Читать книгу Great Book of Spoon Carving Patterns - Joseph Fullman - Страница 15

The Anglo-Saxons had spent nigh on half a millennium bringing England under their control, but were to rule the kingdom for little more than a century. A single day’s fighting at Hastings was all it took for the nascent English nation to be effectively absorbed into the Norman Empire of William the Conqueror. Any tentative moves towards Southwestern independence were quickly snuffed out following William’s capture of Essex in 1068.

Under the Normans the Southwest enjoyed a building boom unprecedented in its history, as the country’s new rulers sought to shore up their position with a network of castles at strategically important locations, including Exeter, Totnes and Okehampton, around which new towns began to grow up. Trade with continental Europe also increased dramatically in this period on the back of the burgeoning clothing industry, leading to an expansion of the region’s ports. Bristol would lead the way, soon becoming England’s second city after London.

This growing wealth would lead inevitably to increased displays of wealth, as towns and cities used their bulging coffers to erect great stone cathedrals – such as those at Wells and Exeter – to replace the simpler wooden Anglo-Saxon structures.

While farming and cloth manufacturing were central to the economy of Devon, Cornwall’s fortunes became increasingly dependent on the mining industry. The county’s great lodes of tin and copper, which had been extracted on a small scale since prehistoric times, were now mined with greater intensity and in much higher volume, both to supply the nation’s coinage and to be sold abroad. Soon Cornwall was Europe’s principal tin supplier. The mining towns grew wealthy and self-important on the back of this trade. The so-called stannary (tin making) towns of Helston, Lostwithiel, Truro and Liskeard in Cornwall, and Ashburton and Tavistock in Devon, were given special authority by the crown to run their region’s affairs.

Industry also expanded along the Southwest’s coastline, as improved marine technology allowed more effective exploitation of the bountiful surrounding seas. The coast became home to a thriving band of fishing villages, several of which, including Beer, Brixham and Polperro, still make their livelihoods in largely the same way today and retain their medieval layouts. Coastal activity was further bolstered by the introduction of customs duties in 1272, which created a new, albeit illicit, trade almost overnight – smuggling. The labyrinthine caves riddling the cliffs of Cornwall and Devon soon became the hide-outs for an army of smugglers.

The mounting wealth of the region received royal recognition in 1337 when Edward III, looking for a way of providing his son, the Black Prince, with a form of income, established the Duchy of Cornwall. Its benefits proved so great that all subsequent heirs to the throne have also become Dukes of Cornwall.