Devonport Dockyard.

There has been a continuous connection between Plymouth and the Royal Navy since 1691 which has had a profound influence on the development of the city.

For generation upon generation, the lives and prosperity of the people was bound up with the Navy and the Dockyard, overwhelmingly its major employer.  As with many other cities with such an over-dependence on one source of jobs, recent decades have been characterised by the struggle to build a resilient, new economic base as the old has contracted to a tiny remnant of its former importance.