Plymouth

Seaport and administrative centre of Plymouth City unitary authority in southwest England, at the mouth of the river Plym, 179 km/112 mi southwest of Bristol; population (2001) 240,700. The city's focus is based around its three harbours, and industries include marine and machine tool manufacture and servicing, food processing, and the production of clothing and radio equipment.

Plymouth rises north of the Hoe headland, where explorer Francis Drake awaited the approach of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Mayflower pilgrims set sail from here for America in 1620, and naval explorer James

Cook led his first (1768–71) and third (1776–79) Pacific voyages from Plymouth. The first meeting in England of the fundamentalist Christian Protestant sect the Plymouth Brethren was held here in 1831. The three separate towns of Devonport, East Stonehouse, and Plymouth were amalgamated in 1914 under the inclusive name of Plymouth. The city was heavily bombed in World War II, and the city centre has since undergone major reconstruction.

The Royal Navy first built dockyards in Plymouth in 1691, and constructed a naval hospital (1762). Plymouth's three harbours – Sutton Pool, Catwater (Cattewater), and the Hamoaze – all unite in Plymouth Sound, a bay with a

breakwater over 1 km/0.6 mi in length across its entrance. There are ferry links with France and Spain. The harbour has the remains of a 17th-century citadel, built just after the English Civil War to defend the city from attack. Crownhill Fort (1863), constructed to guard the royal dockyards against a perceived French threat and in continuous use until 1983, has been restored as a visitor attraction. The Hoe, an esplanade that overlooks Plymouth Sound, has many monuments, including a statue of Francis Drake and Smeaton's Tower, which was originally erected as a lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks, in 1759 but was replaced in 1882. There is also a more modern lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks 22 km/14 mi to the south of the city. The history of the city is illustrated in the Plymouth Dome, and the Marine Biological Association has its headquarters and an aquarium in the city. Plymouth University (formerly South West Polytechnic) was established here in 1992. Devonport dockyard is used for the refitting and refuelling of commissioned nuclear submarines and the stripping of decommissioned ones.

Plymouth

Town and county seat of Plymouth County, in eastern Massachusetts, situated on Cape Cod about 55 km/34 mi southeast of Boston; population (2000 est) 7,700. It is surrounded by a larger urban area, with a population of around 50,000. Founded by the Pilgrims, who arrived in the Mayflower in 1620, it was the first settlement by Europeans in New England. Of great cultural significance to the US people, Plymouth attracts over 1 million tourists every year.

Plymouth Rock is said to be where the Pilgrims landed. The National Monument to the Forefathers (1889), at 25 m/82 ft tall, is the tallest granite monument in the USA. ‘Plimoth Plantation’, an open-air museum, contains a reconstruction of the Pilgrim village of 1627, the Wampanoag American Indian settlement, and the Mayflower II, a recreation of the original ship, which was built in Brixham in England in 1956 and sailed across the Atlantic in 1957. Early industries included fishing, trading, and whaling. Mills and rope works were set up in the 19th century.

Plymouth was named in 1614 after the town in Devon, England, by Captain John Smith. It is the oldest continuous European settlement in the USA (Jamestown, Virginia and St Augustine, Florida are older, but both failed). There are 18 entries on the national register of historic places, including the Court House (1749), the oldest wooden courthouse in the USA and now a museum. There are also several historic churches, and a hall with Pilgrim relics and historical paintings.

Another attraction is the Cranberry World visitors' centre.