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Historical Background

    In the next section, there are some outline histories of each of the Beacon Villages. This page is intended to provide an overview of the earlier historical setting of Dartmoor.
There is evidence that, sometime in the Palaeolithic (old stone) age, that is in the last 400,000 years, Neanderthal Man walked on Dartmoor. His successor, Homo Sapiens Sapiens (us), left remains in the Kent Caves, Torquay, to the south of Dartmoor, sometime after 38,000 years ago, when Britain was joined to mainland Europe. These early men were mobile hunter gatherers and the found evidence, mainly flint knives and then later, axe heads and arrow tips.

About 6,500 years ago, the English Channel started to separate us from the continent and rising sea levels encouraged migration to the higher ground of Dartmoor. Evidence indicates that these early inhabitants used fire to clear the heath land, to encourage game and that they used the rivers and streams as transport routes through the forest. These middle stone age people were also hunter gatherers, but within an area, using the clearances and estuaries as food and tool resources.

About 4,200 years ago, Neolithic (new stone age) Man is evidenced, using stone axes, flint arrowheads and the first pottery, as agriculture becomes established, with woodland clearance for cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. At this time also, the first monumental constructions appear, being linked to burials, the nearest find to us, being in the Chagford area. There was woodland clearance and excavation for the production of round barrows, making enclosures for ceremonial or defence purposes. Early pottery, round bowls with little decoration, have been found in these, probably originating in Cornwall, which together with flints from Beer (on the Devon coast, near Seaton) are evidence of early exchange network trading activity.

Peaking by 2,000BC, many monuments of varying kinds were being constructed on Dartmoor. It is thought that round barrows were early cemeteries, containing cairns (stone constructs) and that many monuments were developing features, starting as wooden structures, post rings, stone constructs and earthworks. Many are associated with natural phenomena like tors, springs and trees which had ceremonial significance. Nearby finds are a long barrow (long ditched earthwork with megalith) at North Tawton and the only known henge in Devon, at Bow, on the road between Okehampton and Crediton. Cosdon and its surrounds have many granite constructs, stone rows, menhirs (standing stones) and hut circles. It is suggested that Neolithic and early Bronze Age Man used these features to map out clearances and territories. This practice declined when communities constructed habitations, fields and enclosures, as farming life became more settled.

In the first millennium (Iron Age), until the coming of the Romans, hill forts and settlement enclosures were developed, both for defence and stock containment. There are many in the area, ranging from just 20 metres in diameter to some very large areas, which either defined the boundary curtilage of a house, hamlet or farm or were used as a ceremonial area. On Dartmoor there are the Reaves, systems of parallel banks over several miles for field cultivation. We can gain a good idea of the life of these early Dartmoor folk from the many types of artifacts found in the region.

Between 2,500 - 1600 BC, metal objects were few but socially significant which, together with the construction of stone monuments, evidence the sacred regalia of an elite leadership.

From 1600 - 1200 BC we find axes, spearheads, rapiers and ornaments leading to, by 900BC, slashing swords, spearheads and gold ornamentation - evidence that the social problems brought about by extensive land usage and the worsening weather conditions had given rise to a 'fighting elite'. This situation appears to continue to 600BC with refinement and the proliferation of arms, tools and utensils showing an increase in trading activity.
The occupations of these early Dartmoor folk included agriculture, flint, tin, clay & iron extraction, wood management for charcoal making and the manufacture of wood, bone and clay utensils. When the Romans arrived in Devon, they found a warrior elite dominating parts of the county with peasants and craftsmen in control of production and supply.
The most westerly full Roman occupation of the peninsula appears to be the foundation of Exeter between the 1st-2nd centuries. They did go further, right into Cornwall, including two temporary camps at North Tawton, where evidence of road building appears to peter out. There is evidence of them at Okehampton and at Sourton Down but little or no sight of them on Dartmoor. What they met, was a sizable population of scattered tribal geography dominated by the Cornovii in Cornwall and the Dumnonii in Devon. They left written but doubtful quality 'maps' of the main routes into the peninsula both above and below Dartmoor but, other than this, their main legacy was coinage, place names, religion, courtyard houses and a racial mix.
In addition to the Roman deities, early Christianity came to the peninsula not so much directly from the Romans but via Roman/Irish/Welsh/Celtic influences to the north of Cornwall & Devon. The earliest evidence is in the form of engraved memorial stones in the form of 'Here lies A son of B' together with symbols in the Irish Ogam system. It was to this mixed Celtic, Christian tribal society that the next wave of invaders, the Anglo Saxons, came to Devon around 650AD.
From around 430AD, a migration of Jutes from Denmark, Angles from Jutland and Saxons from Germany had started to colonise the south and east of Britain. So successful was this take over of the remnants of the old Roman colony, that by 600Ad the Christian/Roman Britannia had been turned into a pagan Anglo Saxon set of kingdoms from Wessex, Kent and East Anglia through the midlands (Mercia) and Yorkshire to Northumbria. These were later converted to Christianity by a succession of missionaries from the continent and by 670 AD the Saxons, who by now had control of Exeter, built a Minster there. In 721AD, the Saxons were held by the British at Hele near Jacobstowe, just a few miles from our Beacon Villages.

In 793AD the country had started to experience a series of Viking raids and in 838AD the 'West Welsh' i.e. the Cornish, allied with the Vikings to fight off the Saxon, Egbert. For a long period, the Saxon kingdoms had also been fighting amongst themselves but in 871AD, King Alfred of Wessex gained control, established England as a well integrated country with strong central control and successfully defended against the Vikings, largely by political alliances with France. By the early 900s, Cornwall was subdued by King Athelstan, the Tamar boundary established and Cornwall was administered as an English shire. In 997AD Lydford and Tavistock were pillaged and looted by the Vikings followed, in 1003, with the sacking of Exeter. Finally in 1017AD, Harthacnut's (Canute) Vikings were victorious over Alfred's son Ethelred, who fled to Normandy.

When Canute's line of succession failed, in 1042AD, Ethelred's son ,) returned from Normandy, to retake the kingdom. On his death, instead of the throne passing to his first cousin, William of Normandy, as expected, it was voted to his brother in law, Harold (II), Earl of Wessex instead. The rest, as they say, is history.
Mainly from "Historical Atlas of South-West England
Roger J P Kain et al
University of Exeter Press 1999
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