Every now and then someone will send in a photograph that I’ve never ever seen of some familiar part of Plymouth and before I know it I’ve lost 10, 15, 20 minutes just staring at it on screen, enlarging sections and trying to precisely place it, date it and generally try to uncover the wealth of information it contains.
This is one such photograph. Thanks to Bob Hill who passed it my way. Bob says he’s had a copy for many years but has long since forgotten where he first found it.
Clearly we’re looking across Millbay towards Stonehouse, the chimney of the Royal William Yard and the Melville Clock Tower are visible in the middle distance, the hazy outline of Mount Edgcumbe sits across from it, on the other side of the entrance to the Tamar.
It’s an early image for sure, but how early? The western banks of Millbay are relatively undeveloped, we see the Prince of Wales Redoubt, the Longroom and on the far right the Royal Marine Barracks.
In the foreground is the distinctive form of the eighteenth century Millbay Prison, or Mill Prison as it was known as during the American War of Independence – thousands of American soldiers passed through here in the 1770s and early 1780s.
The prison was practically rebuilt in 1799 and thereafter became known as Millbay and soon afterwards served a temporary home to a number of French prisoners.
The buildings were still standing 100 years later but were then not long for this world, Millbay Park being laid out on much of the site of what had, by then, been transformed into Millbay Barracks.
Millbay Park was opened for public use, ‘subject to Military Regulations’ on June 22, 1911, as the plaque at the entrance proclaims, ‘on the day of the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary’.
Meanwhile, just beyond the prison walls we see the roofs and chimney of the complex that housed Millbay Soap for many years while the terrace to the left in West Hoe Road was relatively newly laid out.
The photograph itself would appear to have been taken from the Duke of Cornwall Hotel, which was completed in 1865.
Certainly it’s hard to think what other vantage point would have been available back then – the tower of St James the Less Church, which stood behind the Duke would have been too far to the south of this vantage point.
Today, of course, Ballard House, on the site of the original Ballard Institute, stands to the right of the site of the soap works chimney.
Opened by one of Plymouth’s most famous philanthropists, Archie Ballard, in 1928, the Institute was badly damaged during the war and Ballard himself died in 1942.
The building was subsequently demolished but a new institute arose on a site overlooked by the New Continental Hotel in the 1960s, although alas that too is now long gone.
Perhaps the most significant structure to grace this scene has come and gone since this photograph was taken – the grain silo on the western banks of Millbay.
Today the greatly expanded operations of the Brittany Ferries dominate that site.
Thus there have been a great many changes here, and doubtless several clues to dating the image that I haven’t referenced here, but don’t hesitate to let me know if you know more!