"The Most Important Naval Officer You Have Never Heard Of" On Monday 12th October Alan Harper will be telling us the exceptional story of Greenvile Collins and his navigation around Britain and up the Dart. Alan Harper is a yachting journalist and author of "Master and Cartographer - A Life of Captain Greenvile Collins, the …
Continue reading Greenvile Collins – Cartographer – 12th Oct 2026
The Evacuation of the South Hams - A talk by Gail Ham Venue: Kingswear Village Hall - 7:30pm Monday 14th September Gail is Chair of the Dartmouth History Research Group, a leading researcher on Dartmouth and Kingswear history, and co‑author of When War Came to the Dart. The evacuation of Slapton Sands in 1943 was …
Monday 13th April at 7:30pm in Kingswear Village Hall Jonathan Turner gives our last talk of the 25/26 season, He will tell us the story of Vernon MacAndrew who lived in Dartmouth in the 1920s and 1930s. A retired shipping line owner and a philanthropist, MacAndrew has now been honoured with a Blue Plaque thanks …
Kingswear Village Hall - Monday 9th March 2026 In 1995 a team of amateur divers working in the Erme Estuary in South Devon moved their operation to the waters off Salcombe due to bad weather. Little did they know that weekend, their lives were about to be changed, and the history books rewritten - Read …
Our next talk to be held in Kingswear Village Hall at 7:30pm on Monday 9th February, is on the Madre de Dios, the largest and richest ship ever to have been brought into Dartmouth. Speaker Our Speaker, Clare Pawley, has researched and written about the Madre de Dios for the SW Maritime History Society Synopsis …
We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. It’s now the start of the second half of our programme of talks for 25/26. Kent’s Cavern - Monday 12th January in Kingswear Hall at 7:30pm Our January speaker, Quinn Arden-Trew is employed at Kent’s Cavern and is currently responsible for cataloguing all the …
Kingswear Village Hall, 7.30pm. Monday 8th December. This talk by Jonathan Turner will look at the involvement of persons from Dartmouth and Kingswear - both as slavers and as slaves. It is an interesting episode in the history of our port. As its the last talk before Christmas, there will be a glass of wine …
This month gives 2 opportunities to explore events relevant to Kingswear and Dartmouth. Kingswear Historians Our next talk at 7:30pm on Monday 10th November continues the naval theme, this time looking at Three-hundred and Forty Years of Admiralty Hydrographic Surveys. We are lucky enough to have another local speaker, Bob Mark who is an expert …
The Fighting Temeraire Our next presentation will be by Ian Fraser who will explain the background to Turner's famous painting of "The Fighting Temeraire" Ian will provide an insight to the painting and to the artist including his connection with Dartmouth and Kingswear. More detail is provided here. The meeting will be held in Kingswear …
Dear Historian Its the start of the new term and we have the 2025-6 programme waiting for you. Monday 8th September, 7.30pm. The first talk will by Bill Lindsay who, last year, gave a fascinating and informative talk about emigration from Dartmouth to the west coast of Canada. This time his topic is emigration to …
