Dartmoor Prison is Founded

Britain’s most famous prison was built originally for prisoners-of-war. Frenchmen captured in the Napoleonic Wars were kept in hulks in Plymouth Harbour in increasingly crowded conditions until a plan was devised by Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, a Dartmoor landowner and zealous improver, who had been private secretary to the Prince Regent. He proposed a prison camp on Duchy of Cornwall land on Dartmoor near granite quarries he owned. The prisoners were to work reclaiming the desolate moor for farmland. Work began late in 1805 and Sir Thomas himself formally laid the foundation stone the following March.

The camp was built mainly and grimly of Tyrwhitt’s granite. The outer wall enclosed an area of about thirty acres. Inside this was a second wall, enclosing five big rectangular buildings, each housing 1,500 men, who slept in rows of hammocks slung from iron pillars. Space in the roof allowed for walking in wet weather. Separate hospital buildings, governor’s house and staff quarters were provided and water came from a specially constructed reservoir. Soldiers stationed on the inner wall kept the whole complex in view. They lived in a barracks a distance away.