Granby Place

The name Granby Place was officially accepted by New Plymouth City Council’s Works Committee in September 1973, having been copied from a list of streets in the original Plymouth. The place was formed in 1971 as part of the “Catholic Block” of a large development of state houses created by the Housing Division of the Ministry of Works. This Westown block included Benbow Street and Tavistock Place.

The original Granby Place is in the Devonport area of Plymouth, located between the River Tamar and Devonport Park. The name comes from an old army barracks once located on the site, known as Granby Square Barracks. These were constructed in the 1750s and named after Lieutenant General John Manners (1721-1770), the Marquis of Granby.

Manners was the eldest son of the third Duke of Rutland and known by his father's subsidiary title, the Marquess of Granby. Educated at Eton and Cambridge University, he was elected a Member of Parliament before serving in the military during the Jacobite Rising in Scotland of 1745 and the Seven Years' War. He was subsequently rewarded for his courage and leadership with the post of Commander-in-Chief of British Forces. Manners was popular with his troops and legend has it there are more British pubs named after him than any other individual, in part due to his practice of buying taverns for soldiers from his regiment when they retired. Such generosity eventually ruined him, however, and he died with enormous debts. Survived by his father, his eldest son John having died in childhood, Manners’ second son Charles inherited his title.

The army barracks in Devonport were modernised and renamed the New Granby Barracks in the 1830s, with a military prison constructed inside. The barracks were used to accommodate victims of the Plymouth Blitz during the Second World War. Vacated by the British Army in the 1960s, almost all of the barrack buildings were demolished, and residential housing built on the site instead. But the name Granby lives on in that area of Plymouth, which is also home to a Granby Court, Granby Green, Granby Street and Granby Way.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.