An unusual community consultation event was staged at Princetown as the village looks to a brighter future, amid fears of it becoming a ghost town

The part-time pop-up ‘encounters shop’ was staged in the former Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre. More than 300 visits were made to the shop to air hopes, fears, memories of the village and solutions to Princetown’s challenges.

The consultation process is by Princetown Place Strategy Steering Group, a group comprising Dartmoor Forest Parish Council, Princetown Business Network, Duchy of Cornwall, community groups, Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) and West Devon Borough Council.

The consultation comes after villagers have been hit by two major blows, the closures of the DNPA visitor centre (last October) to cut costs and of Dartmoor Prison (in 2024), due to dangerous radon gas levels.

This has led to an existential reflection on the future social and economic health of the village. so locals have been asked what makes Princetown special and what can be done to make the most of these attributes.

The loss of the visitor centre’s 40,000 or more visitors and the custom from prison staff and visitors is feared to have harmed the economy of the village, with less custom for hotels, B&Bs, shops and cafes.

The Duchy continues to search for a possible commercial use for the visitors’ centre.

Jenny Gellat, encounters shop staff member, said: “The shop is a warm, welcoming and creative space where visitors were invited to share stories, memories and experiences of Princetown, and their hopes and dreams for what Princetown could become.

“It’s an unusual kind of shop where nothing’s for sale but there’s lots on offer - where we hope to seed a sense of ‘what If…?’ for the future of this amazing place in the heart of Dartmoor. We hope it will lead to a community-led vision of Princetown.”

Nikki Hirst, village B&B owner, said: “I’ve come here with my kids several times. We keep thinking of new things that Princetown is good at. It’s a fantastic place with a unique environment and a supportive community.

“There are some big challenges we have to put them behind us or use them as a way of moving forward and to think positively. Princetown has a lot of potential- which is basically villagers themselves - as can be seen from all the comments.”

Robert Precup, of Plymouth, visited with his younger son: “Me and my older son love coming to Princetown and the moor for walking. We trained here for his 11 tors trek in aid of the search and rescue team. He also bought all the Sherlock Holmes books, because of their link with Princetown. It’s a special place for us.”

Shop staff member Steph Pritchard said everything shared will feed into creating a vision and strategy for Princetown. The next phase will bring back these ideas and locals will be consulted again about them.

It is hoped all kinds of people across the community will be involved. Further ideas are invited and can be sent to the project at [email protected]