![New Passage Map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/New_Passage_Map.jpg)
The History of Plymouth in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, England, extends back to the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
, when the first settlement began at
Mount Batten
Mount Batten is a 24-metre (80-ft) tall outcrop of rock on a 600-metre (2000-ft) peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, named after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy; it was previously known as How Stert.
A ...
a peninsula in
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abou ...
facing onto the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
. It continued as both a fishing and continental tin trading port through the late
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
into the
Early Medieval
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
period, until the more prosperous
Saxon settlement of Sutton, later renamed
Plymouth, surpassed it. With its
natural harbour
A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...
and open access to the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
, the town found wealth and a national strategic importance during the establishment of British naval dominance in the
colonisation of the New World. In 1620 the
Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the ''Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the final departure port of Plymo ...
departed from Plymouth to establish the
second English colony in America. During the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
the town was besieged between 1642 and 1646 by the
Royalists
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
, but after the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
a Dockyard was established in the nearby town of
Devonport (later amalgamated with Plymouth). Throughout the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
Plymouth grew as a major mercantile shipping industry, including imports and passengers from the US, whilst Devonport grew as a naval base and ship construction town, building
battleships
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type o ...
for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
– which later led to its partial destruction during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in a series of air-raids known as the
Plymouth Blitz. After the war was over, the city centre was completely rebuilt to a new plan.
Toponymy
For much of its earlier history, the settlement here was known as Sutton (''Sutona'' in 1086, ''Suttona'' in 1201), simply meaning ''South town''.
It was based near
Sutton Harbour, the oldest quarter of the modern city. The modern name has two parts: ''Plym'' and ''mouth''. The element ''Plym'' is taken from the
River Plym
The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongsi ...
along which Sutton traded with its parent settlement of
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to P ...
, but Plympton's name (first recorded as ''Plymentun'' in c. 900) is considered to derive from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
word for 'plum tree',
though the local civic association suggests an alternative derivation from the Celtic ''Pen-lyn-don'' ("fort at the head of a creek").
By the early 13th century, the river was being called the Plym (''Plyme'', in 1238), as a
back-formation
In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the ...
from Plympton and
Plymstock
Plymstock is a commuter suburb of Plymouth and former civil parish in the English county of Devon.
Geography
Situated on the east bank of the River Plym, Plymstock is geographically and historically part of the South Hams. It comprises the vil ...
(first recorded as ''Plemestocha'' in 1086).
The earliest records of the name Plymouth date from around this time (as ''Plymmue'' in 1230, ''Plimmuth'' in 1234).
Plymouth notably lent its name to the settlement of
Plymouth, Massachusetts following the departure of the
Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the ''Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the final departure port of Plymo ...
aboard the
Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
in 1620, as well as
many other settlements in North America.
Early history
The earliest human remains in the Plymouth area are from a number of caves around
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abou ...
. The 'bone caves', located at
Cattedown
Cattedown is an inner city suburb of Plymouth, Devon. Its position beside the River Plym estuary just short of the mouth led to its early settlement.
Catherine of Aragon - the first wife of Henry VIII - travelled from Loredo in Spain to a h ...
,
Oreston
Oreston ( ), formerly a village on the southern bank of the Cattewater, is now a suburb of Plymouth. It is recorded as ''Horestone'' on the 1591 Spry ''Map of Plimmouth''. Oreston offers many small, local services. It is home to a small cornershop ...
,
Turnchapel
Plymstock is a commuter suburb of Plymouth and former civil parish in the English county of Devon.
Geography
Situated on the east bank of the River Plym, Plymstock is geographically and historically part of the South Hams. It comprises the ...
and
Stonehouse, contain extensive
Upper Palaeolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
deposits, including those of ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'', some of the earliest such evidence in England. A
reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...
bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...
from one of the Cattedown caves is dated 15,125 ± 390 years B.P. There is no public access to the caves, and they are not easily locatable or visitable. However, their archaeological importance is very great, owing to both the geographical location of the Cattedown discovery, in a European context, and to the quantitative and qualitative nature and physical disposition of the human remains; this is one of the most important discoveries for the early history of anatomically modern humans in Europe. There is currently no evidence of ''
Homo neanderthalensis
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...
'' having been found in caves at Cattedown, Oreston, Stonehouse or
Mount Batten
Mount Batten is a 24-metre (80-ft) tall outcrop of rock on a 600-metre (2000-ft) peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, named after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy; it was previously known as How Stert.
A ...
(Turnchapel).
It was once thought, based on a reference to ''TAMARIS OSTIA'' ('Port of Tamar') in
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
's ''
Geographia
The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...
'', that
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
brought from
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
via the
River Plym
The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongsi ...
was traded with the
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
ns here, but this theory was discounted by
Malcolm Todd
Malcolm Todd (27 November 19396 June 2013) was an English archaeologist. Born in Durham, England, the son of a miner, Todd was educated in classics and classical archaeology at St David's College, Lampeter and Brasenose College, Oxford. He s ...
in 1987. However, evidence of copper ingots and copper scrap in contexts dating from the late
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
to the Middle
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
have been found at
Mount Batten
Mount Batten is a 24-metre (80-ft) tall outcrop of rock on a 600-metre (2000-ft) peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, named after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy; it was previously known as How Stert.
A ...
, a
promontory settlement jutting into
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abou ...
, which was one of the main ports of trade in
Prehistoric Britain
Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints prob ...
.
Tin trading at Mount Batten in the region inhabited by the
Dumnonii
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Devon and Cornwall (and some areas of present-day Dorset and Somerset) in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Ir ...
continued up to the period of
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...
(approximately 50 AD), but it had declined since the Iron Age. As a peripheral trading outpost of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
this port continued to trade tin along with cattle and hides but was eclipsed by the rise of the fishing village of Sutton opposite. Later evidence suggests that the
Brythonic kingdom of
Dumnonia
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, ...
retained a degree of
autonomy from Rome, and the later
Anglo-Saxon kingdom of
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
due to the significance of its
tin mining
Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm.
History
Tin extraction and use can ...
activities. Archaeological evidence from the surrounding region of west Devon and east Cornwall suggests that the area was culturally distinct from the more easterly English heartlands well into the Middle Ages, the agricultural and architectural patterns having much more in common with Atlantic South Wales, Ireland and Brittany. However, the extent to which the Brythonic
Cornish language was spoken east of the
Tamar remains a point of conjecture.
At the time of the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
(1086) the manor of Sutton was held by the King, but
Henry I Henry I may refer to:
876–1366
* Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936)
* Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955)
* Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018)
* Henry I of France (1008–1060)
* Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...
granted it to the Valletort family of nearby
Trematon Castle
Trematon Castle ( kw, Kastel Tremen) is situated near Saltash in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was the ''caput'' of the feudal barony of Trematon. It is similar in style to the later Restormel Castle, with a 12th-century keep. Trematon C ...
. The Valletorts in turn granted parts to the
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...
at
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to P ...
, a larger and older settlement than Plymouth, at the head of the
tidal estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
of the
River Plym
The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongsi ...
. That part of the town owned by Plympton Priory was granted a market charter in 1254, and the whole town and its surrounding area achieved municipal independence in 1439, becoming the first town to be incorporated by
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
.
As the higher parts of the Plym estuary silted up, ships used the
Cattewater
The city of Plymouth, Devon, England is bounded by Dartmoor to the north, the Hamoaze to the west, the open expanse of water called Plymouth Sound to the south and the river Plym to the east.
The Cattewater is that stretch of water where the mo ...
moorings and the then tidal harbour at the Plym's mouth instead of Plympton.
And so the name of the town ''Sutton'' slowly became ''Plymouth''. The name ''Sutton'' still exists in the name of its old harbour and a parliamentary division.
![Prysten House, Finewell Street, Plymouth - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Prysten_House%2C_Finewell_Street%2C_Plymouth_-_geograph.org.uk_-_829280.jpg)
The town was often the target of enemies across the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
, especially during the
Hundred Years' War. In 1340 French attackers, who had been successfully burning towns along the coast by surprise, burned a manor house and took some prisoners, but failed to get into the town; by the time they reached Plymouth, they had lost the advantage of surprise. In 1403, the town was briefly occupied and burnt by
Breton
Breton most often refers to:
*anything associated with Brittany, and generally
** Breton people
** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany
** Breton (horse), a breed
**Ga ...
raiders.
In the late fifteenth century
Plymouth Castle
Plymouth Castle was a castle built in the early 15th century to defend the town and harbour of Plymouth in Devon, England. By the end of the 16th century it had ceased to have any military function and fell into disrepair, being almost completely ...
, a "castle quadrate", was constructed close to the area now known as The Barbican; it included four round towers, one at each corner, as featured on the city coat of arms. The castle served to protect Sutton Pool, which is where the fleet was based in Plymouth prior to the establishment of
Plymouth Dock
Devonport ( ), formerly named Plymouth Dock or just Dock, is a district of Plymouth in the English county of Devon, although it was, at one time, the more important settlement. It became a county borough in 1889. Devonport was originally one ...
. In 1512 an Act of Parliament was passed for further fortifying Plymouth, and a series of fortifications were then built including defensive walls at the entrance to Sutton Pool (across which a chain would be extended in time of danger). Defences on
St Nicholas Island also date from this time, and a string of six artillery
blockhouses were built (including one on Fishers Nose at the south-eastern corner of the Hoe). This location was further strengthened by the building of a fort (later known as Drake's Fort) in 1596, which itself went on to provide the site for the
Citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
I ...
, established in the 1660s.
Renaissance age
During the 16th century, Plymouth was the home port for a number of successful maritime traders, among them William Hawkins, who made the first English expeditions to West Africa in the 1530s; and his son
Sir John Hawkins
Sir John Hawkins (also spelled Hawkyns) (1532 – 12 November 1595) was a pioneering English naval commander, naval administrator and privateer. He pioneered, and was an early promoter of, English involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.
Hawk ...
, who led England's first foray into the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
.
The diary of his own son Admiral Sir
Richard Hawkins
Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins (or Hawkyns) (c. 1562 – 17 April 1622) was a 17th-century English seaman, explorer and privateer. He was the son of Admiral Sir John Hawkins.
Biography
He was from his earlier days familiar with ships and the s ...
inspired the Victorian novel
Westward Ho!
Westward Ho! is a seaside village near Bideford in Devon, England. The A39 road provides access from the towns of Barnstaple, Bideford, and Bude. It lies at the south end of Northam Burrows and faces westward into Bideford Bay, opposite Sau ...
which romantically mythologises the historical exploits of the 'Men of Devon' of this era.
However
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 ( ...
, navigator, privateer and vice admiral of the British Royal Navy remains the city's most famous resident; though born in
Tavistock
Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13 ...
, he was mayor of Plymouth from 1581 and is credited with bringing fresh water from
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
to the flourishing town by means of an
aqueduct now known as
Drake's Leat
Drake's Leat, also known as Plymouth Leat, was a watercourse constructed in the late 16th century to tap the River Meavy on Dartmoor, England, from which it ran in order to supply Plymouth with water. It began at a point now under water at Burr ...
and developing the
Tudor fortifications around Sutton Harbour. The remains of once wealthy
Elizabethan Merchant's houses can be still be seen in the city's
Barbican quarter – which has also seen the first arrival and departure on British soil of many notable persons such as
Catherine of Aragon and
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
in 1501 and 1616 respectively.
Outside the historic town walls,
Plymouth Hoe
Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south-facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and it commands views of Plymouth ...
, meaning high place, remains a wide grass meadow atop cliffs overlooking the natural harbour of Plymouth Sound. According to an enduring national myth, this is the place where Sir
Francis Drake insisted on completing his game of
bowls to allow wind and tide to change in his favour enabling his defeat of the
Spanish Armada in 1588.
In 1589, the
English Armada
The English Armada ( es, Invencible Inglesa, lit=English Invincible), also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake–Norris Expedition, was an attack fleet sent against Spain by Queen Elizabeth I of England that sailed on 28 April 1589 during ...
's assembly had been completed, and the fleet of 146 ships lay at mooring in Plymouth. However, due to poor planning, and a lack of both cavalry and siege artillery aboard the fleet, the expedition was ultimately defeated.
Local histographer Sir
Richard Carew of
Antony in his ''Survey of Cornwall'' noted the presence in the early 17th century of large outline images of the giants
Gog and Magog (or Goemagot and
Corineus
Corineus, in medieval British legend, was a prodigious warrior, a fighter of giants, and the eponymous founder of Cornwall.
''History of the Kings of Britain''
In Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-history '' History of the Kings of Britain'' (1 ...
the mythical founder of
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
) which had been for a long time cut into the grass of the Hoe, exposing the white limestone beneath. There is no trace of these
chalk figures today.
In 1606 the
Plymouth Company
The Plymouth Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of Plymouth, was a Division (business), division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for British colonization of the Americas, colonizing the east coast of America between 38 ...
(the ''Plymouth Adventurers'') was issued with a royal charter by
James I of England
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
with the purpose of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.
A few years later, Plymouth was also the departure point of the ''
Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
'' in 1620, aboard which the
Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the ''Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the final departure port of Plymo ...
set sail for the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
, establishing the second permanent English colony in the United States of America. They eventually landed at a site which Captain
John Smith had already named New Plymouth in a map published in his 1616 work ''
A Description of New England'' and the Pilgrims accepted this name. Twin flags of the US and UK now fly at the
Mayflower Steps
The Mayflower Steps are close to the site in the Barbican area of Plymouth, south-west England, from which the Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the '' ...
to commemorate the significance of this event to both nations.
Civil War, Restoration and William III
During the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
Plymouth, in common with the other major port towns, sided with the
Parliamentarians and so was isolated from the surrounding regions of Devon and Cornwall which were held by
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
sympathisers.
The town was besieged almost continuously from December 1642 to January 1646; the main factor in its successful resistance was the navy's adherence to Parliament which allowed the regular arrival of supply ships and, when under serious Royalist attacks, enabled parties of seamen to be rushed ashore to reinforce the defences.
![Plymouth siege map 1643](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Plymouth_siege_map_1643.gif)
Extensive works were constructed to defend the town, including a line of stockaded earthworks on high ground north of the town, from
Lipson
Lipson is a ward in the city of Plymouth, England. It is an area with mixed terraced housing, some subdivided into bedsits and flats and a public open-space called 'Freedom Fields', a Civil War battle site where the townsfolk of nearby Plymou ...
in the east to Eldad in the west, as well as several isolated works, for instance at Prince Rock,
Cattedown
Cattedown is an inner city suburb of Plymouth, Devon. Its position beside the River Plym estuary just short of the mouth led to its early settlement.
Catherine of Aragon - the first wife of Henry VIII - travelled from Loredo in Spain to a h ...
and
Stonehouse.
Various skirmishes and confrontations occurred, including the rout of Royalist cavalry along Lipson Ridge on 3 December 1643,
which is commemorated by a monument in Freedom Fields Park, and the battle of
St Budeaux
St Budeaux is an area and ward in the north west of Plymouth in the English county of Devon.
Original settlement
The name St Budeaux comes from Saint Budoc, the Bishop of Dol (Brittany). Around 480, Budoc is said to have founded a settlemen ...
. Construction of
the Royal Citadel began in 1665, after
the Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
; it was armed with cannon facing both out to sea and into the town, rumoured to be a reminder to residents not to oppose
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
.
In the nearby parish of
Stoke Damerel
Stoke, also referred to by its earlier name of Stoke Damerel, is a parish, that was once part of the historical Devonport, England; this was prior to 1914. In 1914, Devonport and Plymouth amalgamated with Stonehouse: the new town took the nam ...
new
dockyards at the mouth of the
Tamar were commissioned by
William of Orange in 1691 to support the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
in the western approaches. The settlement that developed here was called "Dock" or "Plymouth Dock" at the time, and a new town, separate from Plymouth, grew up. In 1712 there were 318 men employed and by 1733 it had grown to a population of 3,000 people.
From then on, Plymouth became steadily more dependent on the Navy, and the thriving commercial port which had existed in the 17th century dwindled, as the activities of the press gang made it less attractive to merchant shipping.
The first
Eddystone Lighthouse
The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 ...
was erected by
Henry Winstanley in 1696 in an attempt to protect the increasing volume of shipping passing the treacherous reefs on the approach to
Rame Head
Rame Head or Ram Head ( kw, Penn an Hordh) is a coastal headland, southwest of the village of Rame in southeast Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is part of the larger Rame Peninsula.
History and antiquities
The natural site was used for a pr ...
.
Napoleonic era
![Karte Plymouth UK MKL1888](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Karte_Plymouth_UK_MKL1888.png)
The 18th century marked a period of continued expansion and development for the ancient port town: the first theatre in Plymouth was built 1762, followed by the town's first bank in 1772. Similar growth took place in the two neighbouring towns of Stonehouse and Devonport (Plymouth-Dock). At Stonehouse was built the Royal Marine Barracks, 1782, and the
Royal Naval Hospital
A Royal Naval Hospital (RNH) was a hospital operated by the British Royal Navy for the care and treatment of sick and injured naval personnel. A network of these establishments were situated across the globe to suit British interests. They were ...
built 1762;.
At Devonport additional docks were built in 1727, 1762 and 1793; the first ferry to Torpoint began operating in 1791; and the Military Hospital was built in 1797 opposite the parish church.
The urban populations of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse traded a variety of mineral ores such as copper, lime, tin and arsenic from the rural hinterlands via mining ports such as
Morwellham Quay,
Oreston
Oreston ( ), formerly a village on the southern bank of the Cattewater, is now a suburb of Plymouth. It is recorded as ''Horestone'' on the 1591 Spry ''Map of Plimmouth''. Oreston offers many small, local services. It is home to a small cornershop ...
the
Stannary Towns of
Tavistock
Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13 ...
and
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to P ...
and small industrial towns throughout South Devon & East Cornwall. Around 1745, local apothecary
William Cookworthy
William Cookworthy (12 April 170517 October 1780) was an English Quaker minister, a successful pharmacist and an innovator in several fields of technology. He was the first person in Britain to discover how to make hard-paste porcelain, like ...
unravelled the then unknown formula for Chinese
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
and developed the earliest English porcelain ware,
Plymouth China manufactured for just two years in the town,
but establishing the
China Clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...
extraction industry in the region.
![John Foulston's Town Hall, Column and Library in Devonport](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/John_Foulston%27s_Town_Hall%2C_Column_and_Library_in_Devonport.jpg)
The
Three Towns
Three Towns is a term used to refer to several groups of towns.
United Kingdom
There are several groups of towns in the United Kingdom referred to as the Three Towns, many of which form contiguous settlements, or are in close proximity to each ...
now enjoyed some prosperity during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and were enriched by a series of neo-classical urban developments designed by London architect
John Foulston
John Foulston (1772 – 30 December 1841) was an English architect who was a pupil of Thomas Hardwick and set up a practice in London in 1796.Peter Leach, ''Foulston, John (1772–1841)'', rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Un ...
.
Foulston was an important and early advocate of the
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
and was responsible for several grand public buildings, many now destroyed, including the Athenaeum, the Theatre Royal and Royal Hotel, and he was responsible for the implementation of
Union Street a grand thoroughfare proposed to unite the Three Towns.
Important local houses such as
Saltram House
Saltram House is a grade I listed George II era mansion house located in the parish of Plympton, near Plymouth in Devon, England. It was deemed by the architectural critic Pevsner to be "the most impressive country house in Devon". The ...
seat of the Earls of Morley,
Antony House,
Mount Edgcumbe House
Mount Edgcumbe House is a stately home in south-east Cornwall and is a Grade II listed building, whilst its gardens and parkland are listed as Grade I in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
Mount Edgcumbe ...
and
Trematon Castle
Trematon Castle ( kw, Kastel Tremen) is situated near Saltash in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was the ''caput'' of the feudal barony of Trematon. It is similar in style to the later Restormel Castle, with a 12th-century keep. Trematon C ...
were extensively rebuilt to the fashionable Georgian tastes of the day by notable architects including
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
.
![HMS Bellerophon and Napoleon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/HMS_Bellerophon_and_Napoleon.jpg)
After his defeat at the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...
in 1815,
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
was brought to Plymouth aboard
HMS ''Bellerophon'' which remained in Plymouth Sound with the ex-emperor aboard for two weeks before his exile to
St Helena. Under renewed threat of invasion from across the
Channel
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...
, Plymouth Sound and the dockyards at Devonport once again assumed a critical strategic significance in the defence of the nation. Though the threat never materialised, the sound was heavily fortified at the recommendation of
Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...
with early 19th-century gun emplacements installed at Mount Edgcumbe and St Nicholas Island (now Drake's Island), and with the construction of forts guarding the port on the headlands at the mouth of the harbour.
Devonport became the departure point of many historic sea voyages,
including the first voyage of James Cook in 1768 aboard HMS ''Endeavour'', and the second voyage of HMS Beagle, second voyage of HMS ''Beagle'' in 1831, carrying Charles Darwin.
The third Eddystone Lighthouse, Smeaton's Tower, was assembled from granite at Millbay from 1756 to 1759 and marked a major leap forward in the development of lighthouse design – the upper portion remains the most iconic landmark of the modern city.
Modernisation and urbanisation
![Plymouth OS 1 inch 1936](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Plymouth_OS_1_inch_1936.JPG)
By comparison with the earlier eras, the later 19th century marked a period of consolidation and modernisation of a relatively stable military port industry, gradual decline in the importance of commercial trade and some growth in passenger shipping at the Millbay Docks which set the template until well into modern period. The Railways in Plymouth, railways arrived early in Plymouth, with industrial tramways serving the naval dockyard as early as 1724, and steam arriving with the South Devon Railway Company, South Devon Railway in 1848.
![Royal Albert Bridge 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Royal_Albert_Bridge_2009.jpg)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed and constructed the iconic Royal Albert Bridge, completed 1859, for the Great Western Railway which did much to connect the isolated population of the Three Towns with the rest of the country.
However, high rents in the cramped ancient tenements had resulted in overcrowding and unsanitary conditions documented in an 1852 Government report following the Public Health Act 1848, which suggested that conditions were the worst in Europe with the exception of Warsaw. The damning findings of the report resulted in large scale Slum clearance in the United Kingdom, slum clearances of most of the ancient parts of the City and substantial public housing improvements.
The Guildhall, Law Courts and Municipal Offices were constructed in the 1870s in a French Gothic style and reflected the burgeoning civic pride in Plymouth as the commercial head of the
Three Towns
Three Towns is a term used to refer to several groups of towns.
United Kingdom
There are several groups of towns in the United Kingdom referred to as the Three Towns, many of which form contiguous settlements, or are in close proximity to each ...
; most of the complex was later destroyed, however about one third, including the tower was remodelled in the 1950s. The bid for City status in the United Kingdom, city status was eventually granted in 1928 and constituted as the City of Plymouth.
Until World War II, the port at Millbay, Millbay Docks was used for Transatlantic liner shipping, as it had been since the 1870s. Many of the surviving crew of the RMS Titanic, RMS ''Titanic'' disaster disembarked at Millbay docks on their return to England in 1912.
During the First World War, HMNB Devonport, Devonport Dockyard provided employment to around 20,000 workers, but after the war the ending of the naval arms race, the need to economise on government expenditure (culminating in the Geddes Axe), and the Great Depression in the United Kingdom, Great Depression jointly led to large declines in its workforce, down to a low of under 11,000 by 1933.
Despite this, Plymouth suffered less than cities that were dependent on commercial shipbuilders: in 1932 unemployment in Plymouth was 20.6% compared to 30.7% in Glasgow and 34.2% in Barrow-in-Furness.
A number of representations were made to the Admiralty for alleviating the high unemployment, including transferring part of the Dockyard's workforce and facilities to a commercial employer, converting part of the yard into a commercial port and the use of dockyard labour and facilities to do commercial work under the Admiralty's control. Only the last of these suggestions was adopted, and only to a limited degree.
The 1931 census showed that despite the decline in Dockyard employment, 40% of the employed population of Plymouth were still working in either "Public Administration and Defence" or "Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering"—this is compared to 11% for the country as a whole—and 21% of the employed were directly engaged upon defence.
Plymouth Pier, 1884 – the last by noted pier builder Eugenius Birch – and the unique Art Deco Lido Tinside Pool of 1935 were constructed as seafront leisure facilities reflecting the growing importance of tourism to the new city's economy.
World War II
Due to its strategic proximity to the northern coast of France and its naval pre-eminence, the city was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, an event known as the
Plymouth Blitz. Although the dockyards were the principal targets, the two main shopping centres, most of the civic buildings and over 3,700 houses were completely destroyed and more than 1,000 civilians lost their lives.
Charles Church, Plymouth, Devon, Charles Church has been left in its ruined state as a memorial to those civilians who died. On the Plymouth Hoe, Hoe stands a memorial to the many members of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
from Plymouth who were killed in both World Wars.
In June 1944 Plymouth was one of the principal staging posts for the Normandy Landings. General Omar Bradley and the First United States Army, 1st US Army embarked here for the landings at Omaha Beach and Utah Beach and after the initial bombardments some of the American battleships came to the dockyard for repair.
Postwar period
In 1943, Patrick Abercrombie, Sir Patrick Abercrombie published his ''Plan for Plymouth'' in response to the devastation inflicted upon the city. Its Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux Arts-inspired vision called for the removal of the few remaining pre-war buildings in the city centre and their replacement with wide, modern boulevards aligned east-west linked by a grand north-south Avenue (landscape), avenue (Armada Way) linking the railway station with Plymouth Hoe.
![Charles Church May 2002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Charles_Church_May_2002.jpg)
The Plan had to deal not only with the effects of the War, but also the pre-war defects of the city: much of the housing and many narrow streets were overcrowded. The main concern was for housing, and many prefabricated building, prefabs were built by 1946, followed by over a thousand permanent council houses built each year from 1951–1957 as part of the 'Homes fit for heroes' programme. The first estate, at Efford, was started in 1945 and this was rapidly followed by many others, laid out according to the Plan. By 1964 over 20,000 new homes had been built, more than 13,500 of them permanent council homes and 853 built by the British Admiralty, Admiralty. Despite all this building, in 1971 over ten percent of the houses in Plymouth were still occupied by more than one family.
After the war, the Admiralty required more space in the city and by 1950, after much discussion, were allocated. Devonport Dockyard was kept busy for many years refitting aircraft carriers such as the ''HMS Ark Royal (R09), Ark Royal''. By the time this work ended in the late 1970s the nuclear submarine base was operational. In the 1950s a new Royal Navy Engineering College was built at Manadon, and HMS Raleigh (shore establishment), HMS Raleigh, the current basic training facility of the Royal Navy, was opened west of Torpoint. The army had substantially left the city by 1971, with Raglan Barracks, Devonport, Raglan Barracks and Plumer Barracks pulled down in the 1960s.
However the Royal Citadel has been home to 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery since 1962,
and 42 Commando Royal Marines has been based at Bickleigh Barracks north-east of the Barbican, since 1971.
In 1962, Plymouth Plymouth Civic Centre, Civic Centre was constructed as a modernist 'slab-and-block' set piece to accommodate the city offices lost in the pre-War Guildhall complex – it was listed in 2007 to prevent its demolition.
On 28 May 1967, Sir Francis Chichester returned to Plymouth after the first single handed Clipper Route circumnavigation of the world and was greeted by an estimated crowd of a million spectators on the Hoe and every vantage point from Rame Head to Wembury.
In 1988, to mark the 400th anniversary of defeat of the
Spanish Armada the majority of the city centre was pedestrianised, closed to vehicular traffic and the city centre was landscaped and a new shopping centre named the Armada Centre marked the transition to the tourist economy as the employment at the Dockyards began to fall away.
On 12 August 2021, Plymouth shooting, a mass shooting occurred in Plymouth, where a gunman, identified as 22-year-old Jake Davison, killed five people and injured two others, before killing himself. His motive remains undetermined, although his online activity made multiple references to the incel subculture. The incident was the first fatal mass shooting in the United Kingdom since the Cumbria shootings of 2010.
See also
* Timeline of Plymouth
* Fortifications of Plymouth
References
Further reading
;Published in the 19th century
*
*
*
;Published in the 20th century
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Plymouth
History of Plymouth, Devon,
History of Devon