![Plymouth Sound](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Plymouth_Sound.jpg)
Drake's Island is a island lying in
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abou ...
, the stretch of water south of the city of
Plymouth, Devon. The rocks which make up the island are volcanic
tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...
and
lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
, together with marine
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
of the
Devonian period. For more than 400 years the island was fortified.
Early history
The first recorded name for the island was in 1135, when it was referred to as
St Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
's after the chapel erected on it. At some later date the chapel was rededicated to
St Nicholas and the island adopted the same name. From the latter part of the 16th century the island was occasionally referred to as Drake's Island after
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 ( ...
, the English
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
who used Plymouth as his home port. Even well into the 19th century, maps and other references continued to refer to the island as St Nicholas's Island and it is only in about the last 100 years that this name has slipped into disuse and the name Drake's Island has been adopted.
It was from Plymouth that Drake sailed in 1577, to return in 1580 having
circumnavigated the world, and in 1583 Drake was made governor of the island. From 1549 the island began to be fortified as a defence against the French and Spanish, with barracks for 300 men being built on the island in the late 16th century.
For several centuries, the island remained the focal point of the defence of the
three original towns that were to become modern Plymouth. In 1665 the
Leveller
The Levellers were a political movement active during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its popul ...
Robert Lilburne died imprisoned on the island. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the
regicide
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
. A few years later
John Lambert John Lambert may refer to:
*John Lambert (martyr) (died 1538), English Protestant martyred during the reign of Henry VIII
*John Lambert (general) (1619–1684), Parliamentary general in the English Civil War
* John Lambert of Creg Clare (''fl.'' c. ...
, a former general of the
New Model Army in the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, was moved to Drake's Island from Guernsey, where he had been imprisoned since 1662. Like Lilburne, he never regained his liberty, dying on Drake's Island in the winter of 1683.
In June 1774 the first recorded
submarine fatality in history occurred north of Drake's Island, when a
carpenter named
John Day perished while testing a wooden diving chamber attached to the sloop ''Maria''.
Drake's Island Battery
The 1859
Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom recommended a huge programme of new fortifications to defend Plymouth. On Drake's Island, the existing battery at the centre of the island was to be replaced by five
12-inch muzzle loading guns in open emplacements. A new battery was to be built on the southwestern end, of 21
9-inch guns in an arc of stone
casemates
A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...
with iron shields. The work was not complete in 1880. Six
12-pounder quick firing guns were added in 1897 and three
6-inch guns became the main armament in 1901; the original muzzle loaders were dumped under a pile of earth. Finally, in 1942, a modern twin
6-pounder gun was installed.
Recent history
![F79 at Drakes island P sound](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/F79_at_Drakes_island_P_sound.jpg)
Following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
Drake's Island remained under the administration of the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
, which, despite having announced in 1956 that it was no longer needed for defence purposes, did not finally vacate the island until 1963, when Plymouth City Council obtained a lease from the Crown with the aim of establishing a youth adventure training centre there. This centre was opened in 1964, the year in which a mains water supply finally reached the island.
On 1 May 1987 the island got its first telephone line, using a cable attached to the mains water pipe. The telephone number was Plymouth 63393. The warden had previously used the Ministry of Defence system. Drake's Island Adventure Centre, under the custody of the Mayflower Centre Trust, operated until 31 March 1989, when the Mayflower Trust surrendered their lease to the Crown and sold off the boats and sports equipment.
In 1995, Drake's Island was put up for sale by the
Crown Estate
The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...
, with an asking price of £235,000, and had numerous offers. In the end, a bidding war commenced between the then
Plymouth Argyle chairman,
Dan McCauley, and a Cheshire-born businessman who wanted to open it to the public. McCauley's bid was successful and he bought the island for £384,000 in 1995, with plans to turn it into a hotel complex. In 2003,
Plymouth City Council
Plymouth City Council is the unitary authority for Plymouth, Devon. It has traditionally been controlled by Labour or the Conservatives. The council is currently in a state of no overall control, with the Conservatives governing as a minority a ...
turned down a planning application from McCauley to build a hotel and leisure complex complete with
helipad.
As of 2014, the island contained derelict military barracks and buildings from the Napoleonic era, and an
MoD radio mast. In May 2005 the island attracted British media attention when one of the empty buildings on the island was
squatted
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
by a group of anti-nuclear protestors,
Trident Ploughshares
Trident Ploughshares (originally named Trident Ploughshares 2000) is an activist anti-nuclear weapons group, founded in 1998 with the aim of ''"beating swords into ploughshares"'' (taken from the Book of Isaiah). This is specifically by attempting ...
.
With
planning consent
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
secured in April 2017, details were released showing how the Grade II-listed Island House, barracks block and ablutions building could be linked to form a £10 million-plus hotel and spa complex containing 25 bedrooms. In October 2018, the island was put up for sale for £6 million. It was purchased by Morgan Phillips. Phillips plans to open the island to the public with a museum and heritage centre, thirty years after previously closing. It was due to open for a one-off tour by 105 visitors on 15 March 2020 but this was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Drake's Island featured in an episode of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
first broadcast on 17 December 2020.