Royal Marines Turnchapel is a former

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

military installation in South

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

located east of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, Devon, and north east of

Torpoint Torpoint () is a town and civil parish on the Rame Peninsula in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated opposite the city of Plymouth across the Hamoaze which is the tidal estuary of the River Tamar. Torpoint had a populatio ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

The site was established as a shipyard in the 17th century and expanded rapidly under the ownership of John Parker, 1st Earl of Morley in the 1790s. The Admiralty acquired the site in 1903 and used it as a naval oil fuel depot until it was badly damaged by

aerial bomb An aerial bomb is a type of Explosive weapon, explosive or Incendiary device, incendiary weapon intended to travel through the Atmosphere of Earth, air on a predictable trajectory. Engineers usually develop such bombs to be dropped from an aircra ...

ing in 1940 during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The slipway was used as an embarkation point by troops of the US 29th Division boarding LSTs for the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

in June 1944. The site became a Royal Marines base in 1993 and went on to become the home of 539 Assault Squadron RM and its feeder unit, 10 Landing Craft Training Squadron. These units moved to RM Tamar in early 2013. The site was declared surplus to military requirements by the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

and bought by marine leisure business The Yacht Havens Group. The business took possession of the waterfront site on the 28 March 2014 after buying it for an undisclosed sum.

References

External links

Turnchapel Wharf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turnchapel Royal Marines bases Royal Navy bases in England Military history of Devon Buildings and structures in Plymouth, Devon