History of Plymouth

It continued as both a fishing and continental tin trading port through the late Iron Age into the Early Medieval period, until the more prosperous Saxon settlement of Sutton, later renamed Plymouth, surpassed it.

With its natural harbour and open access to the Atlantic, the town found wealth and a national strategic importance during the establishment of British naval dominance in the colonisation of the New World.

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.

[4] It was once thought, based on a reference to TAMARIS OSTIA ('Port of Tamar') in Ptolemy's Geographia, that tin brought from Dartmoor via the River Plym was traded with the Phoenicians here, but this theory was discounted by Malcolm Todd in 1987.

[6][7] 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.

Archaeological evidence from the surrounding region of west Devon and east Cornwall[9] suggests that the area was culturally distinct from the more easterly English heartlands well into the Middle Ages, the agricultural and architectural patterns[10] having much more in common with Atlantic South Wales, Ireland and Brittany.

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.

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).

[15] 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).

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 in 1501 and 1616 respectively.

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.

A few years later, Plymouth was also the departure point of the Mayflower in 1620, aboard which the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World, establishing the second permanent English colony in the United States of America.

[22] 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.

[23] Various skirmishes and confrontations occurred, including the rout of Royalist cavalry along Lipson Ridge on 3 December 1643,[23] which is commemorated by a monument in Freedom Fields Park,[24] 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.

[11] 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 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.

The Three Towns 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.

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.

[32] The damning findings of the report resulted in large scale 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[33] in a French Gothic style and reflected the burgeoning civic pride in Plymouth as the commercial head of the Three Towns; most of the complex was later destroyed, however about one third, including the tower was remodelled in the 1950s.

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.

[40] In 1962, Plymouth Civic Centre was constructed as a modernist 'slab-and-block' set piece to accommodate the city offices lost in the pre-War Guildhall complex[41] – it was listed in 2007 to prevent its demolition.

[42] 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.