Early history Upper Palaeolithic deposits, including bones of
Homo sapiens have been found in local caves, and artefacts dating from the
Bronze Age to the Middle
Iron Age have been found at
Mount Batten, showing that it was one of few principal trading ports of pre-Roman
Britannia dominating continental trade with
Armorica. An unidentified settlement named
TAMARI OSTIA (mouth/estuaries of the Tamar) is listed in Ptolemy's
Geographia and is presumed to be located in the area of the modern city. An ancient
promontory fort was located at
Rame Head at the mouth of
Plymouth Sound with ancient
hillforts located at
Lyneham Warren to the east,
Boringdon Camp and
Maristow Camp to the north. The settlement of
Plympton, was further up the
River Plym than the current Plymouth, was also an early trading port. (See Plympton for the derivation of the name
Plym.) As the river silted up in the early 11th century, mariners and merchants were forced to settle downriver, at the current day
Barbican near the river mouth. At the time this village was called Sutton, meaning
south town in
Old English. In 1403 the town was burned by
Breton raiders. On 12 November 1439 the market town of Sutton was incorporated as a
borough and formally renamed Plymouth, with a subsequent charter the following year formalising its boundaries. It was the first time a borough charter had been issued by
parliament rather than directly from the monarch. In the late 15th century,
Plymouth Castle, 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 Dockyard. An act of Parliament, the
Fortification of Plymouth Act 1512 (
4 Hen. 8. c. 20), was passed to further fortify Plymouth. The work included defensive walls at the entrance to Sutton Pool (across which a chain was extended in times 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; it was the site of the
Citadel, established in the 1660s (see below). , 1643 During the 16th century, locally produced wool was the major export commodity. Plymouth was the home port for successful maritime traders, among them
Sir John Hawkins, who led England's first foray into the
Atlantic slave trade, as well as Sir
Francis Drake, Mayor of Plymouth in 1581–2. Crews for the first English failed settlement attempt at
Roanoke Colony in North America departed in 1587 under Sir
Walter Raleigh's and Drake's leadership; returning bearing maize, tobacco and
potatoes. In 1588, according to legend, Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the
Hoe before engaging the
Spanish Armada. In 1620 the
Pilgrims set sail for the
New World from Plymouth, establishing
Plymouth Colony – the second English colony in what is now the United States(the first was Jamestown in 1607). In 1625, the Mayor estimated that African slavers captured that summer about 1,000 villagers from the town's area, to be sold in Africa. , 1588 During the
English Civil War Plymouth sided with the
Parliamentarians and was
besieged for almost four years by the
Royalists. The last major attack by the Royalists was by Sir
Richard Grenville leading thousands of soldiers towards Plymouth, but they were defeated by the Plymothians at Freedom Fields Park. The civil war ended as a Parliamentary win, but monarchy was restored by
King Charles II in 1660, who imprisoned many of the Parliamentary heroes on
Drake's Island.
Mount Batten tower also dates from around this time.
Plymouth Dock, naval power and Foulston , 1792|left 's Town Hall, Column and Library in
Devonport|left Throughout the 17th century, Plymouth had gradually lost its pre-eminence as a trading port. By the mid-17th century, commodities manufactured elsewhere in England cost too much to transport to Plymouth, and the city had no means of processing sugar or tobacco imports, major products from the colonies. Local sailors turning to piracy such as
Henry Every became infamous, celebrated in the London play
The Successful Pyrate. It played a part in the
Atlantic slave trade during the early 18th century, although it was relatively small. 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 the population had grown to 3,000 people. During this time the real source of wealth was from the neighbouring town of Plymouth Dock (renamed in 1824 to Devonport) and the major employer in the entire region was the dockyard. Foulston was important for both Devonport and Plymouth 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. |left The Breakwater in Plymouth Sound was designed by
John Rennie to protect the fleet moving in and out of Devonport; work started in 1812. Numerous technical difficulties and repeated storm damage meant that it was not completed until 1841, twenty years after Rennie's death. In the 1860s, a ring of
Palmerston forts was constructed around the outskirts of Devonport, to protect the dockyard from attack from any direction. |left , March 1926 |left Some of the most significant imports to Plymouth from the Americas and Europe during the latter half of the 19th century included maize, wheat, barley, sugar cane,
guano,
sodium nitrate and
phosphate. Aside from the dockyard in the town of Devonport, industries in Plymouth such as the gasworks, the railways and tramways, and a number of small chemical works had begun to develop in the 19th century, continuing into the 20th century.
Plan for Plymouth 1943 During the
First World War, Plymouth was the port of entry for many troops from around the
Empire. It was developed as a facility for the manufacture of
munitions. Although major units of the Royal Navy moved to the safety of
Scapa Flow, Devonport was an important base for escort vessels and repairs. Flying boats operated from Mount Batten. The city was heavily bombed by the
Luftwaffe, in a series of 59 raids known as the
Plymouth Blitz.
Charles Church was hit by
incendiary bombs and partially destroyed in 1941 during the Blitz, but has not been demolished. It has been designated as an official permanent monument to the bombing of Plymouth during World War II. The redevelopment of the city was planned by
Sir Patrick Abercrombie in his 1943
Plan for Plymouth whilst simultaneously working on the reconstruction plan for London. This initially included plans to expand the city into
south east Cornwall, but these were abandoned after opposition from
Cornwall County Council. Between 1951 and 1957 over 1000 homes were completed every year, mostly using innovative prefabricated systems of just three main types. The
Plan for Plymouth was, on the one hand, a template for the rapid reassembly of a destroyed city centre, but Abercrombie also took the opportunity to lay out a whole hierarchy of settlements across the city of communities, neighbourhoods and districts. Central to this was a revision of transport infrastructure that prioritised the position of the railway as a gateway to the city centre and provided in the long-term for a dual carriageway road by-pass that only finally came into being in the 1980s (forty years after being planned). The plan is the subject of
Jill Craigie's documentary
The Way We Live (1946). By 1964 over 20,000 new homes had been built, transforming the dense overcrowded and unsanitary slums of the pre-war city into a low density, dispersed suburbia. Most of the city centre shops had been destroyed and those that remained were cleared to enable a zoned reconstruction according to his plan. Post-war, Devonport Dockyard was kept busy refitting aircraft carriers such as the and, later,
nuclear submarines. New light industrial factories were constructed in the newly
zoned industrial sector, attracting rapid growth of the urban population. The army had substantially left the city by 1971, after barracks were pulled down in the 1960s, and also
42 Commando of the
Royal Marines. ==Governance==