PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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The first large-scale railway in Plymouth was the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway. It was opened on September 26th 1823 and was built to an unusual gauge, 4 foot 6 inches, which henceforth became known as the "Dartmoor" gauge. It was the brainchild of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, who for more than twenty years tried to cultivate and populate the waste of Dartmoor. He built Prince's Town in the heart of the Moor and named it after the Prince of Wales, later to become King George IV. Sir Thomas persuaded the Admiralty that this place would make an ideal location for a depot to house prisoners from the war with France. As a result, he built Dartmoor Prison, competed in 1809, which for a few years housed 5,000 prisoners-of-war, until peace was declared in 1815. The buildings then lay deserted. Sir Thomas then had the idea that a railway linking Prince's Town with the coast near Plymouth would be an advantage. The plan was to bring in the materials and people for the reclamation of the land, such as lime and sea sand for manure, coal and timber and even tea and sugar. The journeys to Plymouth would carry granite from quarries at King Tor and possibly Dartmoor peat, as well as the produce from the farms. It would help to turn his dream into a reality. A public meeting was held on March 29th 1819 and soon afterwards, on July 2nd 1819, came the first Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway Acts of Parliament. This first one authorised the construction of a line from Crabtree, in the parish of Egg Buckland, to Princetown, as surveyed and marked out by Mr William Shillibeer, a surveyor from Walkhampton, early in 1818. By this time Sir Thomas had already raised the £27,788 required for the expenditure authorised. At the first general meeting of the shareholders, held in Plymouth on September 20th 1819, Sir William Elford, Bart, was appointed treasurer and Mr William Burt was made clerk (secretary). Mr William Stuart, who at that time was superintendent of the Breakwater Works, was chosen as engineer and Mr Hugh Mackintosh of London was selected as the contractor. The iron rails were to be supplied by Messrs Bailey & Company, also of London. The second Act, on July 8th 1820, gave authority for an extension to Sutton Pool, along with a short branch to the Cattewater. The third Act, which received the Royal Assent on July 2nd 1821, allowed the line between Crabtree and what was then called Jump (nowadays, Roborough) to deviate to follow the contours and made provision for a 620-yard tunnel on that section. The work authorised by these two Acts was estimated to cost £12,200. The line was 25 miles, 2 quarters and 6 chains long, of single track throughout, and reputed to have cost £66,000 to build. It ran from King Tor, short of Princetown, to Sutton Pool, a distance of some 13 miles as the crow flies. On the opening day Sir Thomas hosted a breakfast at the wharf or station on Roborough Down, where horses were stabled. After the breakfast, a steady procession of wagons proceeded down towards Plymouth, carrying granite and people. They passed through the tunnel at Leigham and received a rousing welcome when they arrived at the goods station on the shore of Sutton Pool. This was situated roughly where the Travel Inn is today. King Tor quarries were worked by two brothers, John and William Johnson. Because the Plymouth and Dartmoor Company ran out of money, the brothers helped financially with the completion of the line into Princetown. In return they took out a mortgage on the line but as the Company could not pay the interest on it, they allowed the Johnsons to transport their granite free of charge. These two situations were to bring about the death of the railway as Sir Thomas disappeared from the scene and his promises with him, even though he remained the largest shareholder. There was no other traffic on the line to pay the running costs. A branch of the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway was opened to Cann Quarry on November 20th 1829. This also worked until about 1900. There was a further branch to Plympton, which was opened in 1833 or 1834. It was bought by the South Devon Railway in 1847 and closed as it got in the way of their new line from Totnes to Plymouth. This dire state of affairs continued until an Act of Parliament of June 19th 1865, when the surviving brother, William, was given £75,000 worth of 5% preference shares in exchange for the mortgage. This brought matters back into the control of the Company and within a few years the revenue from transporting the granite enabled them to relay much of the line. However, this happy situation lasted for only a short period. In 1883 the top section of the railway, above Yelverton, was used as the trackbed of the standard gauge Princetown Branch. This left the remainder with very little traffic and it is thought that the line ceased to be used around 1900. One of the last acts of the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway Company, on November 30th 1882, was to deposit plans for a branch line to Turnchapel. These proposals received the Royal Assent on August 2nd 1883. This was quickly followed on November 30th 1883 with the depositing of plans for another line leaving the Turnchapel Branch and going to Modbury. This was eventually built but only as far as Yealmpton. Both were destined to be operated by main-line companies, however. In 1916 all the track was removed, except that between the Rising Sun Inn at Crabtree and Sutton Harbour, which remained as part of the Lee Moor Tramway.
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