Thank you for subscribing!

The initiative represents a portion of a broader £1.5 million investment announced earlier this year by the Duchy of Cornwall

Prince William travelled to Princetown on Dartmoor today to unveil a new community grant scheme worth £250,000.

The Princetown Community Fund will enable local residents and organisations to bid for funding to support projects that deliver social, economic and environmental benefits to the town.

That larger sum channels rental income generated by the former Dartmoor prison back into the community where it is situated.

During his visit, the Duke of Cornwall stopped at Gather & Moor, a recently opened visitor centre and café located in the centre of the town.

There he spoke with local residents, Dartmoor rangers and artists who display and sell their work at the venue.

Among those he met were Emma and John, who operate Princetown Press as Duchy tenants.

The pair, both artists, asked the Prince to try his hand at their manual printing process, which uses inks and pigments derived from the moorland landscape.

Prince William also called in at the Princetown Youth Club, where he chatted with local children and learned about the workshops and activities now running in the refurbished building.

The visit held particular significance: during a private trip to the town in 2025, the Duke had noticed the club's roof was in poor condition and arranged for the Duchy to carry out repairs.

The Duchy invested £50,000 in renovating the building, which serves as an illustration of the kind of project the wider £1.5 million commitment will fund.

On Monday, Prince William urged the world to embrace "urgent optimism" in confronting the climate emergency, penning a piece in The Independent as preparations advance for the sixth Earthshot Prize ceremony, set to take place in Mumbai, India this November.

The Prince of Wales's intervention comes after Britain endured its most punishing summer since meteorological records commenced in 1884, with Met Office provisional data revealing an average temperature of 16.5C across the season.

The heir to the throne described the widespread wildfires that swept the country as "devastating" and "alarming", calling them a "powerful reminder of the risks associated with a warming climate".

In his article, the prince argued that the sheer magnitude of the challenge risked paralysing people into inaction.

"The crisis demands urgency. But without a belief that change is possible, its scale can leave us feeling overwhelmed," he wrote. "Optimism gives us confidence that our actions can make a difference. We need both."

William defined his central philosophy as "seeing the danger clearly while believing in our ability to respond."