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Tourist Information: Civic Centre, Royal Parade. Bus Station: Bretonside for all county services; suburban services from city centre. Railway Station North Road, North of the centre. Theatres Theatre Roya, royal Parade, Athenaeum Theatre, Derry's Cross, Barbican Theatre, opposite Mayflower Steps. Ferries to Roscoff, France and Santander, Spain. Local ferry service from Ferry Road, Stonehouse, to Cremyll (for Mount Edgcumbe). Pleasure cruises from the Barbican to Cawsand and from Phoenix Wharf round the warships and dockyard to the Yealm and the Tamar. Airport 4 miles N of city centre, off A386. Flights to Aberdeen, Bristol, Cork, Glasgow, London (Heathrow), Newcastle, Paris and the Scilly Isles.
History
Plymouth, known to the Domesday Book as Sutton, received its charter and its present name in 1439. It ws fortified soon afterwards and ever since has played an important part in maritime history. Catherine of ARagon landed here in 1501. The town supplied seven ships to fight the Armada (1588) and the English fleet awaited the arrival of the Spaniards in Plymouth Sound. The starting-point for many expeditions by Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir John Hawkins (a native), Plymouth was also the last port touched by the Pilgrim Fathers on their way to America in 1620.
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In the Civil War it sided with Parliament and was the only town in SW England to escape capture by the Royalists. Air raids in 1941-45 destoyed many historic buildings, though the city centre has been thoughfully rebuilt. American troops embarked from Plymouth on D-Day in 1944, and the Falkland Task Force began and ended its expedition here in 1982.
The Hoe is a raised esplanade with wide lawns overlooking the Sound. A well-loved legend has Sir Francis Drake playing bowls here when the Spanish Armada was first sighted. Among the monuments are a replica (1884) of Drake's statue at Tavistock and Smeaton's Tower (open in summer), the upper part of the third Eddystone Lighthouse. The top of the tower gives the best view from the Hoe, which in clear weather reaches 14mS to the Breakwater and the Eddystone Lighthouse. To the S is the Plymouth Dome, with reconstructions and high-tech displays bringing the history of Plymouth to life. To the E is the Royal Citadel, built in 1666, with a fine gateway and a statue of George II in Roman costume; the buildings are now used by a commando regiment of the Royal Artillery. Below their walls is the Plymouth Aquarium, part of the research laboratory of the Marine Biological Association. (Typist's note: We now have a new "National" Aquarium, situated, I think, at Sutton Marina.)
N of the Citadel lies the old quarter of Plymouth, with the quay known as the Barbican. The Mayflower Stone and Steps commemorate the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers to America in 1620. Nearby plaques remember the homecoming of the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1838) and the first seaplane flight across the Atlantic (1919). Among the historic buildings are the Old Custom House (1586) to the N, the Elizabethan House on New ST., and the Island House , where the Pilgrim Fathers are said to have spent their last night in England, at the head of Southside Street.
Southside Street and Notte Street lead to St Andrew's Street, with the Merchant's House Museum (open), a 16-17C building now containing exhibits of Plymouth's history. St Andrew's, the mother church of Plymouth, is 15C with a good tower.
The nave, burned by enemy action in 1941, ws reconsecrated in 1957, with a W window by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens. Chantrey's head of Zachariah Mudge (d 1769) survived the fire. The entrails of Sir Martin Frobisher (d. 1594) and of Admiral Blake (1599-1657_ are buried in or near the chancel. Captain Bligh of the "Bounty" was baptised here.
Behind St Andrew's is the Prysten House (open), with a galleried courtyard, built in 1498 as a merchant's house and not, as used to be believed, a monastic hostel.
From St Andrew's Cross, Exeter Street leads NE, carried over the bus station by a viaduct, to the ruined 17C Charles Church.
In Drake Circus, N of St Andrew's Cross, are the Public Library and the Museum and Art Gallery, with work by Reynolds, Northcote and Haydon (all local men), Old Master drawings, Plymouth silver and William Cookworthy's Plymouth and Bristol procelain. (Also here is the University of Plymouth - and Portland Square, the scene of the tragic "direct hit" of an air-raid shelter).
Union Street (hive of nightlife) leads W from Derry's Cross through Stonehouse. On the promontory to the S are the quay at Admiral's Hard, the Royal Marine Barracks (begun 1784) and the vast Royal william Victualling Yard laid out by Rennie in 1826-35, with a colossal statue of William IV over the gate. Beyond Stonehouse Bridge lies Devonport with its Navy dockyard. On Mount Wise, to the left, stand the official residences of the General in Command and the Port Admiral, and the Scott Monument of 1925. Richmond Walk, below, leads to Mutton Cove.
The Dockyard covers 300 acres and fronts on the Hamoaze, or estuary of the Tamar, which serves as a harbour for warships, including nuclear submarines. The S Dockyard and the Gun Wharf, built by Vanbrugh (1718-25), are connected with the Keyham Steam Yard in the N by railway tunnel. The largest ships can be refitted here.
The Eddystone Lighthouse, 14m S, eas built by Sir James Douglas in 1878-82; its light, flashing twice every half-minute, is visible for 17m. Of its predecessors, the 1st (1696-99, Winstanley) was swept away by a storm in 17-3, the 2nd, of wood (1706-08, Rudyard), was destroyed by fire in 1755, and the 3rd, Smeaton's lighthouse of 1759, was removed in 1882 because the sea had eroded the rock on which it stood (upper third now stands on the Hoe).
Mount Edgcumbe (open) on the Cornish peninsula, is best reached by taking the pedestrian ferry from Admiral's Hard in Stonehouse to Cremyll. The 16C mansion, gutted by fire in 1941 and rebuilt in 1960, is less interesting than the varied and finely wooded grounds laid out between 1761 and 1800, with deer park, temples, amphitheatre, and French, English and Italian gardens. They enjoy magnificent views over Plymouth Sound. From Cremyll the road climbs to the twin fishing villages of Kingsand and Cawsand. A fine cliff walk continues past Penlee Point to Rame Head, with teh 15C chapel of St Michael.
The ferry crossing the Hamoaze from Ferry Road in Devonport to the Cornish coast at Torpoint, gives access to Antony House (National Trust) off A374 1m inland. Standing in pleasant grounds leading down to the Lynher, the house (1711-21), has a central block of grey Pentewan stone flanked by colonnades and red-brick wings. The well-preserved interior has original panelling, furniture and portraits of the arews. Adjoining the estate is the privately owned Antony Woodland Garden of 100 acres, originally established by Humphry Repton. A374 continues W to Sheviock, where the 13C church has Courtenay monuments. Portwrinkle, 1m SW, has along beach stretching E to Rame Head. 7m, Polbathic. 1m NE is St Germans (my Mum was born here!), where the striking church, with two W towers and a deep-set Norman porch, served as Cornwall's cathedral until c1409. Nearby is the 19C mansion of Port Eliot, and to the W are the 17C Moyle almshouses. About 3m SW of Polbathic is the resort of Downderry. 12m, the road forks, A387 heading W to Looe (7m) and A374 continuing N to join A38 for Liskeard.
The attractive excusion up the Tamar to (19m) Weir Head takes c5 and a half hours by boat from Phoenix Wharf. Steering through the Hamoaze between Devonport and Torpoint, it leaves the mough of the Lynher on the left, and enters the Tamar proper, the boundary between Devon and Cornwall. It passes under the Royal Albert Bridge (built for the ralway by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1859; nearly half a mile long, 100 ft clearance) and then the Tamar Suspension Bridge. At the W or Cornish end of these lies Saltash. Above the bridges the river expands into a lake, three-quarter mile wide, with the Tavy estuary to the right and the Great Mis Tor visible in the distance to the N. 14m Calstock and Cotehele House. The river makes a wide loop to the right to Morwehllham Quay. The fine scenery higher up is accessible only by small boat.
Plymstock, about 3m SE of Plymouth, has a 17C gun tower overlooking the Sound from Mount Batten Point. The pleasant bays SE of Plymouth include Bovisand, Heybrook and Wembury, where the 15C church with 17C Hele and Calmady tombs overlooks the Great Mew Stone. The Hele almshouses date from 1682. The old mill on the beach at Wembury is now a cafe and shop.