This view over Dartmouth towards to the mouth of the river Dart shows the town huddled on the hills beside the river and Kingswear on the opposite bank.

Dartmouth owes its existence to the sea and no it is fitting that the boatfloat is at the centre of the town. For years we kept a small motor boat in here, moored on the far wall. Photo: Sarah Perring

The Butterwalk, one of Dartmouth’s most famous landmarks, was badly damaged when a bomb exploded in the hairdessing salon over the Midland Bank - where the road widens. A cousin of mine was standing more or less where the man on the left carrying a bag is walking. She was unhurt despite being thrown through the glass door of the sweet shop by the bomb’s blast. More worried about her younger brother and me than collecting calories, the silly girl didn’t even grab a single handful of sweets before rushing out to find us - and this at a time of rationing!
The left hand picture was taken in the 1950’s, that to the right in 2008 by Bridget Rochard.

The sketch map above gives some idea of how the river was after the first work carried out - in about 1250 - was the construction of a dam or fosse to form a millpond. As the tide flowed in and out of this pond it drove mills on the fosse - but the millpond silted up and the mills closed.

In those days there were two communities (Clifton and Hardness) and the fosse was the first real link between the two and, although the mill owners did everything possible to stop people using it as a short cut, the two soon merged to form a single town - Dartmouth.

Foss Street, runs on the old Fosse, is now pedestrianised and well worth visiting.

Fairfax Place is one of the older parts of the town and once the buildings to the right were on the water’s edge with the roads between them slipways down to the river.

The house behind the red car is decorated with old painted panels (see above: photograph by Sarah Perring) which most people fail to see which is a great shame.

Dartmouth Castle and again one photograph taken in the 1950’s and a more modern one to the right (taken by Sarah Parring). If anything the castle, now under the care of English Heritage, is in better repair now than it was then. Click here to visit their web site.
Alongside the castle is the church dedicated St Petrox, There is a reference in a deed dated 1192 drawn by William, son of Stephen of Tunstal, restoring to Richard the Fleming 'all the land of Dertmeta which is above the Wyke and between the monastery of St. Peter and the land of Stoke’.

Bayards Cove is the earliest remaining quay in the port and remains almost the same as it was in the middle of the sixteenth century. It was from here that the fleet carrying soldiers to the First Crusade and, a few hundred years later, the Pilgrim Fathers finally sailed for the Americas in 1620.  
The photograph above was taken in the 1950’s as is evidenced by the cars..

Today the whole of the river frontage shown on the sketch map is ‘embanked’. There can be few better urban walks than this. Many other towns face rivers but few allow a continuous walk along the water’s edge.
Photograph by Sarah Perring