Dartmoor Prison was built between 1803 and 1815 to house prisoners of war captured in the Napoleonic Wars. After 1812, the prison also housed American prisoners captured in the Anglo-American War of 1812-1815. The construction of the church began in 1812, and it was built by French and American prisoners. This makes St Michael and All Angels, Princetown, unique in the United Kingdom.  The prisoners were paid sixpence a day. 

In 1815 the war prison closed, but the church survived, and the community found new life when the prison re-opened for convicts in 1850. In 1994, owing to the high cost of maintenance, the church was declared redundant and it was transferred to the care of the Churches Conservation Trust in 2000. It has since been extensively repaired. 

In January 2015 the Dartmoor Preservation Association volunteers were asked, by Dartmoor Forest Parish Council, if they could try and bring the very neglected churchyard back to a presentable state. If this was not possible, the council suggested that the churchyard would be abandoned. Over two days, one of which was quite snowy, the conservation volunteers did their usual high standard of work. They removed vast quantities of bramble and rank grass, cleared paths, and tidied up many graves that had become totally overgrown. They received very grateful thanks from the Parish Council and were assured that the villagers would continue to keep the churchyard in order.  During the following summer, a DPA expert botanist volunteer surveyed the churchyard and recorded many interesting, locally scarce, wild flowers. 

Fast forward to January 2023, and the graveyard was not much different from how we had found it in 2015. Once again, we were asked by the Parish Council to see what we could do to help. Undaunted, the volunteers got stuck in again and did a cracking job, this time with the help of our recently purchased Apache sickle scythe. The churchyard was left in an acceptable condition. We were asked to do another workday in January of 2024 year and were pleasantly surprised to see that a great effort had been made by the Princetown Churchyard Maintenance Fund (Gardening the Grounds). This group and other volunteers had evidently been putting in work, continuing to improve the appearance and condition of the churchyard.  We were asked specifically to remove a large patch of ancient bramble, which we did using our strimmers.    

The churchyard is visited occasionally by the National Society, United States Daughters of 1812, who come from America to remember the 271 American prisoners who died whilst being held captive in the prison. The stained glass window in the East wall of the chancel was installed in 1910, and was a gift from the Daughters of 1812.

2024 was a special year as, on the 24th of May, forty representatives of the Daughters dedicated a new window in the church tower.  They laid a memorial wreath in honour and memory of all those who had died for their country. The wreath was also presented in appreciation to the people of Princetown who had given their time, talent and dedication to the preservation of the church and the churchyard. A service of dedication was organised by the Daughters and officers of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was attended by a number of local residents, representatives from the DNPA, the school, the prison, DFPC, and of course the DPA volunteers. 

Derek Collins