Editing Dartmouth, Devon (section)

===19th century===
Before 1671, what is now the town centre was almost entirely tidal mud flats. The New Road (now Victoria Road) was constructed across the bed of the (silted up) Mill Pool and up the Ford valley after 1823. Spithead was extended in 1864 when the [[Dartmouth and Torbay Railway]] arrived in [[Kingswear]] and a pontoon was constructed, linked to Spithead by a bridge. The railway directors and others formed the Dartmouth Harbour Commissioners. 
At this time, all the roads in those parts of Dartmouth which were not land reclamations were very narrow. In 1864-7 Higher Street was widened into Southtown and linked to Lower Street, which was also widened, with the northern part renamed Fairfax Place. Some of the buildings were rebuilt further back with decorative frontages.
In 1881 the Harbour Commissioners produced a scheme for an embankment or esplanade from near the Lower Ferry to Hardness, across the remains of The Pool, to provide an attraction for tourists and further mooring space. It was completed in 1885 after much disagreement between the Borough, the Commissioners and the Railway (now the [[Great Western Railway]]). A new station was also built at this time.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Freeman|first1=Ray|title=Dartmouth and its Neighbours|date=1990|publisher=Phillimore|location=Chichester|isbn=0-85033-697-X|pages=166–168}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Potts|first1=C.R.|title=The Newton Abbot to Kingswear Railway|date=2014|publisher=Oakwood Press|location=Usk|isbn=978-0-85361-733-4|pages=92, 335–339|edition=2}}</ref> The building of the Embankment left a section of river isolated between Spithead and the New Ground, which is known as The Boatfloat, and is linked to the river by a bridge for small vessels under the road.

The coming of steam ships led to Dartmouth being used as a [[bunkering]] port, with coal being brought in by ship or train. Coal lumpers were members of gangs, who competed to bunker the ships by racing to be first to a ship. This led to the men living as close as possible to the river, and their tenements became grossly overcrowded, with the families living in slum conditions, with up to 15 families in one house, one family to a room.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Freeman|first1=Ray|title=Dartmouth and its Neighbours|date=1990|publisher=Phillimore|location=Chichester|isbn=0-85033-697-X|pages=178–180}}</ref>

The [[Royal National Lifeboat Institution]] opened the [[Dart Lifeboat Station]] at the Sand Quay in 1878, but it was closed in 1896. In all this time only one effective rescue was made by the [[Lifeboat (rescue)|lifeboat]].<ref name=Lifeboats>{{cite book |last= Leach |first= Nicholas |title= Devon's Lifeboat Heritage |year= 2009 |publisher= Twelveheads Press |location= Chacewater |isbn= 978-0-906294-72-7 |pages= 19–20 }}</ref>