On the Devon side of the Tamar estuary, Stonehouse occupies a stretch of Plymouth’s western waterfront that predates the city itself. Formerly known as East Stonehouse, it was one of three distinct towns – alongside Plymouth and Devonport – that were merged to form modern Plymouth in the ceremonial county of Devon. A separate West Stonehouse once existed across the water in Cornwall, within what is now Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, but that settlement was destroyed by French forces in 1350.
History and Origins
Evidence of settlement in the area reaches back to Roman times, with a stone structure believed to have stood near Stonehouse Creek. Later, in the 13th century, the land was associated with Robert the Bastard, passing through the Durnford family to the Edgecombe family across the 14th and 15th centuries. The original settlement site is now largely occupied by the Princess Yachts complex. In 1835, caves containing fossilised bones were uncovered in Stonehouse, part of a wider pattern of discoveries around Plymouth that also included finds at Cattedown, Oreston and Turnchapel during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Streets, Nightlife and Wartime Change
Through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Emma Place and Caroline Place attracted many of the West Country’s senior admirals, doctors and clergy. Those streets and Millbay Road later became Plymouth’s red light district. Union Street, constructed across what had been marshland, was for nearly a century the heart of the city’s nightlife, with around a hundred pubs, a music hall and numerous other venues. Much of it was lost to bombing during the Second World War, and the area between Union Street and the docks remained underdeveloped for decades afterwards, occupied mainly by small factories, storage yards and car dealers.
Notable Buildings and Administration
Three major defence complexes were built in Stonehouse: the Royal William Victualling Yard, the Royal Marine Barracks and the Royal Naval Hospital. Of these, only the Barracks remain in naval possession today. Administratively, Stonehouse was historically a chapelry of the parish of Plymouth St Andrew’s before becoming a separate parish in 1746. It was made a local government district in 1872, governed by a local board that was reconstituted as an urban district council in 1894. East Stonehouse Urban District was abolished in 1914, absorbed into the county borough of Plymouth along with Devonport. It remained a civil parish until 1 April 1974, though without practical functions, being administered directly by Plymouth Corporation. The parish population stood at 7,770 in 1951.