H M Prison Dartmoor: Former Chapel and Service Building Complex

H M Prison Dartmoor: Former Chapel and Service Building Complex

A former prison block dating from 1806 to 1809, designed by Daniel Alexander. The block was later converted to use as a chapel and has undergone substantial alteration. The southern portion has been demolished and replaced by a complex of service buildings, which have been enlarged and significantly altered since 1900.

The former prison block and chapel is constructed of granite rubble with granite ashlar quoins and cills, now painted. The roof covering has been replaced with metal sheeting. The service complex is also built of granite rubble and granite ashlar, likewise with metal sheeting roofs.

The former prison block is rectangular in plan with a projecting block at the centre of the east elevation. The western service complex is attached to the west end of the former prison block, aligned with it but wider, with a projecting block to the south-east.

The former prison block now presents as a single storey with a plinth and four tall windows to both north and south elevations. Originally of two storeys, the cills for the original smaller windows remain visible projecting from the walls. An additional low window to the east marks where the ground slopes downwards, possibly reflecting the former presence of a stair shown on the 1847 plan. The tall window openings occupy every second bay. At the western end of the north elevation is a small external stair leading to the upper floor of the adjoining block. From the eastern end of the south elevation projects a wall linking the block with E wing and enclosing a small yard between these buildings and the former laundry to the west.

The eastern elevation is occupied by the projecting block, originally built as a privy block and later becoming the chapel chancel. Early images suggest this has been heightened and is now staged with a higher central section. Small ground-floor windows appear to north and south, and the eastern wall has three tall windows, the central one being higher, forming an east window. The pitched roof has a low hipped clerestory, visible in early prison images, now blocked with corrugated iron.

The western service complex consists of a number of interlinked buildings constructed and altered over a long period, with some original prison block fabric possibly remaining. Immediately to the west of the former prison block is a two-storey bay entered by the external stair. Beyond this is an early 20th-century section formerly containing a bakehouse, its roof since lowered. This section has three tall windows, a square window to the east, and a blocked opening at high level to the west. To the west is a single bay framed by rock-faced quoins with an entrance having a heavy rock-faced lintel leading to a passageway linking the service buildings and a stair, part of the plan in 1900. Further west lie the former kitchen and beyond that the former 19th-century boiler house, remodelled in 1927, with an attached calorifier house to the north-west. The boiler house, which has lost its chimney and ventilators, has a keyed oculus to the western gable. By 1947 a further block constructed of squared granite was built in the angle between the kitchen and boiler house. The wing extending south of the former bakehouse is the former laundry, a 19th-century building with a canted south-east corner and a large modified opening to the west.

The interior of the former prison block has had its internal cell structure and floor removed, creating largely a single space. At the entrance is a heavy panelled and studded door. The space retains its overall fitting out as the prison's Church of England chapel. A gallery stands at the west end, erected prior to 1909, with a temporary workshop beneath it. An arch supported on pilasters frames the entrance to the west end and is applied to the west wall above the gallery. A triplet of arches separates the nave from the chancel at the east end. The chancel has been formed from the eastern projecting block. The narrow eastern openings contain what remains of stained glass windows given by the Church Army in the early 20th century; the central window has been lost and the north window is badly broken. Below stands a granite reredos with a stepped central section and blind arcading flanked to either side, supported on colonnettes, designed for the space by Alten Beamish in 1892. The granite altar, with columns to the front corners and between, has carved and painted panels bearing 'IHS' flanked by fleur-de-lys, and dates to before 1906. To the south is a credence table designed in 1906, also of granite, with a single column as support.

Above the ceiling, the roof remained intact in the mid-1990s, being the only surviving original roof over an 1806 to 1809 prison block. The structure is understood to have been complex, with queenposts supporting kingposts, which in turn supported the clerestory. The timbers bear marks testifying to early 19th-century prisoner occupation, including scorch marks from lamps and hooks made of bone hammered into the timbers for hanging lamps and hammocks.

The interiors of the service complex have been much altered through changes of use but retain some historic features. Inside the former boiler house, the granite corbels which formerly supported the roof remain, and there is a row of three blocked brick-arched openings.