho’ mostly in the craw, which was almost full with the<br />
lead.<br />
I took two ounces one scruple from the crop of another fowl, three days after the experiment,<br />
which fowl was very brisk to the last.<br />
Allowing, for a further satisfaction, that the experiment be tried, it is requisite in making thereof,<br />
that the melted lead be poured into a funnel, whose spout being as large as the throat of the<br />
animal (whose neck must be kept firmly erect) will conveniently admit of, must be forced down the<br />
aesophagus, somewhat below the larynx, lest any of the lead might fall therein; and according to<br />
the quantity, either by totally, or partly obstructing the aspera arteria, cause immediate, or a<br />
lingering death; which accidents happened, in my first experiments on two dogs, directed me to<br />
proceed in the above manner.
At present I have a dog with lead in his stomach, which I intend to keep, to prove how long<br />
he may live.<br />
My lord, your lordship may depend on it, that so far from my asserting any thing in the least<br />
degree uncertain, that, as I always have, I always shall act with so much circumspection and<br />
integrity (especially in these tender points, where my character is at stake) as to be able<br />
easily to prove what I may assert, as in the present case, so very extraordinary, that scarce<br />
any of the faculty (unless particularly acquainted with me) would give credit to, till I<br />
demonstrated it by the above experience; which, I doubt not in the least, will be sufficiently<br />
satisfactory to your lordship, and to the honourable Society; to serve which venerable body,<br />
as much as lies in my power, will, at all times, give the greatest pleasure to,<br />
My Lord,<br />
Your Lordship’s most obedient,<br />
And most humble servant,<br />
Edmund Spry.<br />
Perhaps the next time you take a walk past the Duke of Cornwall Hotel towards the old Sippers<br />
complex, stop for a moment and look at this small plaque set in the pavement; spare a thought for<br />
poor old Henry Hall, late lighthousekeeper of East Stonehouse and Dr Spry who treated him.
Recommended, Uniquely Plymouth!<br />
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adore, for grockels, and for janners who live by the sea, janner jam on your bread or<br />
with scones, cream and tea. A souvenir gift or a treat for yourself, Janner Jam will<br />
be sure to fly of the shelf. An 'andmade rare gem made in small batches, it's one of<br />
the Westcountry's finest catches. You can buy it right 'ere in Plymouth, Devon, you'll<br />
think you've died and gone to 'eaven! You can order gift by post, or see where it's<br />
stocked, but beware! One dollop an' you'll be scoffin' the lot!<br />
Restaurants serving Janner Jam as part<br />
of a traditional Devonshire 'Janner Jam'<br />
Cream Tea ...<br />
The Boathouse Cafe<br />
2-5 Commercial Wharf, The Barbican,<br />
Plymouth, PL1 2NX, Tel. 01752 600650 /<br />
Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club<br />
Madeira Road, The Hoe, Plymouth, PL1<br />
2NY Tel. 01752 664327<br />
Duttons Cafe<br />
Madeira Rd, Plymouth PL1 2NU Tel.<br />
01752 255245<br />
Ocean BMW Motorbike Cafe<br />
Longbridge Road, March Mills, Plymouth.<br />
Stockists<br />
Performance Yachting, Mayflower<br />
Marina, Richmond Walk, Devonport<br />
Plymouth Kitchen Company, Plymstock<br />
Tourist Info (Barbican Information<br />
Centre), The Barbican, Plymouth<br />
Duttons Cafe, The Hoe, Plymouth<br />
Drake's Cafe, Plymouth University<br />
Campus, Plymouth<br />
Please visit<br />
www.jannerjam.com<br />
and don't forget to like us on<br />
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Empire in your<br />
backyard<br />
www.britishempire.co.uk<br />
Part I<br />
©Stephen Luscombe<br />
Although every location in Britain, however large or small, oozes history and heritage, there are<br />
not many places which can challenge Plymouth in the way that its history connects it to so much<br />
of the wider World. This is due to Plymouth's central role in Britain's maritime history and in<br />
particular the role of the Royal Navy and the Dockyards built to service it. For much of its history,<br />
Plymouth's fortunes have risen and to some extent fallen with the ebb and flow of Empire.<br />
Plymouth led the way in the initial and crucial phase of England's exploration and its search for<br />
new trading opportunities during the Tudor era. It served as a base to help defend the islands from<br />
becoming a colony of other powers, be it Spain, France or any other would-be invader. South<br />
West mariners were at the forefront of colonisation in the recently discovered New World lands of<br />
North America and the Caribbean. Geographically, the South West peninsular provided an ideal<br />
starting point for anyone wishing to travel across the Atlantic or further afield after marine<br />
technology opened up this new highway of trade, exploration and colonisation.<br />
William of Orange<br />
It was thanks largely to the successful rise of Holland as a<br />
maritime power that the Dutch born King William of Orange made<br />
the decision to build a new dockyard in Plymouth; guarding the all<br />
important approaches to the Channel. With the failure to discover<br />
a North West or a North East Passage to gain trade routes to the<br />
spices and exotic goods of the Orient, attention moved back to<br />
the established routes around the Cape of Good Hope and the<br />
Cape Horn, and Plymouth was the best placed, safe harbour to<br />
take advantage of these routes. It also helped that the rivers<br />
surrounding the port had enough deep anchorages to safely<br />
harbour what would eventually become the world's largest fleet as<br />
the Royal Navy expanded in size and scope throughout the<br />
Eighteenth Century.<br />
As the island nation decided that its wealth and prosperity was increasingly dependent on<br />
international trade, a safe base of operations was required to police and patrol this empire and<br />
Plymouth provided the perfect location to organise the production of ships, maintain existing<br />
vessels, fit them out with fresh victuals and water and recruit and train the crews and artisans who<br />
were necessary to man this ever growing institution.<br />
The Seven Years War and the Napoleonic Wars further enhanced Plymouth's strategic suitability<br />
as Britain engaged in a titanic struggle for influence and domination with the French who had their<br />
own naval bases just on the other side of the Channel. Years of warfare turned Plymouth into a<br />
hub of frenzied activity and not just of sailors, soldiers and marines passed through the city to fight<br />
in ever increasingly exotic parts of Europe and the wider World. It is no coincidence that at the end<br />
of these wars, Napoleon himself was brought to Plymouth, a city which had dedicated itself for two<br />
decades to frustrating his ambitions. He became something of a public spectacle in Plymouth<br />
Sound before he was exiled to the remote British colony of St. Helena.<br />
Plymouth's contribution to the imperial story is not just bound to wars and conflict though. The<br />
Royal Navy increasingly understood that knowledge and scientific endeavour were fundamentally<br />
important to Britain maintaining its competitive advantage which in turn helped fund the ships and<br />
improve the efficiency of the Royal Navy. Sailor scientists like Captain Cook, Captain Bligh and<br />
Charles Darwin all used Plymouth as a launching pad for their voyages of discovery and enquiry.<br />
Plymouth Museum and Aquarium were set up in part to catalogue and process the many<br />
specimens that were brought back from all corners of the globe.
Not all those who left Plymouth on important voyages did so voluntarily. Convict ships bound for<br />
Australia set off from Plymouth carrying cargoes of unwilling passengers the vast majority of whom<br />
would never see England again once the coast of the South West slipped over the horizon.<br />
Political prisoners such as the Tolpuddle Martyrs joined the unfortunate common criminals in their<br />
journeys of misery to the other side of the world. Although in their case, the Tolpuddle Martyrs<br />
were later reprieved and so became some of the few prisoners who actually travelled in the<br />
opposite direction and alight in Plymouth as free men once more.<br />
The Tolpuddle Martyrs<br />
Plymouth also provided the starting off point for myriad settlers looking for a fresh start elsewhere<br />
in the ever growing colony. The first four ships to New Zealand departed from Plymouth with<br />
emigrants determined to make a new life for themselves thousands of miles away. Other voluntary<br />
emigrants followed to Canada, Australia and South Africa amongst other places.<br />
The human traffic was by no means one way throughout Plymouth's long history. Mariners have<br />
long been in the habit of recruiting anyone with a pulse to help with the rigging or running of a<br />
ship. The Royal Navy happily recruited crew from prize ships or foreign ports to help feed her<br />
insatiable desire for manpower; French, Spanish, Americans, Caribbeans, Africans, Asians all<br />
passed through the city with varying degrees of loyalty to the Crown! Those who resisted the 'offer'<br />
of employment could be shipped back to Plymouth before being escorted to prison on Dartmoor.<br />
Many graves of Britain's foes are located in and around the city.<br />
And of course, Britain's soldiers and marines continued to march through the port on to new wars<br />
often in more and more bizarre and remote locations as the Empire lapped up to yet stranger<br />
shores and entered wars that were little understood by the soldiers and sailors who had to fight<br />
them. Yet, they were dutifully cheered off from Plymouth and welcomed back with open arms on<br />
their return; not that everyone did return as many of the gravestones and memorials in Plymouth<br />
and in the far flung corners of the World attest to.<br />
In the 19th century, Plymouth's rising importance led to military planners building extensive<br />
fortifications to prevent it from being attacked from the landward side. There had always been<br />
formidable defences on the shoreline at least as long as the Royal Navy had used it as a base.<br />
But after the Crimean War, British planners were concerned that a continental power might land<br />
an army on any one of the many beaches of the South Coast and move overland to capture the<br />
Dockyards and destroy the capability of the Royal Navy to defend Britain. Similar plans were put in<br />
place to defend Portsmouth and one of the most expensive fortification programs since the<br />
building of Hadrian's Wall was undertaken on mainland Britain. The defence of Plymouth and the<br />
Dockyard was regarded on a par with the defence of the realm.<br />
The age of explorers had not yet been completed. Many of the polar explorers of the late 19th and<br />
early 20th Century hailed or at least sailed from Plymouth bringing the final phase of imperial<br />
exploration back to the place that started England's initial phases of discovery. Scott of the<br />
Antarctic is the most famous of these, but many of the polar explorers had very strong<br />
connections to this maritime city.<br />
The twentieth century may have seen Plymouth's attention focus back on European conflicts but<br />
the imperial connections did not cease as men, supplies and equipment flooded into the city from<br />
the Empire and beyond in the First and Second World Wars. Indians, Australians, Canadians,<br />
New Zealanders passed through Plymouth on their way to fight or were brought back to Plymouth<br />
to be treated in her hospitals before being repatriated home.
World War Two saw the aerial war bring Plymouth into the front line for the first time in its history<br />
as it became the most heavily bombed city for its size in the country. The dockyards were the<br />
inevitable target, but much of Plymouth's history and heritage was destroyed by the less than<br />
precise bombing of the Luftwaffe. What the German bombers missed, keen urban planners in the<br />
1940s and 50s ripped up and reorganised for the sake of a 'modern' city rebuilt in the aftermath of<br />
war. But not all of Plymouth's landmarks and imperial heritage have gone as I hope to explain and<br />
explore below. Her history is long and fascinating and as I said at the outset, her imperial<br />
connections are so strong that they have fundamentally shaped her relationship to the rest of the<br />
World. Personally, it is this history and heritage that haw shaped how I understand and engage<br />
with the wider World; I have a deep love of the sea, for exploration and for engagement with<br />
cultures where-ever they come from in the World. These are traits that are synonymous with the<br />
City of Plymouth and the evidence of which is still around for all to see.<br />
Plymouth, or rather Sutton as it was then called, was a tiny settlement compared to the nearby<br />
town of Plympton. However, the natural harbour was already identified as providing excellent<br />
protection from the prevailing Westerly Winds and its south facing hills made it a good place to<br />
grow crops on those surrounding heights. Additionally, the River Plym had been silting up. This<br />
was largely due to the extraction of tin on Dartmoor around the Cadover Bridge area. This meant<br />
that vessels were finding it more and more difficult to travel to Plympton to pick up or land goods.<br />
Consequently, Plymouth began to supplant its more ancient neighbour and began its rise as an<br />
important port from the thirteenth century onwards.<br />
Plymouth's first mention as a military port was made during the reign of King John at the beginning<br />
of the 13th Century. After John had lost land in Normandy, Plymouth was identified as the main<br />
base of operations for campaigns against France and to the recovery of their ancestral lands. In<br />
many ways, this was England's 'First Empire' - the Empire of the Norman Knights with lands on<br />
both sides of the Channel. In 1295, a national fleet was gathered in Plymouth as King Edward I<br />
prepared to embark on a war to reclaim Gascony for his Crown. Edward stayed at Plympton Priory<br />
which was located on the site of the present day St Mary's Church. The local area was expected<br />
to provide victuals and supplies to the army. In many ways, this expedition was the first of many<br />
military expeditions that would set forth from Plymouth Sound over the following centuries.<br />
Edward, The Black Prince<br />
Plymouth steadily grew in strategic importance as<br />
the Hundred Years War played itself out.<br />
Plymouth was the perfect staging post for many of<br />
the military expeditions and ventures as many of<br />
the lands that the English were fighting for were<br />
located in the South and West of France and were<br />
easier to get to from Plymouth than from ports<br />
further up the Channel. This was illustrated by the<br />
military actions of Edward III's son, the Black<br />
Prince, as he sought to take advantage of his<br />
father's initial successes in the war. He gathered<br />
together an army in Plymouth in 1348 and again<br />
in 1355. He also stayed at Plympton Priory to<br />
coordinate the expeditions. Ultimately, his 1355<br />
expedition culimanted in the overwhelming victory<br />
at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 where he<br />
managed to capture the King of France, Jean II.<br />
Both the Black Prince and Jean II returned to<br />
Plymouth in May of 1357 before travelling<br />
triumphantly to London to imprison and ransom<br />
the French King at the Tower of London. Jean II<br />
was not the last French leader to be brought to<br />
Plymouth as a prisoner!
Plymouth's offensive capabilities meant that it was placing itself in the limelight for retaliatory<br />
strikes and raids against itself. The French descended on the town for the first time in 1339 setting<br />
fire to what was then largely a wooden settlement. Another expedition entered the Hamoaze in<br />
1350 but only destroyed outlying farms and settlements. There were further attacks in 1377, and<br />
1400 before culminating in the most devastating raid in 1403. This last expedition saw 30 ships<br />
carrying 1200 men land from St Malo a mile to the north of the port. They then proceeded to<br />
attack the town from this direction getting as far as Exeter Street but not able to enter the port<br />
itself due to intense fighting from the defenders. The area is still known as 'Bretonside' in honour<br />
of this fight. Indeed, for many years the fight was re-enacted between those who would later live<br />
inside and outside of the town walls that were soon put up to help protect the port. This tradition<br />
lasted until the Eighteenth Century before being banned for being 'too unruly' and resulting in too<br />
much violence between rival gangs. Still, the incident showed that defence was a priority for the<br />
growing settlement and a castle was soon built to guard the entrance of Sutton Harbour. A chain<br />
could be pulled across the harbour to prevent enemy ships from entering Plymouth. This was<br />
followed by walls to surround the town.<br />
Map of “walled” Plymouth<br />
Plymouth was more than just a military port, it had long shown itself to be a good base for fishing<br />
and was replacing Plympton as the port of choice for merchants and traders. It became an<br />
important port for the wine trade and brought in much of the wine from Bordeaux and La Rochelle.<br />
It exported fish, tin, wool and cloth. In 1362 it was granted a license to trade with Portugal as<br />
England sought an ally to help fight the growing antagonism from the Castillian Royal Family<br />
(which would later become Spain). In 1381 and 1385 two new armadas were assembled in<br />
Plymouth in order to help the Portuguese in their fight against Castille. These armadas were<br />
designed to guard the approaches of the Channel and show an early indication of the value of the<br />
strategic location of Plymouth that would later see it at the heart of England's naval defences. As it<br />
was, this war saw England cement its friendship with Portugal which would go on to become<br />
England's (and then Britain's) longest alliance in history and which is still technically in effect to this<br />
day. It also marked out England's early antipathy towards what would become Spain, even before<br />
any Reformation marked out differences between Catholicism and Protestantism
This Nicholas Condy painting shows a scene of the port of Sutton that barely changed over the ages<br />
Plymouth was to earn itself one additional Royal Monopoly in 1390 when it was designated as<br />
being one of only two ports from which religious pilgrims were allowed to sail overseas from. This<br />
early form of control of movement was a way to help the King collect customs and dues from<br />
pilgrimages but it also allowed him the ability to sanction or curtail voyages to destinations that he<br />
might feel were undesirable. It was a crude form of control but one that perhaps would help<br />
explain why Plymouth would go on to become such an important centre of religious and radical<br />
activity in the Tudor and Stuart periods. Plymouth was officially incorporated as a town in 1440<br />
and was allowed to be ruled by a guild. This meant that all traders and businessmen in the town<br />
had the right to select a town council and mayor to run the place. It also meant that commerce<br />
was given a pre-eminent position and anything to protect or enhance trade was seen as the<br />
priority for the town council. Unfortunately, Plymouth was about to enter some choppy economic<br />
waters as first the Hundred Years War came to an end, which saw a diminution in supply ships<br />
and military expeditions, and then the growing problems of the Wars of the Roses which<br />
paralysed much of the trade and commerce of the country as the Yorkists and Lancastrians fought<br />
for control of the Crown. There was little the town council could do to counter these forces and<br />
considerable division and suspicion was unleashed in the wake of what was effectively a Civil War.<br />
It was during these Wars of the Roses that Plymouth became an unlikely staging post of a French<br />
army that was landed in the port in order to help the Lancastrians in their battle against the<br />
Yorkists in 1461.<br />
This Nicholas Condy painting shows what the old port of Plymouth would have looked<br />
like. It was actually painted in the 19th century but could have come from earlier eras<br />
In the next issue:<br />
Stephen Luscombe takes a look at Plymouth from the<br />
golden age of the Tudors.<br />
Stephen's fantastic website, from which this article is<br />
drawn is available here: www.britishempire.co.uk<br />
Please take a look!
HIDDEN HERITAGE<br />
The new Heritage Centre opened in partnership with<br />
Whitsand Bay Fort Holiday Park.<br />
Current Opening Times as of 20th July are as follows;<br />
Tuesday and Thursday evenings 7-9 – Tunnel tours and<br />
Volunteer Work Party<br />
Friday evenings 7pm-10pm – A series of late Summer<br />
tours and Community History Workshops every Friday<br />
evening<br />
Saturdays – 10am-2pm<br />
Sundays – 11am-3pm – Guided Tour at 11.30am<br />
All other times are by appointment. Booking by txt<br />
07894159906<br />
Operating from the historic maritime city of Plymouth, and with a second base amidst the stunning<br />
surroundings of the Rame Peninsula, Cornwall, Hidden Heritage not only embrace, but also<br />
celebrate and promote history and heritage from a fresh perspective – interactive in it’s approach<br />
featuring community events and an online resource featuring contributors from around the world.<br />
Beginning with impressive archives kindly submitted by Cyberheritage and Hidden Plymouth , the<br />
online resource is already off to a good start and we also have private collections of photographs<br />
and memoirs that have been donated to us, spannning more than 50 years across many<br />
European countries, to add to the online resource over the coming months. Interacting with the<br />
public will be our main focus, with a number of oral history projects, community projects and<br />
commemorative events planned to take us through to 2020 and beyond – welcome to the<br />
wonderful world of Hidden Heritage!!<br />
Creating a diverse range of Community Projects, we engage with people of all ages, and from all<br />
walks of life, collating archives from contributors worldwide. A roots level and passionate approach<br />
to promoting, exploring and preserving history, archaeology and heritage worldwide, in turn raising<br />
the plight to save more of our heritage for future generations to discover and learn from via our<br />
online community hub.<br />
While we are passionate in what we do, and determined in our appoach, we know that there are<br />
no guarantees in life but vow to give 100% in whatever we do, and with a realistic view, Hidden<br />
Heritage hope to be able to help make a little difference in people’s lives.
● Plymouth in the great war<br />
As we approach the centenary of the First World War, we take a look at how “The War to End All Wars” affected<br />
Plymouth and Plymothians. In this issue we feature Plymouth Argyle player, Sgt William James Baker.<br />
Footballer on the Somme: The story of Billy Baker,<br />
professional footballer & true hero<br />
William James Baker (pictured) was born in Plymouth in the last quarter of<br />
1882, the fourth child to Joseph and Fanny (nee Moaxley). Joseph had been<br />
in the candle making industry for most of his working life and in all likelihood<br />
worked at the New Patent Candle Co.Ltd in Sutton Road. It would appear<br />
that the family lived a fairly ordinary life for the age they were living, although<br />
not without tragedy; of the eleven children of Joseph and Fanny, only seven<br />
lived to see 1911.<br />
By 1901, an 18 year old William had been apprenticed to a plasterer, and it<br />
was around this time that his career as a footballer began as he played for<br />
local Plymouth side Green Waves.<br />
His skill was soon recognised and it was not long before he had represented both the Devon and<br />
Cornwall Football Associations at County level. He had also signed up and completed two years<br />
service in the Army with the Devon Regiment. But his prowess as a footballer was growing; he<br />
resigned from the Army in 1904 and it's possible that it was at around this time he left Plymouth,<br />
first for the United States and then South Africa where he played for De Beers Football Club in<br />
Cape Town. By 1909 William was back in Plymouth and playing for Green Waves, where his<br />
potential was spotted by Plymouth Argyle. He made his debut in the 2-0 home defeat against<br />
Queens Park Rangers on 18 September 1909. A wing half, renowned for his “love of the strenuous<br />
game, but clean withal and never tiring”, William went on to make over 200 appearances for<br />
Argyle scoring his only league goal in the 2-1 home defeat to Bristol Rovers in October 1910.<br />
Life was going well for William, his career was going from strength to strength and it was on 7<br />
October 1912 he married local girl Olive Blanche Weir. As if to underline this, on 13 April 1913 a<br />
baby daughter, Phyllis Olive arrived. However the dark clouds of war were soon gathering on the<br />
horizon.<br />
And, so it was, like hundreds of thousands of young men in towns and villages throughout the<br />
country had done before and would continue to do, on 18 January 1915 William presented himself<br />
at the Kingsway Recruiting Office, London. As he did so, he could not have known that his wife<br />
was in the early stages of pregnancy.<br />
His service papers describe him on enlistment as aged 32 years and 2 months, being 5 ft 5 1/4 ins<br />
in height and weighing 154 lb (11 stone). He formally attested to the Middlesex Regiment – the<br />
famous 17 th Battalion (or 1 st Football as it came to be known) – as “F521 Private Baker W.J” on the<br />
28 January 1915, signing up for the duration of the war. In these early days of the war, he still<br />
played for Argyle, and his final appearance came in the away match at Southend United on 1 May<br />
1915, after which he left for his Army service.<br />
On 17 August, another daughter, Rita Beatrice was born and one can only hope between then and<br />
16 November, when he left with his regiment for the killing fields of France and Flanders, that he<br />
managed to spend at least some time with his young family.
The Argyle handbook of this year described William as “"possessed of inexhaustible energy and<br />
indomitable pluck” and these qualities were soon recognised by the British Army as he was quickly<br />
promoted, first to Lance Corporal then to full Corporal in February 1916.<br />
During July 1916, William suffered a sprained<br />
ankle while performing fatigue duties in the<br />
trenches (non military work such as digging etc.<br />
Whether this was as a punishment is not made<br />
clear.). The injury would not, his commanding<br />
officer remarked drily, interfere with his<br />
efficiency as a soldier.<br />
That efficiency was perfectly illustrated when<br />
the London Gazette of 10 August 1916 carried<br />
notice that William had been awarded the<br />
Military Medal for “bravery in the field”, and<br />
British soldiers on the Somme<br />
furthermore he had been promoted to Sergeant.<br />
Those early days of the Battle of the Somme had been nothing short of a disaster for the British<br />
Army, with unprecedented casualties killed and wounded – around 60000 on the first day (1 July)<br />
alone. Just a few short months later, on 22 October 1916 at Serre, the name William James Baker<br />
M.M was added to that long list when he was killed in action during the British attempts to drive the<br />
German forces from the heavily fortified town. He is buried at Sucrerie Military Cemetery,<br />
Colincamps, France (grave ref: I.I. 26). William was 33 years old, and his wife, who never<br />
remarried was awarded a pension of 25s & 5d per week (approx. £55 in today's money)<br />
Commonwealth War Graves at<br />
Sucrerie<br />
Unfortunately for the Baker family, there was more tragedy to come. On<br />
23 December 1917, William's younger brother (by now Petty Officer<br />
Stoker) Alfred Stanley Baker was on board Royal Navy destroyer HMS<br />
Tornado, when she came to the aid of three other destroyers hit by<br />
mines - HMS Valkyrie, Torrent and Surprise - at the Maas Light Buoy, off<br />
the coast of Holland. Tornado herself then struck a mine and sank<br />
quickly after breaking in two. In all, over 250 men were lost in this single<br />
incident, among them Alfred, who was 33 years old. Sadly, his body was<br />
never recovered. Coincidentally, Alfred also represented Plymouth<br />
Argyle although, as an amateur/ reserve, it seems he never made a 1 st<br />
team appearance.<br />
After the war in 1920, a wreath was placed on the Cenotaph in London to commemorate those<br />
Argyle players who gave their lives. The wreath was tied with the ribbons of green and black, the<br />
favours of Plymouth Argyle. Club captain, Septimus Atterbury, laid the floral tribute, which held the<br />
following inscription:<br />
“From the directors, players and officials of Plymouth Argyle Football Club in respectful memory of<br />
the late Sergeant W J Baker DCM (sic), Petty Officer Alfred S Baker RN, Sergeant William<br />
Sutherland, Sergeant Norman A Wood and Private Stanley Reed, players of the club, who gave<br />
their lives in the Great War.”<br />
Sources & acknowledgements:<br />
“WE WILL REMEMBER THEM”<br />
Greens On Screen (www.greensonscreen.co.uk)<br />
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (www.cwgc.org)<br />
Plymouth Argyle Football Club<br />
Many thanks to the following:<br />
Steve Dean & Colin Parsons and all at Greens on Screen – a fantastic and unique website for all things<br />
“Plymouth Argyle”<br />
Rick Cowdery & PAFC for kind permission to reproduce the picture of William James “Billy” Baker
THE<br />
WAR<br />
IN<br />
PLYMOUTH<br />
In April 2013 we were awarded a Heritage Lottery Grant to develop a three-year oral history<br />
project entitled The War in Plymouth: Destruction and a New Beginning.<br />
During the terrible Blitz on Plymouth during the Second World War, over 4,000 homes were<br />
destroyed. The City’s response, encapsulated in the Abercrombie Plan, was dynamic, and over<br />
the course of ten years between 1945 and 1955, over 17,000 new homes and 24 new schools<br />
were built, creating new neighbourhoods such as Southway and Efford.<br />
This project, working in association with the History Department at Plymouth University under the<br />
guidance of Professor Kevin Jefferys, aims to gather as many interviews as possible with<br />
Plymouth people who remember the war years and the years of social housing. Going out into<br />
people’s homes, we are recording and preserving these memories, with the aim in 2015 of<br />
publishing a summary and overview in physical and digital formats, and in the shape of a touring<br />
exhibition.<br />
We will be working with members of the community in Plymouth who would like to join the project<br />
in a number of ways – either as an interviewer or as an interviewee or as a voluntary transcriber<br />
The project is entirely shaped by the perspective of the people of Plymouth: what was their<br />
experience of war, and how did the city emerge from it into a new era?<br />
We will be working with Fotonow, the Plymouth-based photographic social enterprise, who will be<br />
enabling Plymouth people to produce a photographic record of our interviewees to sit alongside<br />
the oral history recordings.<br />
If you would like to join the project either as an interviewee, telling us your memories of the period;<br />
or as an interviewer, going out and conducting interviews, then do please contact us by going to<br />
the Contact page on this site, or taking a look at the project Facebook page<br />
The project is working closely with Plymouth University (which awarded us a Vice-Chancellor’s<br />
Community Award), local historian Chris Robinson, Plymouth and West Devon Record Office,<br />
Plymouth Museum. The project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.<br />
LATEST NEWS<br />
Our project, is coming to a close at the end of this summer, as we are pretty close to completing<br />
all the interviews we have been able to do under the remit of this project. But, we are still looking<br />
for volunteer transcribers to transcribe the many fascinating interviews we have conducted, and<br />
we would really welcome hearing from any one who might be able to work with us typing out the<br />
interviews - so that we have a written copy of each one (the interviews tend to be about an hour<br />
long). If anyone would like to get involved on this side of the project, then do please contact me at:<br />
tam@thewordmachine.org
Notorious<br />
By Laura Quigley ©<br />
William Culliford was an upstanding customs officer in the 1680s sent by the King to<br />
investigate the customs officials in Devon and Cornwall. William’s report was a damning<br />
indictment: the customs officers of the two counties were the most corrupt in the country,<br />
frequently taking bribes, stealing cargoes, engaging in every kind of scam and larceny they could.<br />
He was appalled, wondering why the smugglers here even bothered to hide their activities. His<br />
report resulted in the dismissal of the worst offenders – including the Controller of Customs at<br />
Plymouth - and an overhaul of the whole service.<br />
At the same time, William appointed his son Robert to the post of customs officer in<br />
Southampton, but the profligate Robert was not content to live on the meagre salary of 45 pounds<br />
a year. With his friend William Kidd, Robert became a privateer, joining the government’s raiding<br />
parties against pirates and enemy ships in the West Indies. William Kidd took command of a<br />
captured French ship, and now as Captain Kidd received a commission to hunt down pirates, but<br />
his criminal activities show he had a very loose interpretation of his duties – he was certainly more<br />
interested in raiding the cargoes than actually catching any pirates. Meanwhile Culliford himself<br />
had become a pirate – with the wonderful nickname “Cutlass Culliford” - and Kidd and Culliford<br />
spent many days drinking together as they attacked trading ships and brought death and<br />
destruction to the West Indies and then the Indian Ocean.<br />
Both men and their crews were eventually captured by the Royal Navy and brought to<br />
London for trial. Almost all of the crewmen were hanged, and Kidd charged with piracy ironically<br />
because of his association with Cutlass Culliford. Kidd was then hanged and his rotting body left in<br />
an iron cage over the Thames to deter anyone else tempted into piracy. Meanwhile his scheming<br />
associate Robert Culliford was pardoned, having testified against all his comrades, and released.<br />
Of course, Robert Culliford now needed employment. His father’s report had resulted in a<br />
substantial increase in the salary for customs officers, to discourage corruption, so the job<br />
suddenly looked more attractive, and Robert spent the rest of his days back in his old job as<br />
customs officer for Southampton.<br />
And what of William Culliford? How did he react to his son’s disreputable behaviour? Was<br />
he too astonished that the authorities would let a pirate go back to being a customs officer?<br />
William seems to have made no comment until after his death in the 1730s, when he bequeathed<br />
a substantial inheritance - but only to his daughters.
Recommended, Uniquely Plymouth!<br />
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With this simple and yet perfectionist plan we<br />
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Plymouth in pictures<br />
Here is a selection of great “merged” old &<br />
new photos from Alex Burgess<br />
If you have any photos, “merged”, “colourised”<br />
or from your family collection, please contact<br />
the Editor!<br />
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MUTINY!<br />
The story of HMS Jackal in Plymouth, March 1941<br />
While the Luftwaffe continued their intensive air raid on Plymouth during 20-21 March<br />
1941,Royal Navy destroyer HMS Jackal was ordered to take station in Plymouth Sound and<br />
provide additional anti aircraft fire. Their was a problem however; many of the Jackal's crew were<br />
Plymouth men, and they watched with a growing sense of horror as the enemy attackers rained<br />
destruction down on their city, the city where their loved ones and families lived and worked.<br />
On the morning of 22 March, Jackal was ordered to sail up the Hamoaze to re-arm the ship and<br />
then alongside at Devonport dockyard. It was then that the Plymouth crew men asked for a<br />
period of shore leave in order that they check on their families and homes. When the order for<br />
“leaving harbour” stations came, the men refused, locking the watertight doors in the faces of the<br />
ships officers, refusing to obey further orders. Since the Jackal was one of the ships of the 5 th<br />
Flotilla under the command of Lord Mountbatten, he was duly informed and he reiterated the<br />
order for the ship to return to sea. The stand-off continued for several hours, until at last the<br />
commander relented, and the local men were allowed to leave the ship. Sadly some men did<br />
indeed find that their homes had been destroyed and/or family members had been killed or<br />
injured in the air raids.<br />
A sailor and his girlfriend stroll through<br />
the ruins of Plymouth<br />
The story doesn't end there. Two days later, after the Plymouth men had<br />
returned to duty, without any courts martial, the Jackal put in to<br />
Dartmouth. Whilst there, the men who were perceived as the<br />
ringleaders of the “mutiny” left the ship, and were, in the words of<br />
several of the crew “never seen again”. It was assumed that they had<br />
been transferred to other ships. Some have speculated that the men<br />
were sent to Gibraltar, and may even have been executed there.<br />
Unfortunately the files of the incident remain closed, despite<br />
efforts for them to become part of the public record, and the fate<br />
of the men in question remains a mystery.<br />
HMS Jackal was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in April<br />
1941 and took part in several operations. She was badly<br />
damaged by Italian torpedoes at the end of that year, and put in<br />
to Alexandria for repairs. In May 1942 Jackal along with HMS<br />
Jervis, Lively, and Kipling tried to deliver vital supplies to Malta,<br />
they were attacked by German bombers. Lively and Kipling were<br />
sunk and Jackal was badly damaged. Efforts were made by<br />
Jervis to save her, but she was abandoned and she was scuttled<br />
by a torpedo from HMS Jervis on the 12 May.<br />
HMS Jackal as built, pre-war
This month there was some great news coming from<br />
the Argyle Fans Trust particularly in this centenary<br />
year of the beginning of The First World War.<br />
PLYMOUTH Argyle, the Green Army and the Royal British Legion are entering into a partnership<br />
unique in football this coming season.<br />
Thanks to the Argyle Fans’ Trust, the Pilgrims will wear the Royal British Legion’s poppy logo on<br />
their shirts – home and away – during the 2014-15 Sky Bet League 2 campaign.<br />
The AFT are making a sponsorship donation to Argyle on behalf of the RBL to acknowledge the<br />
work the organisation carries out for the men and women of the Armed Services.<br />
As well as wearing the poppy on the back of their shirts, Argyle will help promote the Trust’s<br />
season-long campaign to fundraise for the RBL. The Trust hope supporters of other clubs will join<br />
them in supporting the RBL.<br />
AFT Press Officer Tim Chown said: “Plymouth has a proud history as a military city, and the<br />
sponsorship recognises the tremendous work done by the Royal British Legion in supporting our<br />
forces personnel, past and present, and is also timed to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of<br />
the first world war.”<br />
Argyle Chief Executive Martyn Starnes said: “Plymouth Argyle is proud to be at the heart of a city<br />
rich in military history and tradition, and the club is fully committed to supporting our armed forces.<br />
We were the first club in the country to stage an Armed Services Day, which is now a high-profile<br />
regular event in the season, to honour and financially support our military and their families. This<br />
agreement takes that commitment to the next level.”<br />
Carole Arnold, the Royal British Legion Community Fundraiser for Devon, said: “The Royal British<br />
Legion is delighted to be in partnership with Argyle, the Trust and fans. The club has always been<br />
supportive of the work of the RBL and to join forces at this time, with the first world war<br />
commemorations, is even more important. The club has a wonderful reputation within the<br />
community and, with Plymouth being a major military city, it will enable us to continue our work<br />
with serving and ex-serving military.”<br />
For more info and to join the Argyle Fans Trust, please visit: www.argylefanstrust.com
Plymouth history magazine requires<br />
your Nominations for the greatest<br />
Janner ever<br />
Who would get your vote - Drake? Chard? Scott? Walker?<br />
Sir Francis Drake, mayor,<br />
privateer, swashbuckling<br />
scourge of the Spanish,<br />
and bowls player; born in<br />
Tavistock but forever<br />
associated with Plymouth<br />
Robert Falcon Scott,<br />
of the Antarctic,<br />
Royal Navy officer<br />
and explorer, born in<br />
Milehouse<br />
John Rouse Merriott Chard<br />
VC, Victoria Cross winner<br />
and hero of Rorke's Drift,<br />
born in Boxhill (now<br />
Honicknowle<br />
Captain Frederic<br />
“Johnnie” Walker RN,<br />
famed U-Boat hunter<br />
of World War 2, born<br />
in Plymouth<br />
Or someone else?<br />
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to editor@plymouthhistory.co.uk
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The purpose of this discussion board is to promote interest and discussion on the<br />
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Plymouth is a city with a long, proud, and fascinating history that is often<br />
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