The horrors and cruelty that prisoners of war endured at the original Princetown Prison on Dartmoor are recalled in this brief item in the Western Times – Saturday 30 August 1845.
“Dartmoor – It is reported that the Prince-town Prison – those fearful dungeons which proved the grave of so many of our gallant enemies during the war, are to be sold. The building is of vast extent, and accommodated at once ten thousand prisoners of war, and the soldiers who guarded them.
Its strength is incalculable, and language cannot describe the gloomy desolation of the spot, where the poor captives, far from their own sunny land of wine and olives, were immured to die amid the horrors of a Dartmoor winter.
The place is worth seeing before it is closed to the public”.
Later items of value were auctioned in Plymouth – Exeter and Plymouth Gazette – Saturday 30 May 1846:
