The Dartmouth Visitor Centre is found in a corner of the Mayors Avenue car park.

It also boasts the oldest preserved working steam engine in the world designed by Dartmothian Thomas Newcomen.

Laura Campbell is one of the Directors explains why they open around the year:

“We are a tourism and business hub so we have also got businesses that come in to find us and we can go through marketing initiatives, what help they need and any professional services.

“They know they can find a group of us who are also involved in the Chamber of Commerce so we want to make this a real community asset.”

The Visitor Centre welcomed 27,000 people through the doors between July and September and is becoming a hub for a whole portfolio of services.

There’s currently a lull but Laura says they are still busy:

‘We are gathering ourselves for Dartmouth in December which kicks off on November 29 with Candlelit then we’ve got a whole month of festive activities planned.

As for the rest of the winter there’s still plenty going on: “Plenty of people come in especially to see the Newcomen engine and we can then direct them to the Museum to carry on the story.

“There are still a lot of walkers around so we’ve got people coming in to view all the maps.

“Our volunteers are an absolute mine of useful information and they will talk them through any requirements they may have and if they’ve got say dogs, children or elderly people.”

“Some people also like to come when it is quieter.”

The building itself is owned by Dartmouth Town Council and the Dartmouth Tourism and Business Hub are the tenants.

It is a brand new CIC (Community of Interest Company) which was set up by Laura Campbell, Danni Pinnington and Jo Hinde.

They have a board of seven directors which also includes Paul Downing who’s the MD at Dart Marina Hotels, Ian Davies who’s the GM at the golf club, Paul Britton who’s the Harbourmaster and Julie Derbyshire who owns Dudley’s in town.

Laura continued: “We’ve got a great range of experience between us.

“We have around 20 part-time volunteers and we transferred them all over.

“Danni and I tend to cover the building operationally with Julie who’s our treasurer.”

Laura says there is a great synergy between the centre and local businesses.

“We would have say an accommodation company coming in and wanting fliers so we’ve got people in town to do the graphic design and the artwork for them and we have local printers to work with.

“We also have corporate accounts with various organisations which make it cost effective and so we can get those money saving elements through to the businesses.

“We can also draw on our Chamber members as well- we’ve got health and safety consultants, a neuro-diversity lady, HR people, financial people etc.”

Dartmouth Visitor is currently open Monday to Saturday 10am to 3pm but on Wednesdays there may be shorter opening hours.