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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.
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.


== References ==
plymouth was founded ..... they left england and went to
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Plymouth]]
[[Category:History of Devon]]

Revision as of 22:06, 19 November 2008

This article is about the history of the city in England. For other uses, see Plymouth (disambiguation).

The History of Plymouth in Devon, England, goes back to the Bronze Age, where its first settlement at Mount Batten grew. It continued to grow as a trading post for the Roman Empire, until the more prosperous settlement of Sutton, the current Plymouth, surpassed it. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World from Plymouth, establishing the second English colony in the United States of America. During the English Civil War the town was besieged between 1642 and 1646 by the Royalists. Throughout the Industrial Revolution Plymouth grew as a major shipping industry, including imports and passengers from the USA and the construction of ships, ranging from small fishing boats to battleships for the Royal Navy. This later lead to its partial destruction during World War II in a series of air-raids known as the Plymouth Blitz. After the war was over, the city centre was completely rebuilt.

Etymology

Plymouth’s name is made up of Old English and Modern English. The name has two parts: Plym and mouth. The name Plym is thought to have its origin as an Old English word for plum tree. Plympton, a suburb of Plymouth, was the first place to use the word Plym in its name in 904. Ton meaning town, which forms the word Plympton meaning Plum Tree Town, originally recorded as Plymentun. In 1238, the river, which flows from Dartmoor into the English Channel at Plymouth, was called the River Plym, as a result of Plympton. The earliest settlement of Plymouth was located right at the edge of the Plym Estuary where the River Plym joins the sea and was first recorded as Plummuth in 1235. These areas are commonly referred to as the "Mouth of the river". Combining the two words Plym and mouth produces the word Plymouth meaning literally Plum Tree Mouth or in long form Mouth of the Plum Tree River.[1][2][3]

Early history

A map of Plymouth in 1888.

The earliest human remains in the Plymouth area are from a number of caves around Plymouth Sound. The ‘bone caves’, located at Cattedown, Oreston, Turnchapel and Stonehouse, contain extensive Upper Palaeolithic deposits, including those of Homo sapiens, some of the earliest such evidence in England. A reindeer bone 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 having been found in caves at Cattedown, Oreston, Stonehouse or Mount Batten (Turnchapel).[4]

It used to be thought, based on ancient Greek accounts, that tin brought from Dartmoor via the River Plym was traded with the Phoenicians here, but this theory is now discounted.[5] However, evidence of copper ingots and copper scrap in contexts dating from the late Bronze Age to the Middle Iron Age have been found at Mount Batten, a promontory jutting into Plymouth Sound, which was one of the main ports of trade in Prehistoric Britain.[6] Tin trading at Mount Batten in the region inhabited by the Dumnonii continued up to the period of Roman Britain (approximately 50 AD), but it had declined since the Iron Age.[7] As part of the Roman Empire this port traded tin along with cattle and hides but was eclipsed by the rise of the fishing village opposite, whose name Sutton means south town.

At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) the manor of Sutton was held by the King, but Henry I granted it to the Valletort family of nearby Trematon Castle. The Valletorts in turn granted parts to the Augustinian priory at Plympton, a larger and older settlement than Plymouth, at the head of the tidal estuary of the River Plym. 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.

As the higher parts of the Plym estuary silted up, ships used the Cattewater moorings and the then tidal harbour at the Plym's mouth instead of Plympton.[8] 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.

The town was often the target of enemies across the English Channel, especially during the Hundred Years' War. In 1340 French attackers, who had been successfully burning towns along the cost 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.[9] In 1403, the town was briefly occupied and burnt by Breton raiders.[10]. A series of fortifications were built in the Tudor and Elizabethan era which include the four round towers featured on the city coat of arms; the remains of two of these can still be found at Mount Batten and at Sutton Pool below the Royal Citadel.[11]

Renaissance age

A sketch of Plymouth, circa. 1600

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, who led England's first foray into the slave trade.[12]

The historic port of Sutton Harbour, located in The Barbican, has seen the arrival and departure of many notable people; for example Catherine of Aragon and Pocahontas arrived here in England in 1501 and 1616 respectively.

Plymouth Hoe, meaning high place, is 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.

There is written evidence that until the early 17th century large outline images of the giants Gog and Magog (or Goemagot and Corineus the mythical founder of Cornwall) had for a long time been cut into the grass of the Hoe, exposing the white limestone beneath.[13] There is no trace of these figures today.

Plymouth is also the departure point of the Mayflower in 1620, aboard which the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World, establishing the second English colony in the United States of America.[14] On sighting land, they christened their first point of contact on the western Atlantic shore Plymouth Rock in gratitude for the hospitality they had received whilst wintering in Plymouth. Their settlement of Plymouth, Massachusetts also bears the name of its European forebear. Twin flags of the US and UK now fly at the Mayflower Steps to commemorate the significance of this event to both nations.

Civil War and the Restoration

Truly, my lords, if this town be lost all the West will be in danger to follow it.

— Admiral Warwick, Plymouth, August 1644[15]

During the English Civil War 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 sympathisers.[15] 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.[15]

Part of a contemporary map showing the defences

Extensive works were constructed to defend the town, including a line of stockaded earthworks on high ground north of the town, from Lipson in the east to Eldad in the west, as well as several isolated works, for instance at Prince Rock, Cattedown and Stonehouse.[16] Various skirmishes and confrontations occurred, including the rout of Royalist cavalry along Lipson Ridge on 3 December 1643,[16] which is commemorated by a monument in Freedom Fields Park,[17] and the battle of St Budeaux.

Construction of the Royal Citadel began in 1665, after the Restoration; 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 dockyards at Devonport at the mouth of the Tamar, were commissioned by William of Orange in 1691 to support the Royal Navy in the western approaches.[18]

Napoleonic era

After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte 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 English Channel, 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 with early nineteenth century gun emplacements installed at Mount Edgecumbe 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.[citation needed]

The 1700s marked a point in Plymouth's history where much development started: the first theatre in Plymouth and a naval hospital was built in 1762 and ten years later it was followed by the town's first bank followed by the Marine barracks in Stonehouse another 10 years later. The first ferry to Torpoint began operating in 1791, which still operates today and in 1797 a military hospital was built by Stonehouse Creek.[19]

The Three Towns enjoyed some prosperity during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and were enriched by an series of neo-classical urban developments designed by London architect John Foulston.[20] Foulston was an important and early advocate of the Greek Revival[citation needed] and was responsible for several grand public buildings, many now destroyed, including the Athenaeum, the Theatre Royal and Royal Hotel, and much of Union Street.[20]

Twentieth Century

Part of an Ordnance Survey 1" map showing Plymouth in 1936

Until World War II, the port at Millbay Docks was used for Transatlantic liner shipping, as it had been since the 1870s. Many of the surviving crew of the RMS Titanic disaster disembarked at Millbay docks on their return to England in 1912.[21]

During the First World War, 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 jointly led to large declines in its workforce, down to a low of under 11,000 by 1933.[22] 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.[22] 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.[22] 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.[22]

Union Street before 1941 showing the trams that used to run through the city

World War II

Main article: Plymouth Blitz

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.[23] Charles Church has been left in its ruined state as a memorial to those civilians who died. On the Hoe stands a memorial to the many members of the Royal Navy from Plymouth who were killed in both World Wars.[24]

File:Plymouth, 1941 (Guildhall and St Andrews).jpg
The debris scattered on the ground after an air attack by the Germans in 1941

In June 1944 Plymouth was one of the principal staging posts for the Normandy landings. General Omar Bradley and the 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.[23]

1945 to 1967

In 1943 Sir Patrick Abercrombie's published his Plan for Plymouth in response to the devastation inflicted upon the city. Its wide-ranging vision called for the destruction 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 (Armada Way) linking the railway station with Plymouth Hoe.[25]

File:Charles church today.jpg
The ruined Charles Church, the city's memorial to the civilians killed in the Blitz.

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 prefabs were built by 1946, followed by over a thousand permanent council houses built each year from 1951–1957 as part of the 'Homes 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 Admiralty. Despite all this building, in 1971 over ten percent of the houses in Plymouth were still occupied by more than one family.[26]

After the war, the Admiralty required more space in the city and by 1950, after much discussion, fifty acres were allocated. Devonport Dockyard was kept busy for many years refitting aircraft carriers such as the 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, 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 and Plumer Barracks pulled down in the 1960s.[26] However the Royal Citadel has been home to 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery since 1962,[26] and 42 Commando Royal Marines has been based at Bickleigh Barracks, a few miles outside Plymouth, since 1971.[27]

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.

References

  1. ^ "Place-names of Plymouth". Plymouth Data. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  2. ^ "Plymouth: Word History". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  3. ^ "Brief history of Plymouth". Plymouth City Council. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  4. ^ "The bone caves of Plymouth and district website". Retrieved 2008-05-27.
  5. ^ Todd, Malcolm (1987). The South West to AD 1000. London: Longman. pp. 185–187. ISBN 0-582-49274-2.
  6. ^ Cunliffe, Barry (2004). "Britain and the Continent:Networks of Interaction". In Malcolm Todd (ed.). A Companion to Roman Britain. Blackwell Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 0631218238. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  7. ^ Salway, Peter (2001). "The British Background". A History of Roman Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN 0192801384. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  8. ^ "The early history of Plymouth". Plymouth City Council. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  9. ^ Sumption, Jonathan (1999). "Sluys and Tournai: The War of the Alberts". The Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 347. ISBN 0812216555. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  10. ^ "Devon timeline". Devon County Council. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  11. ^ Jewitt, Llewellynn Frederick (1873). A history of Plymouth. Oxford University. p. 648. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  12. ^ "Adventurers and Slavers". The National Archives. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
  13. ^ Gray, Todd (2003). Lost Devon: Creation, Change and Destruction over 500 Years. Exeter, Devon: The Mint Press. p. 153. ISBN 1-90335-632-6.
  14. ^ Kellogg, William O. (2003). American History the Easy Way: The Easy Way. p. 20. ISBN 0764119737. Retrieved 2008-11-14. {{cite book}}: Text "publisherBarron's Educational Series" ignored (help)
  15. ^ a b c Davies, J. D. (1992). "Devon and the Navy in the Civil and Dutch Wars, 1642-88". In Michael Duffy; et al. (eds.). The New Maritime History of Devon Volume 1. From early times to the late eighteenth century. London: Conway Maritime Press. p. 173. ISBN 0-85177-611-6. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |editor= (help)
  16. ^ a b Bracken, C. W. (1931). A History of Plymouth and her Neighbours. Underhill (Plymouth) Ltd. pp. 129–131.
  17. ^ Moseley, Brian (2003-09-28). "Sabbath Day Fight Memorial". Plymouth Data, the Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
  18. ^ "Devon's rivers: The Tamar". The BBC. 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  19. ^ Lambert, Tim. "A short history of Plymouth - Plymouth in the 18th century". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  20. ^ a b "Plymouth, John Foulston". www.plymouthdata.info. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  21. ^ Langley, Martin (1987). Millbay Docks (Port of Plymouth series). Exeter: Devon Books. p. 17. ISBN 0-86114-806-1.
  22. ^ a b c d Hilditch, Peter (1994). "The Dockyard in the Local Economy". In Michael Duffy; et al. (eds.). The New Maritime History of Devon Volume 2. From the late eighteenth century to the present day. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 221–222. ISBN 0-85177-633-7. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |editor= (help)
  23. ^ a b Gill, Crispin (1993). Plymouth. A New History. Devon Books. pp. 259–262. ISBN 0-86114-882-7.
  24. ^ "Plymouth, Naval War Memorial". plymouthdata.info. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  25. ^ Gould, Jeremy: Architecture and the Plan for Plymouth: The Legacy of a British City, Architectural Review March 2007
  26. ^ a b c Gill, Crispin (1993). Plymouth. A New History. Devon Books. pp. 262–267. ISBN 0-86114-882-7.
  27. ^ "A Short History of 42 CDO RM & Bickleigh Barracks". www.royalmarines.mod.uk. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
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