Plymouth ( ) is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of
Devon
, England, about south west of London
.
It is
built between the mouths of the rivers Plym
to the east
and Tamar to the west, where they join
Plymouth
Sound
. Since 1967 the unitary authority of Plymouth
has included the suburbs of Plympton
and Plymstock
, which are on the east side of the River
Plym.
Plymouth's
history goes back to the Bronze Age, when
its first settlement grew at Mount Batten
. This settlement continued to grow as a
trading post for the
Roman Empire,
until the more prosperous village of Sutton, the current Plymouth,
surpassed it. In 1620 the
Pilgrim
Fathers left Plymouth for the
New
World and established
Plymouth
Colony — the second English settlement in what is now the
United States of America. During the
English Civil War the town was held by the
Parliamentarians and was besieged between
1642 and 1646.
Throughout the
Industrial
Revolution Plymouth grew as a major shipping port, handling
imports and passengers from the
Americas
and the construction of ships for the
Royal
Navy.
The county
boroughs of Plymouth and Devonport
, and the urban
district of East Stonehouse
were merged to form a single county borough of
Plymouth collectively referred to as The Three Towns
. The city's naval importance later led
to its targeting and partial destruction during
World War II, an act known as the
Plymouth Blitz. After the war the city centre
was completely rebuilt.
Today the city is home to over 250,000 people, making it the
15th
most populous city in England. It is governed localy by
Plymouth City Council and is represented nationally by three
MPs. Plymouth's
economy is still strongly influenced by shipbuilding, but has
become a more service-based economy since the 1990s.
It has the 11th
largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students, the
University of
Plymouth
, and the largest operational naval base in Western
Europe — HMNB
Devonport
.
Plymouth has ferry links to France and Spain and an airport with
European services.
History
Early history
Upper Palaeolithic deposits, including
bones of Homo sapiens, have been found
in local caves, and artifacts dating from the Bronze Age to the Middle Iron
Age have been found at Mount Batten
showing that it was one of the main trading ports
of the country at that time. The settlement of Plympton
, further up
the River
Plym
than the current Plymouth, was also an early
trading port, but the river silted up in the early 11th century and
forced the mariners and merchants to settle at the current day
Barbican
near the river mouth. At the time this
village was called Sutton, meaning
south town in
Old English. The name
Plymouth, meaning
"mouth of the River Plym" — the river name being a
back-formation from
Plympton
("Plum-tree town"), was first mentioned in a
Pipe Roll of 1211.
Early defence and Renaissance

A sketch of Plymouth circa.
During the
Hundred Years' War a
French attack (1340) burned a manor house and took some prisoners,
but failed to get into the town. In 1403 the town was burned by
Breton raiders.
A series of fortifications were
built in the Tudor and Elizabethan eras, which include the four
round towers featured on the city coat of arms; the remains of two
of these can still be found at Mount Batten
and at Sutton Pool below the Royal
Citadel
.
During the 16th century locally produced wool was the major export
commodity. Plymouth was the home port for successful maritime
traders, among them
Sir John
Hawkins, who led England's first foray into the
Atlantic slave trade, as well as Sir
Francis Drake.
According to legend,
Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the Hoe
before engaging the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1620 the
Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the
New World from Plymouth, establishing
Plymouth Colony — the second English
colony in what is now the United States of America.
During the
English Civil War
Plymouth sided with the
Parliamentarian
and was besieged for almost four years by the
Royalists. The last major attack by the Royalist
was by Sir
Richard
Grenville leading thousands of soldiers towards Plymouth, but
they were defeated by the Plymothians.
The civil war ended
as a Parliamentary win, but monarchy was restored by King Charles II in 1660, who
imprisoned many of the Parliamentary heroes on Drake's
Island
. Construction of the Royal Citadel began in
1665, after
the Restoration; it was
armed with cannon facing both out to sea and into the town,
rumoured to be a reminder to residents not to oppose
the Crown.
Naval power, docks and Foulston
Throughout the 17th century Plymouth had gradually lost its
pre-eminence as a trading port. By the mid-1600s commodities
manufactured elsewhere in England cost too much to transport to
Plymouth and the city had no means of processing sugar or tobacco
imports, although it played a relatively small part in the
Atlantic slave trade during the early
1700s.
In
1690 the first dockyard, HMNB Devonport
, opened on the banks of the Tamar and further docks were built in 1727, 1762
and 1793. In the 18th century new houses were built near the
dock, called Plymouth Dock at the time, and a new town grew up. In
1712 there were 318 men employed and by 1733 it had grown to a
population of 3,000 people.
Prior to the latter half of the 18th century grain, timber and then
coal were the greatest imports. During this time the real source of
wealth and the major employer in the region became the dockyard.
The
Three
Towns
conurbation of Plymouth, Stonehouse
and Devonport
enjoyed some prosperity during the late 18th and
early 19th century and were enriched by a series of neo-classical urban developments
designed by London architect John
Foulston. Foulston was important for the town and was
responsible for several grand public buildings, many now destroyed,
including the Athenaeum, the Theatre Royal
and Royal Hotel, and much of Union
Street
. Some of the greatest imports to Plymouth
from the
Americas and Europe during the
latter half of the 19th century included maize, wheat, barley,
sugar cane,
guano,
sodium nitrate and
phosphate. Aside from the dockyard, other
industries such as the gasworks, the railways and tramways and a
number of small chemical works had begun to develop in the 19th
century continuing into the 20th century.
Twentieth century

Union Street before World War Two
shows trams
The city was heavily bombed by the
Germans
during World War II in a series of 59 raids known as the
Plymouth Blitz.
Although the dockyards
were the principal targets, much of the city centre
and over 3,700 houses were completely destroyed and more than 1,000
civilians lost their lives. The redevelopment of the city
was planned by
Sir Patrick
Abercrombie in 1943 and by 1964 over 20,000 new homes had been
built. Most of the shops had been destroyed and those that remained
were cleared to enable a zoned reconstruction according to his
plan.
Charles Church
was hit by incendiary
bombs and partially destroyed in 1941 during the Blitz, but has
not been demolished, as it is now an official permanent monument to
the bombing of Plymouth during World War II. Devonport
Dockyard was kept busy refitting aircraft carriers such as the
Ark Royal. By the time
this work ended in the late 1970s the nuclear submarine base was
operational. The army had substantially left the city by 1971, with
barracks pulled down in the 1960s, however the city has become home
to the
42 Commando of the
Royal Marines.
Governance
Local government history
The first
record of the existence of a settlement at Plymouth was in the
Domesday Book in 1086 as
Sudtone, Saxon for south farm, located at the present day
Barbican
. In 1254 it gained status as a town and in
1439, became the first town in England to be granted a Charter by
Parliament. Between 1439 and
1934, Plymouth was governed by a
Mayor.
In 1914
the county boroughs of Plymouth and
Devonport
, and the urban
district of East Stonehouse
merged to form a single county borough of
Plymouth. Collectively they were referred to as
"The Three
Towns
". Plymouth was granted
city status on 18 October
1928.
The
city's first Lord Mayor was appointed in 1935 and its boundaries
further expanded in 1967 to include the town of Plympton
and the parish of
Plymstock
.
The 1971
Local Government White
Paper proposed abolishing county boroughs, which would have
left Plymouth, a town of 250,000 people, being administered from a
council based at the smaller Exeter
, on the
other side of the county. This led to Plymouth lobbying for the
creation of a Tamarside county, to include Plymouth, Torpoint
, Saltash
, and the rural hinterland. The campaign was not
successful, and Plymouth ceased to be a county borough on 1 April
1974 with responsibility for education, social services, highways
and libraries transferred to
Devon County Council. All
powers returned when the city become a
unitary authority on 1 April 1998 under
recommendations of the
Banham
Commission.
In the
Parliament of the United
Kingdom
, Plymouth is represented by the three constituencies
of Plymouth Devonport
, Plymouth Sutton
and South West Devon
and within the European Parliament
as South West
England. In the
2005 General Election,
Devonport and Sutton were held by
Labour MPs
Alison Seabeck and
Linda Gilroy, with South West Devon held by
Conservative MP
Gary Streeter.
Starting from 2009 or 2010, the next general election,
the constituencies of Devonport and Sutton will merge to become
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport
, whilst a new constituency, Plymouth Moor View
, will be formed to the north of the city taking in
wards from Devonport.
City Council

Plymouth City Council logo

The civic centre building behind the
Theatre Royal car park
The City of Plymouth is divided into 20
wards, 17 of which elect three councillors
and the other three electing two councillors, making up a total
council of 57. Each year a third of the council is up for election
for three consecutive years — there are no elections on the
following "fourth" year, which is when County Council elections
take place. The total
electorate for Plymouth was 183,358 in
December 2007. The
local election of May
2008 resulted in a political composition of 37
Conservative and 20
Labour. Plymouth has a
Lord Mayor, which is elected each year on the
third Friday of May by a group of six people. It is traditional
that the position of the Lord Mayor alternates between the
Conservative Party and the Labour Party annually and that the Lord
Mayor chooses the Deputy Lord Mayor. As of May 2009 and until May
2010
Ken Foster holds the position of
Lord Mayor.

The Great Hall in the Guildhall
The Lord
Mayor's official residence is 3 Elliot Terrace, located on the Hoe
. Once a home of
Waldorf and
Nancy Astor, it was given by
Lady Astor to the City of Plymouth as an official residence for
future Lord Mayors and is also used today for civic hospitality, as
lodgings for visiting dignitaries and High Court judges and it is
also available to hire for private events. The Civic Centre
municipal office building in Armada Way became a
listed building in June 2007 because of its
quality and period features, but has become the centre of a
controversy as the council planned for its demolition estimating
that it could cost £40m to refurbish it, resulting in possible job
losses.
Plymouth City Council is formally
twinned with:
Geography
Plymouth
lies between the River
Plym
to the east and the River
Tamar to the west; both rivers flow into the natural harbour of
Plymouth
Sound
. Since 1967, the unitary authority of Plymouth has included
the, once independent, towns of Plympton
and Plymstock
which lie along the east of the River Plym.
The River
Tamar forms the county boundary between Devon
and Cornwall
and its estuary forms the Hamoaze
on which is sited Devonport Dockyard
. The River Plym, which flows off Dartmoor
to the north east, forms a smaller estuary to the
east of the city called Cattewater
. Plymouth Sound
is protected from the sea by the Plymouth
Breakwater
, in use since 1814. In the Sound is
Drake's
Island
which is seen from Plymouth Hoe
, a flat public area on top of limestone cliffs. The
Unitary Authority of Plymouth is
30.8 square miles (79.78 km²), but the city of Plymouth,
as cited from Plymouth City Council, is 30.61 square miles
(79.29 km²).
The topography rises from sea level to a
height, at Roborough
, of about 509 feet (155 m) above Ordnance Datum (AOD).
Geologically, Plymouth has a mixture of limestone, Devonian
slate,
granite and
Middle
Devonian limestone.
Plymouth
Sound, Shores and Cliffs
is a Site of Special Scientific
Interest, because of its geology. The bulk of the city
is built upon Upper Devonian slates and shales and the headlands at
the entrance to Plymouth Sound are formed of Lower Devonian slates,
which can withstand the power of the sea.
A band of Middle
Devonian limestone runs west to east from Cremyll
to Plymstock
including the Hoe. Local limestone may be
seen in numerous buildings, walls and pavements throughout
Plymouth. To the north and north east of the city is the granite
mass of Dartmoor; the granite was mined and exported via Plymouth.
Rocks brought down the Tamar from Dartmoor include ores containing
tin, copper,
tungsten, lead and other
minerals. There is evidence that the middle Devonian limestone belt
at the south edge of Plymouth and in Plymstock was quarried at West
Hoe, Cattedown and Radford.
On 27 April 1944
Sir Patrick
Abercrombie's Plan for
Plymouth to rebuild the city was published; it called for
the demolition of the few remaining pre-War buildings in the city
centre and their replacement with wide, modern
boulevards aligned east-west linked by a
north-south
avenue (Armada Way)
connecting the railway station and Plymouth Hoe.
Prefabs had started to be built by 1946,
and over 1,000 permanent
council
houses were built each year from 1951–57. By 1964 over 20,000
new homes had been built, more than 13,500 of them permanent
council homes and 853 built by the
Admiralty. Plymouth is home to 28 parks with an
average size of .
Its largest park is Central
Park
, with other sizeable green spaces including
Victoria Park
, Freedom
Fields Park
, Alexandra Park, Devonport Park
and the Hoe.
Climate
Along with the rest of
South West
England, Plymouth has a temperate climate which is generally
wetter and milder than the rest of England. This means a wide range
of exotic plants can be grown. The annual mean temperature is
approximately . Due to the modifying effect of the sea the seasonal
range is less than in most other parts of the UK. February is the
coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between and . July and
August are the warmest months with mean daily maxima over .
South West England has a favoured location when the
Azores High pressure area extends
north-eastwards towards the UK, particularly in summer. Coastal
areas have average annual sunshine totals over 1,600 hours.
Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic
depressions or with convection. The
Atlantic depressions are more vigorous in autumn and winter and
most of the rain which falls in those seasons in the south-west is
from this source. Average annual rainfall is around . November to
March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having
the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the
south-west.
Education
The
University
of Plymouth
is the 11th largest university in the United
Kingdom by total number of students (including the Open
University
). It
has over 30,000 students, almost 3,000 staff and an annual income
of around £160 million. It was founded in 1992 from Polytechnic
South West following the
Further and Higher
Education Act 1992. It has courses in maritime business, marine
engineering, marine biology and Earth, ocean and environmental
sciences, surf science, shipping and logistics.
The city is also home to three large colleges.
The University College Plymouth St Mark &
St John
(known as "Marjon"), which specialises in teacher training, offers training across
the country and abroad. The City College Plymouth
provides courses from the most basic to Foundation degrees for approximately
26,000 students. Plymouth College of Art
offers a selection of courses including
media. It was started 153 years ago and is now one of only
four independent colleges of art and design in the UK.
Plymouth also has 71
state primary phase schools, 13 state secondary schools, eight
special schools and three selective state grammar schools, as well
as an independent school, Plymouth College
.
The city
was also home to the Royal Naval Engineering
College
; opened in 1880 in Keyham
, it
trained engineering students for five years before they completed
the remaining two years of the course at Greenwich.
The
college closed in 1910, but in 1940 a new college opened at
Manadon
. This was renamed Dockyard Technical
College in 1959 before finally closing in 1994; training was
transferred to the University of Southampton
.
Plymouth
is home to the Plymouth Marine Laboratory
, which focuses on global issues of climate change and sustainability. It monitors the
effects of ocean acidity on
corals and
shellfish and reports the results to the
UK government. It also cultivates
algae that
could be used to make
biofuels or in the
treatment of waste water by using technology such as
photo-bioreactors. It works
alongside the
Boots Group to investigate
the use of algae in skin care protects, taking advantage of the
chemicals they contain that adapt to protect themselves from the
sun.
Demography
In August 2009, the
Office for National
Statistics estimated that Plymouth's unitary authority area
population for mid-2008 was 252,800; 12,080 more people than that
of the
last census from
2001, which indicated that Plymouth had a population of 240,720.
The average household size was 2.3 persons. To the right is a graph
showing the population change of the city since 1801. The
population rose rapidly during the second half of the 19th century,
but declined by over 1.6% from 1931 to 1951.
Plymouth's gross value added (a measure of its
economy) was 3.501 billion GBP in
2004 making up approximately one quarter of Devon
's
economy. Its GVA per capita was £14,327 and compared to the
national average of £17,115, it was £2,788 lower.
Plymouth's unemployment rate was 5.7% in January-December
2008 which was 1.6 points higher than the South West average and
equal to the average for Great Britain
(England, Wales and Scotland). At the time
of the 2001 UK census, the ethnic composition of Plymouth's
population was 98.4%
White, with the
largest minority ethnic group being
Chinese at 0.3%.
Economy
Because of its coastal location, the economy of Plymouth has
traditionally been
maritime, in
particular the defence sector with over 12,000 people employed and
approximately 7,500 in the armed forces.
The Plymouth Gin
Distillery
has been producing Plymouth Gin
since 1793, which was exported around the world by
the Royal Navy. During the 1930s,
it was the most widely distributed
gin and has a
controlled
term of origin. Since the 1980s, employment in the defence
sector has decreased substantially and the public sector is now
prominent particularly in administration, health, education,
medicine and engineering.
Devonport Dockyard
is the UK's only naval base that refits nuclear
submarines and the Navy estimates that the Dockyard generates about
10% of Plymouth's income. Plymouth has the largest cluster
of marine and maritime businesses in the south west with 270 firms
operating within the sector.
Other substantial employers include the
university
with 30,000 students and almost 3,000 staff, as
well as the Tamar
Science Park
employing 500 people in 50 companies, which is the
fastest growing science park in the United Kingdom.
Plymouth has a post-war shopping area in the city centre with
substantial pedestrianisation. At the west end of the zone inside a
grade II
listed building is the
Pannier Market that was completed in 1959 —
pannier meaning "basket" from
French, so it translates as "basket market".
In terms of retail floorspace, Plymouth is ranked in the top five
in the
South West, and 29th
nationally. Plymouth was one of the first ten British cities to
trial the new
Business
Improvement District initiative.
The Tinside Pool
is situated at the foot of the Hoe and became a
grade II listed building in 1998 before being restored to its 1930s
look for £3.4 million.
Plymouth 2020

The old Drake Circus centre was
demolished in 2004
Plymouth Council is currently undertaking a project of urban
redevelopment called the 'Vision for Plymouth' launched by the
architect
David Mackay and
backed by Plymouth City Council. Its projects range from shopping
centres, a cruise terminal, a boulevard and to increase the
population to 300,000 and build 33,000 dwellings.
In 2004
the old Drake Circus shopping centre and Charles Cross car park
were demolished and replaced by the latest Drake Circus
Shopping Centre
, which opened in October 2006. It received
negative feedback before opening when David Mackay said it was
already "ten years out of date".
In contrast, the Theatre
Royal
's production and education centre, TR2, which was
built on wasteland at Cattedown
, was a runner-up for the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture in
2003.
There is a project involving the future relocation of Plymouth City
Council's headquarters, the civic centre, to the current location
of the Bretonside bus station; it would involve both the bus
station and civic centre being demolished and a rebuilt together at
the location with the land from the civic centre being sold off.
Other
suggestions include the demolition of the Plymouth
Pavilions
entertainment arena to create
a canal 'boulevard' linking Millbay
to the city centre. Millbay is being
regenerated with mixed residential, retail and office space
alongside the ferry port.
Transport
The
A38 dual-carriageway runs from east to
west across the north of the city.
Heading east, it connects Plymouth to the
M5 motorway about away near Exeter
; and heading
west it connects Cornwall and Devon via the Tamar Bridge
. Regular bus services are provided by
Plymouth Citybus,
First Group and
Target
Travel.
There are three Park and ride services located at Milehouse
, Coypool (Plympton
) and George Junction (Plymouth
City Airport
), which are operated by First Group.
A regular
international ferry service provided by Brittany Ferries operates from Millbay
taking cars and foot passengers directly to France
(Roscoff) and Spain (Santander
) on the three ferries, MV Armorique, MV Bretagne and MV Pont-Aven. There is a passenger
ferry between Stonehouse
and the Cornish hamlet of Cremyll
, which is believed to have operated continuously
since 1204. There is also a pedestrian ferry from the
Mayflower
Steps
to Mount
Batten
, and an alternative to using the Tamar Bridge
via the Torpoint Ferry
(vehicle and pedestrian) across the River Tamar.
The
city's airport is Plymouth City Airport
about north of the city centre. The airport is home
to the local airline Air Southwest,
which operates flights across the British Isles
and France. In June 2003 a report by the
South
West RDA was published looking at the future of aviation in the
south west and the possible closure of airports.
It concluded that the
best option for the South West was to close Plymouth City Airport
and expand Exeter International Airport
and Newquay Cornwall Airport
, although it did conclude that this was not the
best option for Plymouth.
Plymouth
railway station
, which opened in 1877, is managed by First Great Western and also sees trains
on the CrossCountry and South West Trains networks. Smaller
stations are served by local trains on the
Tamar Valley Line and
Cornish Main Line.
First Great Western have come under fire
recently, due to widespread rail service cuts across the south
west, which affect Plymouth greatly. Three
MPs from the three main political
parties in the region have lobbied that the train services are
vital to its economy.
Religion
Plymouth
has about 150 churches and its Roman Catholic cathedral (1858) is in Stonehouse
. The city's oldest church is St Andrew's
(Anglican) located at the top of Royal
Parade—it is the largest parish church in Devon
and has been
a site of gathering since 800 AD. The city also includes
five Baptist churches, a
Greek
Orthodox church and 13
Roman
Catholic churches. In 1831 the first
Brethren assembly in England, a movement
of conservative non-denominational Evangelical Christians, was
established in the city, so that Brethren are often called Plymouth
Brethren, although the movement did not begin locally.
Plymouth has the first known reference to
Jews
in the
South West from Sir
Francis Drake's voyages in 1577 to
1580, as his log mentioned "Moses the Jew"-—a man from Plymouth.
The
Plymouth
Synagogue
is a Listed Grade II*
building, built in 1762 and is the oldest Ashkenazi Synagogue in the English speaking world. There are also
places of worship for
Islam,
Bahá'í,
Buddhism, Chinese beliefs and
Humanism.
73.6% of the population described themselves in the last census
return as being at least nominally Christian with all other
religions represented by less than 0.5% each. The number of people
without a religion is above the national average at 18.3%, with
7.1% not stating their religion.
Culture

The Palace Theatre
Built in
1815, Union
Street
was at the heart of Plymouth's historical
culture. It became known as
the servicemen's
playground, as it was where sailors from the Royal Navy would
seek entertainment of all kinds. During the 1930s, there were 30
pubs and it attracted such performers as
Charlie Chaplin to the Palace Theatre. It is
now the late-night hub of Plymouth's entertainment strip, but has a
reputation for trouble at closing hours.
Outdoor
events and festivals are held including the annual British
Firework Championships
in August, which attracts tens of thousands of
people across the waterfront. In August 2006 the
world record for the most amount of simultaneous fireworks was
surpassed, by Roy Lowry of the University of Plymouth
, over Plymouth Sound
. Since 1992 the Music of the Night has been
performed in the Royal Citadel
by the 29 Commando Regiment
and local performers to raise money for local and military
charities.
The
city's main theatres are the Theatre Royal
(1,315 capacity), its Drum Theatre (200 capacity),
and its production and creative learning centre, The TR2.
The
Plymouth
Pavilions
has multi uses for the city staging music concerts,
basketball matches and stand-up comedy. There are also three
cinemas: ABC Cinema at Derrys Cross, Plymouth Arts Centre at Looe
Street and a
Vue cinema at the Barbican
Leisure Park.
The Plymouth
City Museum and Art Gallery
is operated by Plymouth City Council allowing free
admission — it has six galleries.
Plymouth is the regional television centre of
BBC South West. A team of journalists are
headquartered at Plymouth for the
ITV
South West regional station, after a merger with
ITV West forced
ITV
Westcountry to close on 16 February 2009. The main local
newspapers serving Plymouth are
The Herald and
Western Morning News with
BBC Radio Devon and
Heart Plymouth being the main local radio
stations.
Sport
Plymouth
is home to Plymouth Argyle Football
Club, who play in the Football League Championship
(second tier of English football) at the Home Park
stadium in Central Park
. It links itself with the group of English
non-conformists that left Plymouth for the
New
World in 1620: its nickname is "The Pilgrims".
Other
sports clubs include Plymouth Albion R.F.C.
and the Plymouth
Raiders basketball club. Plymouth Albion Rugby Football
Club is a
rugby union club that was
founded in 1875 and are currently competing in the second tier of
Professional English Rugby the
RFU
Championship. Plymouth Raiders play in the
British Basketball League — the
top tier of British basketball.
They play at the Plymouth
Pavilions
entertainment arena and were founded in
1983. Plymouth Devils are a
speedway team in team in the
British
National League.
Plymouth is also home to two
American
football clubs: The
Plymouth
Admirals and the
Plymouth
Blitz.
Public services
Since 1973 Plymouth has been supplied water by
South West Water. Prior to the 1973 take
over it was supplied by Plymouth County Borough Corporation. Before
the 19th century two
leats were built in order
to provide drinking water for the town.
They carried water
from Dartmoor
to Plymouth. A watercourse, known as Plymouth or
Drake's
Leat
, was opened on 24 April 1591 to tap the River Meavy
. The Devonport Leat
was constructed to carry fresh drinking water to
the expanding dockyards at Devonport
. It was fed by three Dartmoor rivers: The
West Dart, Cowsic and Blackabrook.
It seems to have been carrying water since 1797, but it was
officially completed in 1801. It was originally designed to carry
water to Devonport Dockyard, but has since been shortened and now
carries water to
Burrator
Reservoir, which feeds most of the water supply of Plymouth.
Burrator Reservoir is located about north of the city and was
constructed in 1898 and expanded in 1928.

The Plymouth Combined Crown and County
Courts
Plymouth City Council is responsible for waste management
throughout the city and
South West
Water is responsible for sewerage. Plymouth's electricity is
supplied from the
National Grid
and distributed to Plymouth via
Western Power Distribution.
On the
outskirts of Plympton
a combined cycle
gas-powered station, the Langage Power Station
, is due to start producing electricity for Plymouth
at the end of 2009.
Her Majesty's Courts
Service provide a
Magistrates'
Court and a Combined
Crown and
County Court in the city. The Plymouth
Borough Police, formed in 1836, eventually became part of
Devon and Cornwall
Constabulary. There are police stations at Charles Cross and
Crownhill (the Divisional HQ) and smaller stations at Plympton and
Plymstock. The city has one of the Devon and Cornwall Area
Crown Prosecution Service
Divisional offices.
Plymouth has five fire stations located in
Camel's Head, Crownhill
, Greenbank
, Plympton
(West Devon HQ) and Plymstock
which is part of Devon and Somerset
Fire and Rescue Service. The Royal National Lifeboat
Institution have an Atlantic 85 class lifeboat and
Severn class lifeboat
stationed at Millbay
Docks
.
Plymouth
is served by Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
and the city's NHS
hospital is Derriford
Hospital
north of the city centre and there is also the
Royal Eye Infirmary near the city centre. South Western Ambulance
Service NHS Trust operates in Plymouth and the rest of the
south west; its headquarters are in Exeter
.
The mid
nineteenth century burial ground at Ford Park Cemetery
was recently reopened by a successful trust and the
City council operate two large early twentieth century cemeteries
at Weston
Mill
and Efford
both with
crematoria and chapels.
Notable people
People from Plymouth are known as Plymothians or less formally as
Janners.
Its meaning is described as a person from
Devon
, deriving from Cousin Jan (the Devon
form of
John), but more particularly in
naval circles anyone from the Plymouth
area. The Elizabethan navigator, Sir Francis Drake was born in the nearby town of
Tavistock
and was the mayor of Plymouth. He was the
first
Englishman to circumnavigate
the world and was known by the Spanish as
El Draco meaning
"The Dragon" after he raided many of their ships. He died of
dysentery in 1596 off the coast of
Puerto Rico. In 2002 a mission to
recover his body and bring it to Plymouth was allowed by the
Ministry of
Defence. Antarctic explorers
Robert Falcon Scott and
Frank Bickerton both lived in the city.
Artists include
Beryl Cook whose
paintings depict the culture of Plymouth and
Robert Lenkiewicz, whose paintings looked
at themes such as:
vagrancy,
sexual behaviour and suicide, lived in the city from the 1960s
until his death in 2002. In addition, actor
Sir Donald Sinden and
George Passmore of
Turner Prize winning duo
Gilbert and George were born in the city.
Notable athletes include swimmer
Sharron
Davies, diver
Tom Daley,
dancer
Wayne Sleep, and footballer
Trevor Francis. Other past residents
include composer
Ron Goodwin, and
journalist
Angela Rippon.
Landmarks
After the
English Civil War the Royal
Citadel
was built in 1666 on the east end of Plymouth Hoe
, to defend the port from naval attacks, suppress
Plymothian Parliamentary leanings and to train the armed
forces. Further west is Smeaton's Tower
, which was built in 1759 as a lighthouse on rocks
off shore, but dismantled and the top two thirds rebuilt on the Hoe
in 1877. It is open to the public and has views over the
Plymouth Sound and the city from the lantern room.
Plymouth has 20 war
memorials of which nine are on The Hoe
including: Plymouth Naval war memorial, to remember
those killed in World War One and Two, and the National Armada
memorial, to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
The early
port settlement of Plymouth, called 'Sutton', approximates to the
area now referred to as the Barbican
and has 100 listed
buildings and the largest concentration of cobbled streets in Britain. The Pilgrim Fathers left for the New World in 1620 near the commemorative Mayflower
Steps
in Sutton Pool. A mile upstream on
the opposite side of the River Plym
is the Saltram estate, which
has a Jacobean and Georgian mansion.Image:Royal Citadel,
Plymouth.jpg|The Royal Citadel
Image:SmeatonsTower2006.JPG|Smeaton's
Tower
Image:Plymouth Sound and
Breakwater.jpg|Plymouth
Sound
and Breakwater
Image:Britannia-Statue.jpg|National Armada
memorial (
Britannia)Image:War memorial,
Plymouth.jpg|Naval War Memorial
Image:Plymouth Barbican and harbour.jpg|The
Parade, Barbican
Image:MayflowerSteps.jpg|The Mayflower
Steps
MemorialImage:Saltram House 2008.jpg|Saltram
House
Notes
- Plymouth data.info attributes this statement to
Crispin Gill.
- The South West Water Authority Constitution Order 1973 (1973
No. 1307)
Further reading
External links