From Start Point the coast turns again westward, and, after rounding the two great headlands of Prawle Point and Bolt Head, makes north-west for Plymouth and the Cornish border.
This is the serenest coast of all Devon, by which I do not mean to say that it lacks rocks as savage as those which front the Atlantic, or coves as reminiscent of the stirring past as any, but it is here that the spring first comes to Devon, and it is surely here that the summer gives way most reluctantly to autumn.
L. Du Garde Peach, Unknown Devon, John Lane the Bodley Head Limited, 1927, p. 68
A little history of the Coastguard Cottages at East Prawle with great thanks to our neighbour and fellow owner, Lydia Cresswell-Jones. You will be pleased to know that WCs and baths have now been installed while the communal wash house is a thing of the past…
The need for a new Coastguard Station at Prawle Point was documented as early as 1899 but the 10 cottages and watch house, for a complement of a chief officer and 9 men, were not completed until 1906. The position was deemed an important one - with night watch carried out by the Coastguard and day watch by Lloyd’s signaller.
The cottages were built on a rectangle of land approx. 580 by 150 feet, which was sold by Reverend Prebendary Marcus Dimond Dimond Churchward in 1904 for the princely sum of £260. Although records relating to Prawle Point have not been found, the layout of the cottages follow many of the other stations built around the same time. Referenced as The English Type Plan, none of the cottages had sea facing doors, but all had a pantry with a small window at the front (remaining in number 9), a central staircase and a window or top light to illuminate the staircase, visible from the back of cottages 3,4,8 and 9. Each cottage had a small scullery at the back with a sink and wooden draining board. No provision was made for baths or water closets, all cottages used a communal earth closet and wash house, the latter positioned in the middle of the row of sheds, which had a water pump fed by two rainwater tanks. The watch house, situated at the end of the row of cottages, like those in other stations of the same date, had a bay window to house a telescope.
To counteract the rising costs of maintaining Lloyd’s signal service at various Coastguard Stations, the committee of Lloyd’s decided on 2nd May, 1956, to give notice to the Ministry of Transport that they wished to discontinue signalling at Prawle Point after 31st December, 1956. The Ministry accepted and notices were published in Lloyd’s List. The majority of the cottages were sold in 1956-1958, with the Station Officer’s House, and number 2, as well as the Watch House, finally transferring into private hands in the 1980s.