In 1806 construction started, taking three years to complete.

In 1809 the first French prisoners arrived, and were joined by American POWs taken in the war of 1812. At one time the prison population numbered almost 6,000. Many prisoners died and were buried on the moor. Both French and American wars were concluded in 1815, and repatriations began.

The prison then lay empty until 1850, when it was largely rebuilt and commissioned as a convict gaol.

With the establishment of the prison farm in about 1852, all the prisoners remains were exhumed and re-interred in two cemeteries behind the prison.

Dartmoor Prison, reckoned in Victorian times to be the hardest and most severe in England, has been in constant use from 1850 to the present day.

In 1917 all convicts were withdrawn from Dartmoor, which was then used to confine 1100 conscientious objectors who refused military service.

Until recently, Dartmoor Prison's inmates have been some of the most dangerous and notorious in English penal history.

Picture courtesy of M. Chamberlain