Plymouth
 Abbeys |
Plymouth's fortunes have been inextricably linked with the sea for more than 700 years and during this period the city's seafaring history has become legendary, as have a number of personalities and events associated with it. Naturally blessed with one of Europe's finest deepwater anchorages, it was the port from which renowned sailors such as Hawkins, Raleigh, Frobisher and most especially Sir Francis Drake embarked upon their heroic voyages. The Pilgrim Fathers also began their historic voyage to America in 1620 from the port of Plymouth, as did the explorer and mapmaker James Cooke in 1772. More recently, Sir Francis Chichester started upon his single-handed circumnavigation of the world from Plymouth in 1966/7. Despite being one of the British cities most ill-used by German bombers in the Second World War, good fortune smiled on Plymouth's ancient harbour area, which survived intact while much of the rest of the city was devastated.
Although there is some uncertain evidence for Iron Age, Dark Age and Roman settlements on and around the site of the present city, no such uncertainty lingers about the development of medieval Plymouth centred round Sutton Harbour. Sutton was early Plymouth, the part of the city most familiar to Drake and his captains, and also later to the Pilgrim Fathers - it was not until 1231 that the present name of Plymouth was used. Located so near to the open sea, Plymouth was vulnerable to sea-raiders, and in 1403 during the Anglo-French Wars, a large French force attacked the town and burnt 600 homes. This resulted in a defensive wall being erected around the town, and although nothing remains of it today, echoes of Plymouth's once mighty medieval wall resonate in the ancient gate names still in use - Old Town Gate and Hoe Gate for instance.
Plymouth's life as a naval base began in the 16 th cent, not so much the result of government planning, rather it was the port that enjoyed the patronage of Drake and Hawkins, particularly the former, a national hero with the ear of the queen. Skirmishes with the Spanish whilst serving as a junior officer in the Hawkins' family merchant fleet, combined with his fervent Protestant upbringing, sharpened Drake's hostility towards Spain, and he soon turned to privateering. With the unofficial blessing of Elizabeth I, who received her share of the spoils, Drake's raiding and plundering of Spanish ships made him one of the richest men in the West Country. In 1577, in need of new adventures, Drake sailed through the Magellan Straits and into the Pacific; leading his fleet of ships in the famous flagship Golden Hind he wreaked havoc on Spanish settlements along the Peruvian coast. Heavily laden with treasure Drake headed home through the Spice Islands and round the Cape of Good Hope, finally cruising triumphantly into Plymouth three years later, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. Honours and a knighthood followed and he settled for a while in Buckland Abbey on the edge of Dartmoor.
In 1588, Drake surpassed even this feat, achieving victory over the mighty Spanish Armada. In July of that year the Spaniards were sighted in the English Channel and the message relayed to Drake, who, on receiving the news famously finished his game of bowls before attending to naval matters. This apparent nonchalance was almost certainly due to his shrewd awareness that contrary winds and tides would prevent the English fleet sailing until that evening, and so it proved. A combination of fire-ships, the ‘hell-burners', laden with burning tar, and devastating salvoes of cannon fire enabled the outnumbered but more manoeuvrable English warships to disperse the lumbering Spanish galleons. Utterly demoralised, with many ships partially disabled, the battered Armada took itself northerly around the British Isles; a dreadful mistake, for over a third of the retreating ships were wrecked by violent storms upon the Scottish and Irish coasts. Drake himself captured a prize Spanish ship, the Rosario , had saved the day and the English throne and became a national hero. He drew his last breath in 1596.
In 1620, a more peaceable crew, the Pilgrim Fathers, set sail from Plymouth aboard the Mayflower to start a new life in North America, and to lay the foundation for New England. During the English Civil War of 1649/60, Plymouth took the part of the Parliamentarians, and despite a bitterly fought 3-year siege, resisted Royalist pressure. After the Restoration, Charles II had the massive Royal Citadel built, east of Hoe, symbolising the lack of royal trust in the citizenry; this was emphasised by having some of the canons on the wall pointed inwards towards the town. In 1772, Captain Cooke departed from Plymouth on his epic 3-year circumnavigation of the world. In the 19th cent, both colonists and convicts set sail on the ‘adventure' of a lifetime, bound for Australia.
Plymouth Hoe is the great limestone ridge separating Plymouth harbour from the city centre. The Hoe, meaning high place or hill, is where Drake bowled himself into history, and provides a marvellous view over Plymouth Sound with its bustling shipping lanes; a statue honouring Drake the circumnavigator stands serenely on the Hoe. Smeaton's Tower, the archetypal red-and-white lighthouse built in 1759, originally stood on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, fourteen miles out to sea; replaced in 1882 the Tower was dismantled and lovingly reassembled in the centre of the Hoe and provides visitors with panoramic views from its uppermost platform. Just below the lighthouse is the Plymouth Dome, a visitor centre employing high-tech visual displays to explain Plymouth's past and present, including live satellite weather pictures and radar screens for monitoring ships in the harbour. A view across the Sounds from the Hoe takes in Drakes Island. Originally St Nicholas' Island in medieval times, it took the name Drakes Island when he was appointed governor and fortified it; the island remained in military occupation until 1956, and was briefly employed as a prison for a few years from 1669. Open to the public in the season it is also an adventure centre for young people.
At the east end of the Hoe looms the grim bastion of the Royal Citadel, Plymouth's most notable historic building. Built by Charles II (see above) from 1666-75, employing the most advanced principals of fortress architecture of the day, it resulted in this powerful star-shaped stronghold, now home appropriately to a commando regiment. Just below the Citadel is the National Maritime Aquarium, with spectacular displays in vast tanks, while from the battlements of the Citadel itself fine views are had onto Sutton Harbour. Here it was in the late 16 th cent that the English warships massed before confronting the mighty Armada; there are several memorials to great events on the quay. The Mayflower Stone and Steps is the spot in Sutton Pool where the Pilgrim Fathers embarked and the narrow cobbled streets leading down to this harbour have changed little, despite the city's massive rebuilding programme. Island House, a white gabled building on the corner of the harbour, dated 1590, is where tradition has the Pilgrims stay before their voyage - a board lists the names of the 150 adventurers who made the 67 day trip aboard Mayflower. Other stone tablets commemorate the colonisation of Virginia in 1584, the sailing of the Tory in 1839 on an early migrant trip to New Zealand and the homecoming of the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1838, having been ‘transported' to Australia for daring to form a rudimentary trade union.
Behind the harbour is Plymouth's historic quarter, the ancient heartbeat of the city - the Barbican. Its cobbled medieval streets escaped the bombs of the Second World War; the mixture of Elizabethan houses, timber-framed shops and pubs, and converted warehouses provide historic nooks and crannies in which to explore. Several pleasure trips start from the Barbican, the most popular being a one hour tour of the docklands and warships. The oldest part of the Barbican is New Street, built in 1581 and still cobbled, in which stands the atmospheric Elizabethan House. This is a rare surviving Tudor house once owned by a sea captain, it has a pole staircase made from a ship's mast; further along the street is a small Elizabethan garden complete with knot and rose gardens and herb borders. Also in the Barbican, at the end of Southside Street is an old monastery, dating back to 1425, now home to the Plymouth Gin distillery, the oldest of its kind in England, housed there since 1793 - a tour of the premises reveals how gin is made.
In the modern centre of Plymouth two other aged buildings survived the ravages of war. The Merchant's House is the best example of Tudor architecture in Plymouth. A classic four-storey, oak-timbered, gabled building originally constructed in the 16 th cent, but altered and embellished by William Parker, a Plymouth privateer who shared Drake's appetite for raiding Spanish treasure galleons. The house is now a lively museum and fully stocked apothecary's shop. Around the corner, on Finewell Street, is the Prysten House, built in 1490 by Plymouth merchant Thomas Yogge. The Bishop's Room contains an old bishop's chair made from the ends of medieval pews, while the whole house is constructed around three sides of a galleried courtyard. Neighbouring St Andrew's Church, largely post-war, has six intriguing stained glass windows. The City Museum and Art Gallery holds an outstanding collection of fine and decorative arts.
Lying south-east of Plymouth is the largest house in Devon with views across Plymouth Sounds, this is the elegantly Georgian Saltram House. A large pale cream and white house with a classical façade, it was originally Tudor but redesigned in the 1740's; Robert Adam designed the exquisite saloon and dining room and it also provides a showcase for the paintings of Joshua Reynolds. The house stands in a landscaped park, which gardens contain a sparkling white orangery and a magnificent lime avenue.
North of the city is the impressive stone pile of Buckland Abbey, founded in 1278 by an order of Cistercian monks the community flourished until the Dissolution of 1539. The abbey was then converted into a mansion and sold to Richard Grenville, a cousin of Sir Walter Raleigh; his son Roger Granville had a watery grave when his famous command the Mary Rose sank. Sir Francis Drake moved into the abbey in 1582 and the house remained in the direct Drake family line until 1794. Memorabilia found in the Drake Gallery include banners from the Golden Hind , portraits of the great man with Queen Elizabeth I and most famously Drake's Drum rescued by his brother Thomas when the ageing hero died of dysentery on the Spanish Main in 1596. Tradition has it that should England be in dire need of his services again the drum will beat of its own accord.