NOTABLE HOUSES


perfect place to use as a firing point should enemy vessels sail up the Dart. the tower, for tower it was, stood high above the


river until 1855. but it did not do so unscathed – in fact it was badly damaged during one of the most difficult periods in Dartmouth’s history – the civil War. the civil War’s effect on Dartmouth reflects the division and heartache it caused elsewhere. the town was first attacked and then occupied in 1643 – Families were divided, people of integrity were ruined and people lost their lives. Dartmouth strongly supported the Parliamentarians, led by Oliver cromwell. charles I sent his european nephew to take on the royalist sections of the west country. He decided that he would try to take Dartmouth before moving on to Plymouth. It’s a mark of the town’s importance as a port that Prince maurice considered this a priority. However, it is clear he thought the port would be an easier target than it in fact turned out.


A combination of dogged defending and terrible


weather meant that it took months to take. starting in Warfleet valley, maurice’s forces took Paradise Fort quickly and this gave them a commanding position from which to bombard both the castle and the town with cannon. cannon balls from this hail of metal have been found all over the town – and using this position, along with another site above the castle at Gallants bower, enabled the royalist forces to prevail. they had spent so long doing so, however, that


Plymouth had the time to fortify themselves and the city never fell to the royalists – a vital factor in the final victory for cromwell’s roundheads. After it played a part in this exciting chapter of


George Parker Bidder. owner of Paradise from 1861.


Dartmouth’s history, Paradise Fort settled into almost obscurity for a few hundred years – until someone knocked it down in 1855 and built a beautiful home there. three years later, a remarkable man sailed into the harbour and did what so many others before and after have done – he fell in love with Dartmouth. George Parker bidder had been an attraction at fairs in his youth as ‘the calculating boy’ – able to do amazing sums in his head despite never having gone to school. In a turn of events more likely to be found in a Dickens novel, a rich benefactor saw him perform and paid for his education. this gave George the


Paradise Point had charmed the Calculating Boy to


make Dartmouth his permanent home.


chance to make his mark in the world and he became a huge success as a civil engineer – arguably as influential as the Great IK brunel whom he knew and with whom shared many interests. bidder had made a large fortune and was looking for a country retreat when he first came into Dartmouth in 1858 – and in 1861 he bought ‘Paradise’ (as it was referred to at the time). renaming it ‘ravensbury’ after his other home in surrey, the town became a refuge for the high achieving former savant. bidder played an important role in the local community, helping to build the Warfleet bridge and drew up the first plans for the construction of the embankment. He also teamed up with that other great engineering son of Dartmouth, samuel Lake, to create the first steam trawler and even became a


local councillor. Paradise Point had charmed the calculating boy to make Dartmouth his permanent home.•


Paradise Point from Warfleet Creek


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