Royal Family Fans Royal Family Fans
Prince William visited Princetown on Dartmoor today to launch a £250,000 funding programme designed to give the local community greater support for projects that could improve life in the area.
Through the newly unveiled Princetown Community Fund, residents and local organisations will be able to apply for grants to develop their own initiatives. The money is intended for projects capable of creating meaningful social improvements, strengthening the local economy or delivering environmental benefits.
The £250,000 fund forms one part of a significantly larger commitment from the Duchy of Cornwall. Earlier this year, the Duchy announced that £1.5 million would be invested in Princetown and the surrounding community.
That wider programme will effectively return income generated from renting the former Dartmoor prison site to the area itself, allowing money produced by the Duchy’s local assets to be reinvested directly into the community.
As part of his day in Princetown, Prince William paid a visit to Gather & Moor, a newly established café and visitor hub in the heart of the Dartmoor community.
The stop gave the Duke of Cornwall an opportunity to speak directly with people connected to the area, including residents, Dartmoor rangers and local creatives whose artwork is exhibited and available to purchase inside the venue.
William also met Emma and John, two artists who run Princetown Press and operate their business as tenants of the Duchy of Cornwall.
Rather than simply explaining their craft, the pair invited the Prince to get involved himself. William was encouraged to experiment with their traditional hand-printing technique, which incorporates inks and natural pigments inspired by and sourced from the surrounding Dartmoor landscape.
READ MORE: William and Kate Face New Disruption Close to Forest Lodge as Windsor Plans Take Effect
Prince William continued his tour of Princetown with a stop at the town’s youth club, where he spent time talking to young people and hearing more about the programmes and workshops being offered following a major refurbishment of the premises.
The building already has a personal connection to the Prince. During an unofficial visit to Princetown in 2025, William reportedly noticed that the youth club’s roof was in need of urgent attention. He subsequently helped ensure that the Duchy of Cornwall stepped in to support the necessary improvements.
Around £50,000 was eventually provided by the Duchy to renovate the facility. The project now serves as a practical example of how its wider £1.5 million investment in the community could be used to deliver improvements that directly benefit local residents.
William’s Dartmoor engagement came shortly after he issued a fresh appeal for action on climate change. Writing in The Independent on Monday, the Prince called for “urgent optimism” as preparations continue for the sixth Earthshot Prize ceremony, which is due to be held in Mumbai, India, this November.
His intervention followed an exceptionally hot British summer. Provisional Met Office figures recorded a seasonal average temperature of 16.5C, making it the hottest summer since national records began in 1884.
Reflecting on the wildfires seen across Britain, William described the scenes as “devastating” and “alarming”, warning that they offered a “powerful reminder of the risks associated with a warming climate”.
At the same time, the Prince argued that repeatedly emphasising the enormous scale of the climate crisis without offering hope could leave people feeling powerless rather than motivated to act.
He wrote: “The crisis demands urgency. But without a belief that change is possible, its scale can leave us feeling overwhelmed.”
William believes that optimism needs to accompany that sense of urgency if meaningful progress is to be achieved, adding: “Optimism gives us confidence that our actions can make a difference. We need both.”
He summed up the approach behind his environmental work as “seeing the danger clearly while believing in our ability to respond.”
