Thursday 7 July 2016

Mount Batten Plymouth, an Iron Age port sacred to Belinus ?

Mount Batten, is a promontory on the east side of Plymouth harbour, just south of Plymouth. It was the Bronze and Iron Ages trading centre for this area, using the same sheltered coastline which Plymouth later became famous for in the Spanish Armada and the Second World War, when it was heavily bombed during the Blitz.
On the NE side of Mount Batten, is a very interesting place name, which may yield a clue as to the original British name of this important ancient trading centre, doubtless visited by the Carthaginians via their port in Poole Harbour.
This cove, is called Clovelly Bay; which is directly comparable to the enormous hillfort in NW Devon, also by the coast, known as Clovelly Dykes. As this latter site, has triple concentric earthworks, it would have been a royal tribal centre and the name Clovelly has long been regarded as being originally Clawdd Beli(nus) in British, sacred to the god Beli or Apollo Belinus.
It appears perfectly feasible therefore, that Clawdd Beli, clawdd meaning earthworks or dykes, could also have been the original name for Mount Batten. Doubtless the Bronze Age earthworks have been submerged under later defences, but Barry Cunliffe discovered considerable trading evidence of wine from the Mediterranean and other prestige, that is royal, goods, entering Britain here. There is also likely to have been a prehistoric road via Totnes and up to the Iron fort at Exeter and beyond, from Mount Batten.

Monday 22 February 2016

Wrigwell, a possible Uriconium ?

Wrigwell Hill lies east of Ipplepen, about 5 miles west of Torquay in South Devon. It lies just to the south of a recent major find in the area, a native British settlement extending over 11 fields with Roman finds, but with no evidence as yet of a Roman settlement. Now, this is purely speculation, but supposing the Wrig- part of the name was linked to the Wrekin, Wroxeter, Wrockwardine as Anglo-Saxon Wrecon, British Uriconium, all in Shropshire east of Shrewsbury, then we may have a similar British Uriconium here ?
I only mention this, because there is a curious passage in the Ravenna Cosmography where a Uriconium appears to be in East Devon somewhere, unless it is a mistake intended for the Uriconium in Shropshire. Many of the identifications of the Devon names in this itinerary, which I have potentially identified in my companion blog in this series: 'A Roman Tour Of Ancient Devon Place Names', shows that the Romans may only have had a trading status with the places in South Devon, as with the single Roman roofing tile found at Totnes, perhaps being a trading station. Totnes is south of Wrigwell, so the same may have applied here, being further away from Exeter.
If there is a connection with Uriconium here, then Wrigwell Hill may have had a native British enclosure, smaller in scale than the Shropshire Wrekin, but a local cult centre. As I say, this is pure speculation, but we await future archaeological finds with eager interest.
The association between the Shropshire Uriconium with the massive hillfort on top of the Wrekin as the centre of the Cornovii Tribe, has long been acknowledged. If Wrigwell is also Uriconium, then this large British settlement lies very close to the tribal centre of Denbury hillfort, which was earlier known as Devenburia, the hillfort of the Devon tribe of the Dumnonii.