rt of Dartmouth Royal Regatta has been officially launched – with the help of seven full pounds of civic silver.

The 3ft-long silver oar handed to the town more than 200 years ago as a symbol of its river rights is usually kept under lock and key in the town's council's Guildhall vault.

But once a year it is paraded through the town as part of a town regatta ceremony going back over a century.

On Wednesday evening it was the turn of a Dartmouth sea cadet to carry the oar as part of the parade from the Guildhall to the Royal Avenue Gardens bandstand.

For the full story see this week's Dartmouth Chronicle