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Drake (ward)
Encyclopedia
Drake is an election ward
within Plymouth
, Devon
, England. One of the main roads from the city to Tavistock and Dartmoor
runs through the ward. In the past it played an important role in the supply of water to Plymouth, and it was the location of both a fatal bomb explosion and a large unexploded bomb during the Plymouth Blitz
. The University of Plymouth
has its main campus in this ward and the large student population has led to part of it being designated as one of the four areas subject to Designated Public Places Order
s in the city. It is also the location of the city's main railway station
, museum
and public library.
first supplied water to Plymouth. Its route came through what is now Drake ward, but was at the time outside the town walls. When Sir Francis Drake constructed the leat he ensured that he held the rights to build mills on it. At least two of those mills were within this ward; the site of the higher one was converted to a reservoir in the late 19th century and is now known as Drake's Place Reservoirs.
In common with much of the city, many buildings in this ward were destroyed or damaged during the Plymouth Blitz
of World War II. In one fatal incident, on the night of 22 April 1941, a bomb fell on the Portland Square air-raid shelter
killing over 70 civilians, including a mother and her six children. Human remains were found in the tops of trees, as a result of the bomb blast. In 2006 part of the remains of the shelter were rediscovered on the university campus, and an appeal was made to raise money for a public sculpture to honour those who lost their lives.
Another, non-fatal, incident occurred during a short sharp air raid on 14 June 1943. A 1,000 kg bomb came through the roof of the then main police headquarters in Greenbank Road, on the eastern edge of the ward. The bomb did not explode and came to rest on the first floor landing outside the court rooms and above the cells and the control room, both of which were occupied. There were also many police in the building at the time. The headquarters had to be evacuated for several days until this bomb and another that had landed in the adjoining building were made safe and removed.
After the Blitz, in 1943 a "Plan for Plymouth" was drawn up for redesigning the city. In that plan the part of Drake ward to the west of the Tavistock road was designated as the cultural precinct, and it was suggested that any extension of the Museum and Art Gallery should be there, as well as a new Technical College, centralized buildings of political and social organizations, youth organizations, a Health Centre, and headquarters and studios for the BBC
. This aspect of the Plan was only partially fulfilled.
, Efford
and Lipson
, Sutton and Mount Gould, St Peter and the Waterfront, Stoke
, and Peverell
. Its northern border is in the suburb of Mutley
and it also forms the southern boundary of Ford Park Cemetery
and part of Central Park
.
The ward is roughly bisected by the main road to the town of Tavistock, the upper part called North Hill and the lower part, a short stretch of dual-carriageway, named Drake Circus after a former roundabout built in the early 20th century just beyond the ward's southern boundary.That site is now the location of Drake Circus Shopping Centre
, opened in 2006.
The city's main railway station
is at the western end of the ward.
the population of the ward was 8,831, of which 3,695 (42%) were full-time students aged 18 or over. Over 43% of the accommodation was rented from private landlords or letting agencies.
The North Hill area of Drake ward is one of four areas of Plymouth that are subject to a Designated Public Places Order
which prohibits the consumption of alcohol in designated public places. In 2007 there were 13 licensed premises on North Hill.
Drake ward was in the news in 2001 when one of its councillors resigned from the Conservative Party
to defect to the Liberal Democrats
. This was especially notable as the councillor, Karen Gillard, was the national chair of TORCHE
, the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
which has its main campus in the ward. The university educates over 30,000 students, employs 3,000 staff and has an annual income of around £160 million. The ward contains the Plymouth railway station
, which is an important economical structure for the economy of Plymouth. Drake is within close proximity to the city centre of Plymouth
and the Drake Circus Shopping Centre
.
The university's most prominent building is the Roland Levinsky Building, clad in copper and completed in 2007. On the opposite side of Drake Circus, the road, is Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
and the adjoining Central Library, built in 1907 by Thornely and Rooke in Edwardian Baroque style.
Higher up North Hill are Sherwell United Reformed Church (1864) and St Matthias Church (1887). The former's spire and the latter's tower are both prominent elements on the city's skyline. Until 1990, Sherwell Church had an organ commissioned from Henry Willis
in 1864; the organ is now in St Michael's Church, Great Torrington
.
Drake's Place Reservoirs, constructed in the 1820s, are in North Hill just above Sherwell Church. They were expanded in 1891 and a 200 ft colonnade with a terrace on top was added so that people could relax by the water. The pillars of the colonnade were originally from The Shambles (butchers' stalls outside St Andrew's church) and from 1791 were re-used in the market before being relocated here. In August 2010, a grant of £500,000 was awarded by the National Lottery
towards the preservation of the landmark.
Plymouth Royal Eye Infirmary, near the main railway station, was built in 1897 by Charles King and E. W. Lister. Unusually for an area that had a tradition of building in limestone, it was constructed in red brick with stone facings.
Wards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
within Plymouth
Plymouth
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...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, England. One of the main roads from the city to Tavistock and Dartmoor
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an area of moorland in south Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers .The granite upland dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The...
runs through the ward. In the past it played an important role in the supply of water to Plymouth, and it was the location of both a fatal bomb explosion and a large unexploded bomb during the Plymouth Blitz
Plymouth Blitz
The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German Luftwaffe on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz....
. The University of Plymouth
University of Plymouth
Plymouth University is the largest university in the South West of England, with over 30,000 students and is 9th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students . It has almost 3,000 staff...
has its main campus in this ward and the large student population has led to part of it being designated as one of the four areas subject to Designated Public Places Order
Designated Public Places Order
Designated Public Place Orders give police officers discretionary powers to require a person to stop drinking and confiscate alcohol or containers of alcohol in public places...
s in the city. It is also the location of the city's main railway station
Plymouth railway station
Plymouth railway station serves the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. It is situated on the northern edge of the city centre close to the North Cross roundabout...
, museum
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery in the Drake Circus area of Plymouth, Devon, England is the largest museum and art gallery in the city. It was built in 1907-10 by Thornely and Rooke in Edwardian Baroque style. Its interior was restored in 1954 after being gutted in The Blitz.The Museum has...
and public library.
History
In 1591, Drake's LeatDrake's Leat
Drake's Leat, also known as Plymouth Leat, was a watercourse constructed in the late 16th century to tap the River Meavy on Dartmoor, England in order to supply Plymouth with water. It was one of the first municipal water supplies in the country.-Plans:...
first supplied water to Plymouth. Its route came through what is now Drake ward, but was at the time outside the town walls. When Sir Francis Drake constructed the leat he ensured that he held the rights to build mills on it. At least two of those mills were within this ward; the site of the higher one was converted to a reservoir in the late 19th century and is now known as Drake's Place Reservoirs.
Plymouth Blitz
The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German Luftwaffe on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz....
of World War II. In one fatal incident, on the night of 22 April 1941, a bomb fell on the Portland Square air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks from the air...
killing over 70 civilians, including a mother and her six children. Human remains were found in the tops of trees, as a result of the bomb blast. In 2006 part of the remains of the shelter were rediscovered on the university campus, and an appeal was made to raise money for a public sculpture to honour those who lost their lives.
Another, non-fatal, incident occurred during a short sharp air raid on 14 June 1943. A 1,000 kg bomb came through the roof of the then main police headquarters in Greenbank Road, on the eastern edge of the ward. The bomb did not explode and came to rest on the first floor landing outside the court rooms and above the cells and the control room, both of which were occupied. There were also many police in the building at the time. The headquarters had to be evacuated for several days until this bomb and another that had landed in the adjoining building were made safe and removed.
After the Blitz, in 1943 a "Plan for Plymouth" was drawn up for redesigning the city. In that plan the part of Drake ward to the west of the Tavistock road was designated as the cultural precinct, and it was suggested that any extension of the Museum and Art Gallery should be there, as well as a new Technical College, centralized buildings of political and social organizations, youth organizations, a Health Centre, and headquarters and studios for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. This aspect of the Plan was only partially fulfilled.
Geography and transport
Drake ward is the smallest in area of the 20 wards in the city and is surrounded (clockwise from the north) by the wards of ComptonCompton, Plymouth
Compton is a suburb of Plymouth in the English county of Devon.Once a small village, it was developed in the 1930s and now lies between the suburbs of Mannamead and Efford...
, Efford
Efford
Efford is a large mostly post-war suburb of Plymouth in the county of Devon, England.It stands on high ground above the Laira estuary of the River Plym and variously offers views over long distances: to the north across Dartmoor the east across the South Hams of Devon and also to the south...
and Lipson
Lipson
Lipson is a ward in the city of Plymouth, England. It is an affluent area with a substantial park called 'Freedom Fields', a Civil War battle site where the towns folk of nearby Plymouth resisted substantial Cavalier raiding parties and enabled the town to sustain the royalist siege...
, Sutton and Mount Gould, St Peter and the Waterfront, Stoke
Stoke, Plymouth
Stoke, also referred to by its earlier name of Stoke Damerel, is a parish, once part of the historical Devonport, England. Prior to 1914, it was a suburb of Devonport. In 1914, Devonport and Plymouth amalgamated with Stonehouse: the new town took the name of Plymouth...
, and Peverell
Peverell
Peverell is a neighbourhood of Plymouth in the English county of Devon. The 2001 Census estimated the population as 6,455.The area was originally part of the manor of Weston Peverell, and is named in the Domesday Book. Two of the main roads are named Peverell Park Road and Weston Park Road...
. Its northern border is in the suburb of Mutley
Mutley Plain
Mutley Plain is a street in Plymouth, Devon, England. Although Mutley Plain is the main street of the dense suburb called Mutley, the term is often applied to the whole area. The road is a busy dual-carriageway, the B3250, with eight sets of traffic lights/pelican crossings...
and it also forms the southern boundary of Ford Park Cemetery
Ford Park Cemetery
Ford Park Cemetery is a cemetery in central Plymouth, England, established by the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Cemetery Company in 1846 and opened in 1848. At the time it was outside the boundary of the Three Towns and was created to alleviate the overcrowding in the churchyards of the local...
and part of Central Park
Central Park, Plymouth
Plymouth's Central Park is a large centralised park situated to the north of Plymouth city centre in south west Devon, England, stretching north from the train station to Pounds House, Peverell and west from Ford Park Cemetery to the A386 .Central Park is trust land, which explains why it has not...
.
The ward is roughly bisected by the main road to the town of Tavistock, the upper part called North Hill and the lower part, a short stretch of dual-carriageway, named Drake Circus after a former roundabout built in the early 20th century just beyond the ward's southern boundary.That site is now the location of Drake Circus Shopping Centre
Drake Circus Shopping Centre
-External links:*****...
, opened in 2006.
The city's main railway station
Plymouth railway station
Plymouth railway station serves the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. It is situated on the northern edge of the city centre close to the North Cross roundabout...
is at the western end of the ward.
Demography and governance
The ward is within the Plymouth Sutton parliamentary constituency and has an electorate (voting population) of 5,391. At the 2001 censusUnited Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
the population of the ward was 8,831, of which 3,695 (42%) were full-time students aged 18 or over. Over 43% of the accommodation was rented from private landlords or letting agencies.
The North Hill area of Drake ward is one of four areas of Plymouth that are subject to a Designated Public Places Order
Designated Public Places Order
Designated Public Place Orders give police officers discretionary powers to require a person to stop drinking and confiscate alcohol or containers of alcohol in public places...
which prohibits the consumption of alcohol in designated public places. In 2007 there were 13 licensed premises on North Hill.
Drake ward was in the news in 2001 when one of its councillors resigned from the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
to defect to the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
. This was especially notable as the councillor, Karen Gillard, was the national chair of TORCHE
LGBTory
LGBTory is a LGBT and Conservative Group linked to, but not run, directed or funded by the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. The first LGBT Conservative group was called CGHE LGBTory is a LGBT and Conservative Group linked to, but not run, directed or funded by the Conservative Party of the...
, the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
Economy
The largest employer by far is the University of PlymouthUniversity of Plymouth
Plymouth University is the largest university in the South West of England, with over 30,000 students and is 9th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students . It has almost 3,000 staff...
which has its main campus in the ward. The university educates over 30,000 students, employs 3,000 staff and has an annual income of around £160 million. The ward contains the Plymouth railway station
Plymouth railway station
Plymouth railway station serves the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. It is situated on the northern edge of the city centre close to the North Cross roundabout...
, which is an important economical structure for the economy of Plymouth. Drake is within close proximity to the city centre of Plymouth
Plymouth
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...
and the Drake Circus Shopping Centre
Drake Circus Shopping Centre
-External links:*****...
.
Landmarks
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery in the Drake Circus area of Plymouth, Devon, England is the largest museum and art gallery in the city. It was built in 1907-10 by Thornely and Rooke in Edwardian Baroque style. Its interior was restored in 1954 after being gutted in The Blitz.The Museum has...
and the adjoining Central Library, built in 1907 by Thornely and Rooke in Edwardian Baroque style.
Higher up North Hill are Sherwell United Reformed Church (1864) and St Matthias Church (1887). The former's spire and the latter's tower are both prominent elements on the city's skyline. Until 1990, Sherwell Church had an organ commissioned from Henry Willis
Henry Willis
Henry Willis was a British organ player and builder, who is regarded as the foremost organ builder of the Victorian era.-Early Life and work:...
in 1864; the organ is now in St Michael's Church, Great Torrington
Great Torrington
Great Torrington is a small market town in the north of Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to the River Torridge below...
.
Drake's Place Reservoirs, constructed in the 1820s, are in North Hill just above Sherwell Church. They were expanded in 1891 and a 200 ft colonnade with a terrace on top was added so that people could relax by the water. The pillars of the colonnade were originally from The Shambles (butchers' stalls outside St Andrew's church) and from 1791 were re-used in the market before being relocated here. In August 2010, a grant of £500,000 was awarded by the National Lottery
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
towards the preservation of the landmark.
Plymouth Royal Eye Infirmary, near the main railway station, was built in 1897 by Charles King and E. W. Lister. Unusually for an area that had a tradition of building in limestone, it was constructed in red brick with stone facings.