The Saxons in North Cornwall
Documentary evidence for the Saxon history of North Cornwall is sadly lacking but much can be deduced from other sources. If we draw a line from Bude, down the southern arm of the river Neet, then along the Ottery to its confluence with the Tamar our area can be conveniently divided into two distinct zones. Above the line the placenames are almost totally English, often distinguished by the suffixes cote, worthy and ton but below the line the placenames are almost entirely Cornish, distinguished by the prefix Tre and occasionally Pen. Clearly this marks a line along which the Saxon advance, for whatever reason, was halted and remained static for a significant period. Long enough, in fact, for the native language to be supplanted by that of the invader
This begs the question as to how such a clear ethnic delineation arose and documentary evidence gives us some indication of the progress of Wessex into North Cornwall. In 658, following the battle of Peonnum the Britons were driven south to a line below the river Parret in Somerset. In 710 the battle of Longborth (possibly at nearby Langport) was fought between Ine, king of Wessex, and Geraint, king of the West Welsh. In 722, at the yet unidentified location of Hehil, the Cornish are recorded as defeating an unnamed enemy and, having regard to the date, the enemy could hardly have been any other than Ine of Wessex. Ninety-three years later, in 815, Egbert harried the West Welsh from “east to west” although the area covered by this action is not known. It is possible that it was during this campaign that Egbert managed to gain control over North Cornwall as far as the rivers Neet and Ottery. At some point during his reign from 802 to 839 Egbert’s grip over our area was firm enough to grant a substantial 12 hides of land at Kilkhampton to Sherborne Abbey. Subsequently, in a will dated c. 885, Alfred the Great was able to bequeath Stratton and “all the lands that I have among the Welsh” to Edward, his eldest son. Working from the above dates it appears likely that Saxon control over the area above the Neet/Ottery divide was finalised c. 820; a few years after Egbert’s “harrying” of the West Welsh but presumably well before his gift of 12 hides to Sherborne.
The reasons why early Saxon influence stopped at the rivers Neet and Ottery and a date for when it crossed that divide is even less clear. We have no documentary or archaeological evidence of an early Saxon presence south of the river although some movement would undoubtedly have taken place. There can be no doubt that the Neet provided a considerable physical barrier to their crossing. The only direct route across the Neet is via the ancient ridgeway now mirrored by the A39 and there is convincing placename evidence to suggest that this crossing was well defended. The adjacent manor of Whalesborough is recorded in Domesday as Walesbrau and is translated as “the fortress (or hill) of the Welsh”. It is, as far as we are aware, the only British position ever to be recorded in a wholly Saxon placename. The importance of the position was significant enough for the name Whalesborough to survive substantially unchanged until today. It was retained as a family name until the manor passed into the hands of the Trevelyan family on the marriage of the sole heir, Elizabeth Whalesborough, to John Trevelyan in 145
From the records contained in Domesday it is clear that, in 1066, all the manors formerly held by the Cornish were in the hands of Saxons. Much of this redistribution appears to have been through grace and favour where Edward the Confessor granted manors to his close relatives and retainers. As well as appropriating property held in private hands the manors previously held by the Cornish monasteries were also plundered. In 1066 the manors of Poundstock and St Gennys, previously in the hands of the Cornish monastery of St Kew, were both held by Gytha, daughter of King Harold Godwinson. With the arrival of the Normans the tables were turned and by 1086, a short 20 years after the conquest, there was hardly a manor in Cornwall that still lay in Saxon hands.