Dartmoor Prison, Princetown, Devon, England looking very gloomy as a snow storm approaches.
HM Prison Dartmoor, is a men’s prison, located in Princetown, high on Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. Its high granite walls dominate this area of the moor.
Constructed originally between 1806 and 1809 by local labour, to hold prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars, it was also used to hold American prisoners from the War of 1812. Between 6,000 and 10,000 POWs were kept here, in very crowded conditions. Those who died - around 1500, mostly from disease - were buried on the moor.
In 1850 Dartmoor Prison became a civilian prison. Once the criminals arrived, they were set to work - quarrying, cultivating and draining the moor, mainly, but also clearing fields and building walls and paths. Many stone walls on Dartmoor were built by prisoners. The prison was closed in 1917 to be converted into a Home Office Work Centre for certain conscientious objectors. It was again reopened as a prison in 1920, and then contained some of Britain's most serious offenders.
