Plymouth was a small town of around 7,000 inhabitants during the first half of the seventeenth century. Despite this, it was an important Parliamentarian centre during the First Civil War (1642-1646). The town was besieged for most of those four years, yet it never surrendered or fell into the hands of the Royalists.
At that time, according to a map drawn by Wenceslas Hollar in 1643, the town had a defensive wall around it. The map shows Sutton Poole on the east side and a bare area to the north of the town, which is now Muttley Plain. To the south, the wide Plymouth Sound led to the English Channel, at that time known as the British Sea according to my map of Devon. Sir Francis Drake had built a strong fort at the back of the Sound in Queen Elizabeth’s time and also the little island of St Nicholas had a gun platform built to menace any approaching enemy.
Sir Francis Drake also had a hand in the building of a leet, a manmade watercourse, bringing fresh water into Plymouth from the wild lands to the north. This must have been sabotaged during the siege – but I haven’t come across any details.
The town was well-defended, not just by its walls, but by temporary forts sited along the ridge of Muttley Plain. This was a relatively short length between two inlets where the Sound cut in towards the north of the town from the west and east. So, the defenders could easily and quickly concentrate their forces on these limited places where an attack could be mounted.
For this part of my story, I found the book ‘Plymouth’s Forgotten War’, by Philip Photiou, very useful.
The Plymouth Archaeology Society reckon Hollar’s map doesn’t show the waterfront accurately nor details of the town. Still, it’s the best map I’ve found as a resource for my story, A Bag of Blood and Bone. The novel, which is the second in the Tom Tyler series, is due out in February 2023.
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