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Writer's pictureSi Biggs

Granby & Marlborough Square Barracks

Unit/ Formation: Barracks/ Camps


Location: Devonport


Period/ Conflict: 1700's


Year: 1764


Date/s: Tuesday 11th Dec 1764


The Plymouth Division of Marines take up quarters in Granby & Marlborough Square Barracks - originally home to the Infantry.


Marlborough Square Barracks was the most northerly, and the largest, of the group of single-storey Squares built in 1757 within "The Lines" at Plymouth-Dock. It was occupied by the infantry. It was named in honour of John Churchill (1650-1722), who was created Earl of Marlborough in 1689.



Marlborough Square Barracks is the large block on the left of the above map extracted from Benjamin Donn's plan of Plymouth-Dock published in 1765 [1], above is the smaller Square of Granby Square Barracks.

This Square took its name from Lieutenant-General John Manners (1721-1770), Marquis of Granby, one-time the Master-General of the Ordnance.


Both Marlborough Square and Granby Square were demolished between 1824 and 1830 and replaced with New Granby Barracks. The Soldiers' Quarters adjoined the main road while within its inner wall was the Devonport Military Prison and a Bath House. Read More/ Web Link: www.olddevonport.uk


[1] A part of a very rare and highly important 1765 wall map of Devonshire by Benjamin Donn. Drawn in twelve panels, this map covers the entirety of Devonshire or Devon from the English Channel to Barnstaple (Bideford) Bay and from Cornwall to Somerset at a scale of 1 inch to 1 mile. Donn also incorporates large insets of Exeter (showing the college), Plymouth, Plymouth Dock, Stoke Town, and the Isle of Lundy. Benjamin Donn (1729 - 1798), sometimes known as Benjamin Donne, was a British cartographer, surveyor, and mathematician active in England during the middle to late 18th century.

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