PRINCETOWN is a small town in the west quarter of Dartmoor, in the parish of Lydford, and 7 miles east from Tavistock, with a station, forming the terminus of a branch from Yelverton, on the South Devon section of the Great Western railway; it is in the Western division of the county, Roborough hundred, Tavistock petty sessional division, union and county court district, rural deanery of Tavistock, archdeaconry of Totnes and diocese of Exeter. This town was formed about 1808, soon after Dartmoor Prison was built for prisoners of war, and was named after George IV. when Prince of Wales, Dartmoor being within the Duchy of Cornwall; several tradesmen and others then settled here: in 1811 there were as many as 9,000 prisoners of war, besides the guard of soldiery. After the peace Princetown much declined, until its revival between 1831 and 1841 from the working of the granite quarries in Dartmoor. The church of St. Michael and All Angels, a chapel of ease to St. Petrock’s, Lydford, is a plain building of granite, consecrated in 1864, and consists of nave, north porch and a western tower containing one bell: the church was built and fitted, together with the parsonage house, by French prisoners, and is used by the officers of the neighbouring prison and surrounding inhabitants: the interior was restored by the Rev. Morris Joseph Fuller M.A. rector and chaplain 1867—79, and is at present (1901) undergoing further restoration, and affords 300 sittings. The register dates from the year 1807. The living is a chapelry, attached with Dartmeet and Postbridge to the rectory of Lydford: £150 yearly is allowed by Government for the stipend of the curate, who is appointed by the rector of the parish. The Rev. Arthur Baring-Gould M.A. of Magdalen College, Oxford, has been curate in charge since 1897. The Wesleyan chapel is a stone building seating 230. The Society of Friends also have a meeting room here.

National School (mixed), erected in 1868; average attendance, 20.

Prison Officers’ School, erected in 1872, & enlarged in 1885, for 330 children; average attendance, 107 boys, 110 girls & 147 infants.