Devon is a county in south west England, bordering Cornwall to the west with Dorset and Somerset to the east. There is evidence of occupation of the county from the Stone Age onwards. Its recorded history starts in the Roman period, when it was a civitas. It was then a separate kingdom for a number of centuries until it was incorporated into early England. It has remained a largely agriculture-based region ever since, though tourism is now very important.
Devon was one of the first areas of Great Britain settled following the end of the last ice age. Kents Cavern in Torbay is one of the earliest places in England known to have been occupied by modern man. Dartmoor is thought to have been settled by Mesolithichunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC, and they later cleared much of the oak forest, which regenerated as moor. In the Neolithic era, from about 3500 BC, there is evidence of farming on the moor, and also building and the erection of monuments, using the large granite boulders that are ready to hand there; Dartmoor contains the remains of the oldest known buildings in England. There are over 500 known Neolithic sites on the moor, in the form of burial mounds, stone rows, stone circles and ancient settlements such as the one at Grimspound. Stone rows are a particularly striking feature, ranging in length from a few metres to over 3km. Their ends are often marked by a cairn, a stone circle, or a standing stone (see menhir). Because most of Dartmoor was not ploughed during the historic period, the archaeological record is relatively easy to trace.
The name "Devon" derives from the tribe of Celtic people who inhabited the south-western peninsula of Britain at the time of the Roman invasion in 43 AD, the Dumnonii: possibly meaning "deep valley dwellers" (Cornish: Dewnens, Welsh: Dyfnaint, Breton: Devnent) or "worshippers of the god Dumnonos". This tribal name carried on into the Roman and post-Roman periods. The Dumnonii did not mint coins, unlike their neighbours to the east, the Durotriges, but coins of the Dobunni have been found in the area.
In February 2022, archaeologists led by Rob Bourn, managing director of Orion Heritage, announced the discovery of the remains of a woolly mammoth, reindeer, rhinoceros, bison, wolf and hyena in a cave system during the building of a new town named Sherford. Over 200 clusters of bones were removed by the explorers to analyse the life in Ice Age in Britain. Remains of a tusk, molar tooth, other bones of a woolly mammoth, a partial skull and a mandible of a woolly rhinoceros date to the middle of the last ice age between 60,000 and 30,000 years ago.[2][3][4][5]
Roman period
Devon was not as heavily Romanized as Somerset and Dorset, with the majority of the occupation's traces being in the Exeter area, where the Roman fortifications can still be seen. It is likely a settlement at Exeter of some sort pre-existed the Romans and that the local Brythonic tribe inhabiting the area, the Dumnonii, maintained a tradition of independence. It appears that initially the Dumnonii tribe of Britons were a client kingdom of Rome, but from about AD 55 the Romans held at least part of the area under military occupation, maintaining a naval port at Topsham and a garrison of the 2nd Augustan Legion at Exeter, which they called 'Isca'. This banked and palisaded fortress contained mostly barracks and workshops, but also a magnificent bath-house and was occupied for approximately twenty years. Then the legion moved to Caerleon and the civilians of the surrounding settlement took control. All the associated trappings of local government followed, such as a forum and basilica and, eventually a stone city wall. The Roman administration stayed here for over three centuries. There were several smaller forts across the county and a number of paganshrines, as remembered in the name of the Nymet villages (Nemeton), but the lands west of the Exe remained largely un-Romanized. The higher status locals there often lived in banked homesteads known as 'Rounds', while East Devon had a number of luxurious villas, such as that discovered at Holcombe, as well as Roman roads of the sophisticated cobbled type.
After the end of Roman rule in Britain in about 410, the kingdom of Dumnonia emerged, covering Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, based on the former Roman civitas and named after the pre-Roman Dumnonii. Gildas criticised King Constantine, who was probably a second generation ruler of Dumnonia in the early sixth century.[6] The Roman episcopal structure survived, and shortly before 705 Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury, wrote a letter to King Geraint of Dumnonia and his bishops.[7]
Exeter, known as "Caer Uisc", may have been central to the kingdom, but some historians and antiquaries have speculated that the Kings of Dumnonia may have been itinerant with no fixed capital and moved their court from place to place. The Welsh Triads name Celliwig in Cornwall as a possible site of a royal court; another is High Peak, close to Sidmouth. The former Roman city of Exeter may have become an ecclesiastical centre, as evidenced by a sub-Roman cemetery discovered near the cathedral. The Brythonic cemetery in Exeter may have been attached to the monastery attended by the young Wilfred St. Boniface (said to be a native of Crediton) in the late 7th century. However its abbot had a purely Saxon name, suggesting it was an Anglo-Saxon foundation.
Anglo-Saxon conquest of Dumnonia
The date that the Anglo-Saxons began to settle in Devon is not certain. Raids westwards from the core territories of Wessex seem to have been set in motion about 660. After the Battle of Peonnum, fought probably at Penselwood in 658, the West Saxons advanced to the River Parrett. By 682 they had reached the Quantocks and were pressing forward into the coastal plain.[8] Wessex under King Cynewulf emerged from Mercian domination and began advancing west again from Taunton,[9] established as an advanced West Saxon position in 710 by King Ine, who defeated in that year the last recorded independent king in Devon; the codified Laws of Ine made provision for the Wealhas, the Welsh "foreigners", some of whom retained positions of responsibility.[10] The end of the fighting appears to have been a protracted and miserable affair. Campaigns by King Ecgberht of Wessex in Devon between 813 and 822 appear to have resulted in the defeat of the West Welsh in Cornwall but not their complete disposition. William of Malmesbury reports negotiations between King Alfred of Wessex and King Dungarth of the Cornish in c. 876 held somewhere near Exmoor in Devon; presumably Alfred would have sought reassurances over his western frontier as he conspired to defeat the Danes.[11] It seems most likely that the final acts of conquest of Devon by Wessex came under King Æthelstan of the English. William of Malmesbury claimed that "the Britons and Saxons inhabited Exeter aequo jure" - "as equals". However Æthelstan notably expelled “that filthy race” from Exeter in 927.[12] Some sources, notably the Cornish antiquaryWilliam Borlase, state that the expulsion of the Britons from Exeter was the first act in a military campaign against the West Welsh led by Æthelstan. William Borlase says there was a battle against King Howel of the West Welsh at Haldon near Teignmouth in 936 where the West Welsh were soundly defeated. It seems they were then pursued westwards across the River Tamar and through Cornwall where they were defeated again close to Land's End in what may have been a “last-ditch” encounter that probably ended in slaughter,[9] thus rendering the statement made centuries earlier and known to us as The Groan of the Britons seem morbidly appropriate; "The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us to the barbarians, between these two means of death we are either killed or drowned". An inflamed and astonished Welsh reaction to these events is found in the contemporary poem, Armes Prydein, where the last independent king of Cornwall, reputedly King Howel, was said to lament:
By the 9th century, the major threat to peace in Devon came from Viking raiders. Thus Alfred the Great refortified Exeter as a defensive burh, followed by new fortifications at Lydford, Halwell and Pilton, although these were relatively small compared to burhs further east; suggesting these were protection for only the elite. Edward the Elder built similarly at Barnstaple and Totnes. The English defeated a combined Cornish and Danish force at Callington in 832. Sporadic Viking incursions continued, however, until the Norman Conquest, including the disastrous defeat of the Devonians at the Battle of Pinhoe in 1001. A few Norse placenames remain as a result, for example Lundy Island. The men of Devon are said by Asser to have fought the Danes at the Battle of Cynwit in 878, which may have been at Kenwith Castle or Countisbury, although Cannington in Somerset is also claimed as the site of the battle. In 894, the Danes attempted to besiege Exeter but were driven off by Alfred; however it was sacked in 1001.
Devon was originally part of the bishopric of Winchester, but in around 705 the see was divided and a separate bishopric of Sherborne was established, covering Devon, Dorset and Somerset, with Aldhelm as its first bishop. In about 910 the bishopric was again divided, with each county getting its own bishopric. Eadwulf became the first Bishop of Crediton. In 1050 King Edward the Confessor combined Devon and Cornwall and Leofric was appointed Bishop of Exeter.[14]
Norman and medieval period
Immediately after the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror recognised the importance of securing the loyalty of the West Country and thus the need to secure Exeter. The city withstood an eighteen-day siege[15] and the new king was only eventually allowed to enter upon honourable terms.
The many great estates subsequently held by William's barons in Devon were known as "honours". Chief amongst them were Plympton, Okehampton, Barnstaple, Totnes and Harberton. In the 12th century, the honour of Plympton, along with the Earldom of Devon, was given to the Redvers family. In the following century, it passed to the Courtenays, who had already acquired Okehampton, and in 1335 they received the earldom too. It was also in the 14th century that the Dukedom of Exeter was bestowed on the Holland family, but the dukedom became extinct in the reign of Edward IV. The ancestors of Sir Walter Raleigh, who was born at East Budleigh, held considerable estates in the county from a similar period. Devon was given an independent sheriff. Originally an hereditary appointment, this was later held for a year only. In 1320, the locals complained that all the hundreds of Devon were under the control of the great lords who did not appoint sufficient bailiffs for their proper government.
During the civil war of King Stephen's reign, the castles of Plympton and Exeter were held against the king by Baldwin de Redvers in 1140. Conflict resurfaced in the 14th and 15th centuries, when the French made frequent raids on the Devon coast; and during the Wars of the Roses, when there were frequent skirmishes between the LancastrianEarl of Devon and the Yorkist Lord Bonville. In 1470, Edward IV pursued Warwick and Clarence as far as Exeter after the Battle of Lose-coat Field. Warwick eventually escaped to France via Dartmouth. Later, Richard III travelled to Exeter to personally punish those who had inflamed the West against him. Several hundred were outlawed, including the Bishop and the Dean.
Dartmoor and Exmoor (mainly in Somerset) were Royal Forests, i.e. hunting preserves. The men of Devon paid 5000 marks (£3,333) to have these deforested in 1242. The 11th to 14th centuries were a period of economic and population growth, but the Black Death in 1348 and subsequent years caused decline in both, with resulting social change; many villages and hamlets such as 12th century Hound Tor were said to have been deserted, whilst new settlements were later granted to the rising class of tenant farmers exemplified by the surviving 14th century Dartmoor longhouse settlement at Higher Uppacott, and peasant farmers subsequently prospered with large flocks of sheep and cattle. Towns such as Totnes were particularly noted for their wealth derived from the wool and tin trade with the Continent in this period.
Tudor and Stuart period
Maps of territory held by Royalists (red) and Parliamentarians (yellow), 1642 — 1645Atlas of Devon by Christopher Saxton from 1575
Early in Henry VII's reign, the royal pretender, Perkin Warbeck, besieged Exeter in 1497. The King himself came down to judge the prisoners and to thank the citizens for their loyal resistance.
Great disturbances throughout the county followed the introduction of Edward VI's Book of Common Prayer. The day after Whit Sunday 1549, a priest at Sampford Courtenay was persuaded to read the old mass.[16] This insubordination spread swiftly into serious revolt. The Cornish quickly joined the men of Devon in the Prayer Book Rebellion and Exeter suffered a distressing siege until relieved by Lord Russell.[17]
During the Civil War, the cities of Devon largely favoured the Parliamentarian cause, and by and large the rural areas favoured the Royalists. but there was a great desire for peace in the region and, in 1643 a treaty for the cessation of hostilities in Devon and Cornwall was agreed. Only small-scale skirmishes continued until the capture of Dartmouth and Exeter in 1646 by Sir Thomas Fairfax. He then captured Tiverton and defeated Lord Hopeton's army at Torrington. The last place held for the king was Charles Fort at Salcombe.
After the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, Judge Jefferies held one of his ‘bloody assizes’ at Exeter. In 1688, the Prince of Orange first landed in England at Brixham (where his statue stands in the town harbour) to launch the Glorious Revolution and his journey to London to claim the English throne as William III. He was entertained for several days at both Forde and at Exeter.
Modern period
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In the modern period, since 1650, the city of Plymouth has grown considerably, becoming the largest city in Devon, mainly due to the naval base at Devonport to its west. Plymouth played an important role as a naval port in both World War I and World War II. South Devon was a training and assembly area during World War II for the D-Day landings, and there is a memorial to the many soldiers who were killed during a rehearsal off Slapton Sands. Both Plymouth and Exeter suffered badly from bombing during the war, and the centre of Exeter and vast swathes of Plymouth had to be largely rebuilt during the 1960s.
Cold winters were a feature of the 17th century, that of 1676 being particularly hard. There were smallpox epidemics in the 1640s, 1710s and 1760s, resulting in many deaths. In October 1690 there was an earthquake in Barnstaple. Daniel Defoe published an account of a tour through Devon in 1724 and 1727. South Devon impressed him, but he thought that north Devon was wild, barren and poor.
During the Napoleonic War a prison was built at Princetown on Dartmoor to hold French and American prisoners of war. This prison is still in use.
In 1842 the population was said to be mainly employed in agriculture. The population rose in the 19th century, but the rate of increase was only around half that of the population of England and Wales as a whole.[18]
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Devon has experienced great changes, including the rise of the tourist industry on the so-called English Riviera, decline of farming and fishing, urbanisation, and also proliferation of holiday homes, for example in Salcombe. Devon has become famous for its clotted cream and cider. Dartmoor has become a National Park, as has Exmoor.
Devon has suffered many severe storms, including one that largely swept away Hallsands in 1917.
Politically Devon has had a tendency to lean towards the Conservative and Liberal/Liberal-Democrat parties.
Mining history
Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times. Until about 1300 it produced more than Cornwall, but production declined with the opening of the deep Cornish mines. Tin was found largely on Dartmoor's granite heights, and copper in the areas around it. It was exported from Mount Batten in prehistoric times. The Dartmoor tin-mining industry thrived for hundreds of years, continuing from pre-Roman times right through to the first half of the 20th century. In the 18th century Devon Great Consols mine (near Tavistock) was believed to be the largest copper mine in the world.
Devon's tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devon's stannary parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. Stannary authority exceeded English law, and because this authority applied to part-time miners (e.g. tin streamers) as well as full-time miners the stannary parliament had significant power. Until the early 18th century the stannary parliament met in an open air parliament at Crockern Tor on Dartmoor with stannators appointed to it from each of the four stannary towns. The parliament maintained its own gaol at Lydford and had a brutal and 'bloody' reputation (indeed Lydford law became a byword for injustice), and once even gaoled an English MP in the reign of Henry VIII.
Tin and tungsten have most recently been mined at Hemerdon Ball (near Plymouth). During World War 2 the mine was operated to ensure a domestic supply of both metals. The mine has periodically re-opened since then and is currently known as Hemerdon Mine
Cornwall is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised by Cornish and Celtic political groups as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, Devon to the east, and the English Channel to the south. The largest urban area in the county is a conurbation that includes the former mining towns of Redruth and Camborne, and the county town is the city of Truro.
Devon is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west. The city of Plymouth is the largest settlement, and the city of Exeter is the county town.
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Cornwall and Devon in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period. They were bordered to the east by the Durotriges tribe.
The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886.
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England in the United Kingdom. It consists of the counties of Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and large towns in the region include Bath, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cheltenham, Exeter, Gloucester, Plymouth and Swindon. It is geographically the largest of the nine regions of England with a land area of 9,203 square miles (23,836 km2), but the third-least populous, with an estimated 5,764,881 residents in 2022.
Geraint, known in Latin as Gerontius, was a king of Dumnonia who ruled in the early 8th century. During his reign, it is believed that Dumnonia came repeatedly into conflict with the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Geraint was the last recorded king of a unified Dumnonia, and was called King of the Welsh by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Subsequent kings of Dumnonia reigned over an area that was eventually reduced to the limits of present-day Cornwall.
The Tamar is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall. A large part of the valley of the Tamar is protected as the Tamar Valley National Landscape, and some is included in the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape due to its historic mining activities.
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries CE in the more westerly parts of present-day South West England. It was centred in the area of modern Devon, but also included modern Cornwall and part of Somerset, with its eastern boundary changing over time as the gradual westward expansion of the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex encroached on its territory. The spelling Damnonia is sometimes encountered, but that spelling is also used for the land of the Damnonii, later part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, in present-day southern Scotland. The form Domnonia also occurs. The name of the kingdom shares a linguistic relationship with the Breton region of Domnonée.
Stannary law is the body of English law that governs tin mining in Cornwall and Devon; although no longer of much practical relevance, the stannary law remains part of the law of the United Kingdom and is arguably the oldest law incorporated into the English legal system.
The history of Cornwall goes back to the Paleolithic, but in this period Cornwall only had sporadic visits by groups of humans. Continuous occupation started around 10,000 years ago after the end of the last ice age. When recorded history started in the first century BCE, the spoken language was Common Brittonic, and that would develop into Southwestern Brittonic and then the Cornish language. Cornwall was part of the territory of the tribe of the Dumnonii that included modern-day Devon and parts of Somerset. After a period of Roman rule, Cornwall reverted to rule by independent Romano-British leaders and continued to have a close relationship with Brittany and Wales as well as southern Ireland, which neighboured across the Celtic Sea. After the collapse of Dumnonia, the remaining territory of Cornwall came into conflict with neighbouring Wessex.
The constitutional status of Cornwall has been a matter of debate and dispute. Cornwall is an administrative county of England.
A stannary was an administrative division established under stannary law in the English counties of Cornwall and Devon to manage the collection of tin coinage, which was the duty payable on the metal tin smelted from the ore cassiterite mined in the region. In Cornwall, the duty was passed to the Duchy of Cornwall; in Devon to the Crown.
The Cornish people or Cornish are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the Brittonic Celtic ancient Britons who inhabited Great Britain from somewhere between the 11th and 7th centuries BC and inhabited Britain at the time of the Roman conquest. Many in Cornwall today continue to assert a distinct identity separate from or in addition to English or British identities. Cornish identity has also been adopted by some migrants into Cornwall, as well as by emigrant and descendant communities from Cornwall, the latter sometimes referred to as the Cornish diaspora. Although not included as a tick-box option in the UK census, the numbers of those writing in a Cornish ethnic and national identity are officially recognised and recorded.
Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in the early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable, but ended in the late 20th century. In 2021, it was announced that a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate, more than 20 years after the closure of the last South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998.
The Cornovii is a name for a tribe presumed to have been part of the Dumnonii, a Celtic tribe inhabiting the south-west peninsula of Great Britain, during some part of the Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman periods. The Cornovii are supposed to have lived at the western end of the peninsula, in the area now known as Cornwall, and if the tribal name were correct it would be the ultimate source of the name of that present-day county.
This timeline summarizes significant events in the History of Cornwall
The Battle of Hingston Down took place in 838, probably at Hingston Down in Cornwall between a combined force of Cornish and Vikings on the one side, and West Saxons led by Ecgberht, King of Wessex on the other. The result was a West Saxon victory. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which called the Cornish the West Welsh:
Presented below is an alphabetical index of articles related to Cornwall:
The Stannary Convocation of Devon, also known as the Great Parliament of the Tinners or as the Devon Stannary Parliament, was an assembly in the English county of Devon, with the power to amend and expand the stannary law in the county. Initially assembled in the Middle Ages by the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, the Stannary Convocation developed out of the predecessor to the judicial Courts of the Vice-Warden of the Stannaries but was established as an institution in its own right by the sixteenth century, with the power to both proclaim the existing customs as English law and to legislate regarding the laws by which tinners, who were exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary English courts until 1896, conducted their business.
References
↑ Barry Cunliffe: Mount Batten Plymouth: A Prehistoric and Roman Port. Oxford University Press 1988
↑ "- Sherford". sherford.org. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
↑ Yorke, Barbara (2013). "Britain and Ireland c. 500". In Stafford, Pauline (ed.). A Companion to the Early Middle Ages: Britain and Ireland c. 500–c. 1100. Wiley-Blackwell. p.48. ISBN978-1-118-42513-8.
↑ Pickles, Thomas (2013). "Church Organization and Pastoral Care". In Stafford, Pauline (ed.). A Companion to the Early Middle Ages: Britain and Ireland c. 500–c. 1100. Wiley-Blackwell. p.164. ISBN978-1-118-42513-8.
↑ H. R. Loyn, Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, 2nd ed. 1991:49f.
1 2 Major, Albany (1913) Early Wars of Wessex, pp. 92-98. Blandford Press. ISBN0-7137-2068-9.
↑ Wood, Michael (1981) In Search of the Dark Ages, p.135. BBC Books. ISBN0-563-17835-3.
↑ Keynes, Simon (2014). "Appendix II: Archbishops and Bishops 597–1066". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Seconded.). Chichester, UK: Blackwell Publishing. pp.549–53. ISBN978-0-470-65632-7.
↑ Palliser, David Michael; Clark, Peter; and Daunton, Martin J. (2000). The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, p. 595. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-41707-4.
↑ Heal, Felicity (2003). Reformation in Britain and Ireland, p. 225. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-826924-2.
↑ Secor, Philip Bruce (1999). Richard Hooker: Prophet of Anglicanism, p. 13. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN0-86012-289-1.
Samuel Tymms (1832). "Devonshire". Western Circuit. The Family Topographer: Being a Compendious Account of the ... Counties of England. Vol.2. London: J.B. Nichols and Son. OCLC2127940.
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