The King's Room

King's Room plaster ceiling

The King's Room itself

It was in this magnificent room that King Charles II was entertained in July 1671, when storms forced him to seek shelter in Dartmouth.

The unique and beautiful ceiling and wooden panelling are original and just as the King would have seen them!

 

Intricately carved frieze on wall panelling

The frieze and the ceiling are both a full part of the museum's collections. Every part of Dartmouth Museum is an exhibit. The King's Room has been used very carefully to preserve the original features of the room while adding display cases for the artefacts on display

 

Model of the Mayflower

Maritime history

This room contains a fascinating timeline of maritime history, which you can follow clockwise around the room.

It begins with Richard the Lionheart's Crusader ship of 1190, and includes such gems as Sir Francis Drake's flagship of 1580, the Golden Hind, the Mayflower in which the Pilgrim Fathers set off from Dartmouth in 1620 hoping to reach the New World, and even a D-Day landing craft used in 1944.

 

Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind

The story is told through art, photographs and artefacts, notably a wonderful collection of intricate and detailed models.

A central cabinet displays 'The Art of the Model Maker', with many beautiful models of ships such as the topsail schooner Little Devon, the 1790 60-gun frigate HMS Deptford, and the 1782 24-gun sloop HMS Echo.

 

Ship in a bottle, Queen Margaret

The Dawe Collection

The King's Room also houses a wonderful collection of 26 model sailing ships in bottles known as the Dawe Collection. These highly accurate models represent many of the finest ocean-going sailing ships of the second half of the 19th century.