The Old Newsagent

The site of the Old Newsagent has been the home of the Williams family for well over a hundred years. The wholesale and retail newsagent was founded by Charlie Williams, a colourful local character and champion walker (more about him in a later blog). Charlie had five sons and one of them Frank supplied Dartmouth and the surrounding villages with Daily and Sunday Newspapers.

While Frank also worked at the local boatyard as a carpenter his wife Lil kept the business booming. They won the contracts to supply newspapers to the Britannia Royal Naval College and visiting Royal Navy warships. Lil proudly kept the newspaper orders from the Royal Yacht when the Queen and her family moored in Dartmouth.

Frank and Lil had one son, Basil, and he returned to Dartmouth with his young family to take over the business in the 1960s. Lil worked in the shop well into her 80s when the shop closed its doors for the last time in 1991 and was rebuilt as a dwelling.