Dartmouth Castle: Built To Protect Dartmouth Harbour

Dartmouth Castle in Devon is one of the most beautifully located fortresses in England.

For over 600 years, the castle has guarded the narrow entrance to the Dart Estuary and the busy, vibrant port of Dartmouth.

The seaside castle has plenty for explorers – young and old, such as an atmospheric Gun Tower, winding passages and a climb to the top of the battlements.

And if the weather is fine, you can catch a river boat from the town quay, landing you a minute’s walk away from the entrance.

Installations bring the castle’s story to life, right up to its last call to action in the Second World War, and dramatic displays show a crew preparing to fire a heavy gun.

Families can explore the weapons used to defend the fortress, trying on helmets and handling cannonballs.

You’re also introduced to characters from Dartmouth’s history, and young history hunters can follow ‘John Hawley’s Explorer Trail’, an activity quest throughout the castle.

The castle was begun in 1388 to protect the town and harbour of Dartmouth against French raids during the Hundred Years War.

One hundred years later, it was strengthened with a gun tower, the first purpose-built coastal artillery fort in Britain.

The castle saw fighting during the Civil War and was later updated and re-equipped several times, serving in both world wars.

The lifeblood of Dartmouth was always the River Dart. Its long estuary, sheltered by a steep valley and with a narrow exit to the sea, was an ideal, safe port for sea-going trade.

By the mid-12th century Dartmouth was a thriving place.

Its wealth came from trade – particularly wine from Bordeaux and wool, wheat, minerals and other produce from south Devon and Dartmoor – and from fishing.

In 1336 tension between England and France turned into the open conflict that began the Hundred Years War.

To guard against French invasion it was thought vital to defend the entrance to the Dart.

In 1388 Richard II ordered the mayor of Dartmouth – the merchant and privateer John Hawley – to compel the townsmen to contribute to a ‘fortalice’, which was built shortly afterwards.

This small fort was Dartmouth’s first castle. It was only used in times of danger, so had few permanent buildings. A circular corner tower and adjoining length of stone wall survive.

By the mid-15th century gunpowder was having more and more impact on warfare on land and at sea. England was still at war with the French.

The English Channel was dangerous: fighting was common and ships of both sides were often captured.

Almost a century after building the fortalice, the townsmen of Dartmouth considered strengthening the river defences with a new tower containing guns.

In 1462 Edward IV awarded them £30 annually for 20 years towards the cost of Dartmouth’s defences, including the laying of a massive iron chain across the River Dart to stop marauding ships getting through.

But it was almost 20 years before work began on a new tower and a bulwark, or strongpoint, purpose-built for artillery. In 1486 Henry VII demanded completion of the gun tower ‘with all godly haste’.

The defences were eventually completed around 1493, and the gun tower became the heart of Dartmouth Castle.

It contained the winding mechanism for the river chain, which was secured close to a defensive tower at Godmerock on the opposite bank.

During the First Civil War (1642–6) between Charles I and Parliament, the prosperous town of Dartmouth was important to both sides, and changed hands twice.

On the outbreak of war the town repaired and manned its defences in support of Parliament. But In September 1643 a Royalist force under Prince Maurice, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Charles I’s nephew, attempted to capture the town.

He met with determined resistance, and the Parliamentarians fought for another month before surrendering.

For two and a half years, although Parliamentarian warships maintained a blockade to stop supplies reaching the town by sea, Dartmouth remained in Royalist hands, and the king’s men built new forts high above the river.

Then on 18 January 1646 Sir Thomas Fairfax’s Parliamentarian forces stormed the town at night, and the defenders were quickly overrun.

With the town taken, the castle – isolated by the river – had no effective land defences, and surrendered after just two days.

After 1646, Dartmouth’s defences were usually controlled by the government, rather than the town.

Two years after Charles II’s Restoration in 1660 Dartmouth had a new complement of the king’s ‘guard and garrisons’, comprising 23 men and a governor.

The castle and its guns were maintained at times of hostilities with the Dutch in the 1660s and 1670s and the French in the 1690s.

But upkeep seems to have lapsed after that.

In 1715 the military engineer Colonel Christian Lilly surveyed the defences of south-west England, and noted that Dartmouth Castle was in a ‘ruinous condition’, having ‘not one gun well mounted’.

No more than 20 feet (6 metres) remained of its chain.

By 1741 most of the castle’s guns were mounted in Maiden Fort, an open battery of 12 guns on the site of the old bulwark, with a guardhouse for the gunners and their equipment.

The battery was enlarged in 1747, probably in case of French invasion, when it was renamed the Grand Battery.

This could house guns on two levels to control the approach to the harbour. From then on the medieval gun tower was mainly used for accommodation and storage.

The castle saw no action during the long war with Napoleonic France (1793–1815), when the guns were manned by volunteers of the Dartmouth Artillery.

During the First World War two quick-firing guns were installed on Dartmouth Point Battery to prevent fast gunboats and torpedo boats from entering the harbour.

After 1918 the Office of Works restored the castle, and from 1922 leased it to the borough as a tourist attraction, with a tearoom in the battery.

But when war came again in 1939, the harbour became a haven for merchant convoys and the Royal Navy commissioned Philips’ shipyard in Dartmouth to build boats and small ships.

In the 21st century it is managed by English Heritage, with the Grand Battery displayed as it would have appeared in the 19th century.

Someone who recently visited the castle said: “Lovely place. Some good information displays and a few interactive bits for the young ones. Staff were really friendly and welcoming. Dogs welcome too.

”Some bits would be tricky if you have mobility issues as there are some tight steps.”

If you’d like to visit, the address is: Castle Rd, Dartmouth TQ6 0JN.

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