:00:10. > :00:18.The Tamar River, the border between Devon and Cornwall. It runs through
:00:18. > :00:22.some of the country's most stunning This densely wooded stretch is
:00:22. > :00:25.known as the Tamar Valley. It's a sleepy backwater now, but hidden
:00:25. > :00:33.within this dense undergrowth is evidence of what drew people to
:00:33. > :00:37.this valley for more than 2,000 years. For the next half hour, I'll
:00:37. > :00:47.be looking for that evidence and what it says about the story of the
:00:47. > :00:47.
:00:47. > :00:51.Tamar Valley. One recent find has amazed archaeologists. It was a
:00:51. > :00:58.joyous occasion when we realised what we had found. It takes in
:00:58. > :01:02.Cavaliers and Roundheads fighting to gain control of Cornish tin. And
:01:02. > :01:10.the story is still being written, with this major new discovery in a
:01:10. > :01:14.medieval mansion. Well, would you look at that! Join me on my journey
:01:14. > :01:24.as I discover why this valley is a vital, living part of the Great
:01:24. > :01:39.
:01:39. > :01:46.Plymouth, a bustling modern city, home to more than a quarter of a
:01:46. > :01:56.million people. Set at the mouth of the River Tamar, its shores still
:01:56. > :01:59.
:01:59. > :02:04.dominated by Devonport's Naval Travel 15 miles upriver and it's
:02:04. > :02:09.very different. We could almost be travelling through virgin forest in
:02:09. > :02:15.some faraway land. But this, believe it or not, is a post
:02:15. > :02:18.industrial landscape. In its long history the Tamar Valley has been a
:02:18. > :02:26.dividing line, a contested border between England and the rebellious
:02:26. > :02:34.Cornish. It's also been a place of titanic struggle between man and
:02:34. > :02:41.his environment, for the enormous wealth that lay deep underground.
:02:41. > :02:44.And that's where our story starts. Today only ruins remain. It's hard
:02:44. > :02:53.to imagine exactly what it must have been like to work down one of
:02:53. > :03:01.these mines. Well, let me tell you. It was dark, it was damp and it was
:03:01. > :03:11.This is the George and Charlotte Copper Mine, worked from the early
:03:11. > :03:16.
:03:16. > :03:22.1700s up until 1869. This tunnel predates mechanisation. Miners
:03:22. > :03:28.would drill a hole into the rock. They would used sledgehammers. Phil
:03:28. > :03:38.the hole with gunpowder. What a rudimentary fuse into it. Light the
:03:38. > :03:45.
:03:45. > :03:52.Gunpowder in confined spaces sound lethal. Were there many fatalities?
:03:53. > :04:00.We do not really know. There was no centralised formal record keeping.
:04:00. > :04:03.While at there were fatalities, we do not have a full picture.
:04:03. > :04:07.George and Charlotte was just one of around 100 mines in this area
:04:07. > :04:11.where men risked their lives during the 1700s and 1800s. But these
:04:11. > :04:15.hillsides had been mined for centuries before that. The river
:04:15. > :04:18.enters the Tamar Valley, just south of Launceston. It then meanders
:04:18. > :04:21.more than 20 miles, past Tavistock, Gunnislake and Calstock, on its way
:04:21. > :04:30.down to the Bere Peninsula, where the valley opens out into the Tamar
:04:30. > :04:32.estuary. And the Bere Peninsula is where I'm headed, to meet one of a
:04:33. > :04:35.team of archaeologists who are uncovering remarkable evidence that
:04:35. > :04:45.shows mining was already a major undertaking in the Tamar Valley 500
:04:45. > :04:50.
:04:50. > :04:58.years before the Industrial What have you got to show me?
:04:58. > :05:01.Hopefully we will see some medieval minds. -- miners. Dr Chris Smart is
:05:01. > :05:09.taking me to an area of woodland close to the river that's lain
:05:09. > :05:12.undisturbed for centuries. We are looking further pits in the ground.
:05:12. > :05:15.The woods in this area are pockmarked with shallow pits. It's
:05:15. > :05:22.the only visible clue to the silver mines that dominated the Bere
:05:22. > :05:32.peninsula in the Middle Ages. would have expected simple, shallow
:05:32. > :05:39.pits. There was a requirement to go deeper. Over time, drainage became
:05:40. > :05:49.a real issue. To begin with, manually -- water was manually
:05:49. > :05:59.hauled up. The cost of the Labour became such that... How do we know
:05:59. > :06:04.it is a mine? We know because of the crown accounts. This is a
:06:04. > :06:14.record of the output of the silver from the mine. The first five years
:06:14. > :06:14.
:06:14. > :06:21.of operation. �1,335, 14 shillings and 10p for the silver. We also
:06:21. > :06:25.know how much people were paid. One man was a smelter and he was paid
:06:25. > :06:28.8p for four day's work. Eventually medieval engineers built a 10-mile
:06:28. > :06:31.leat to carry water to power drainage pumps. This is the kind of
:06:31. > :06:39.terrain the leat's engineers had to deal with. There are few obvious
:06:39. > :06:45.remains, except where they had to drive it through solid rock. This
:06:45. > :06:51.is actually a tunnel that has been cut through this rock. How long is
:06:51. > :06:57.this? 10 metres long before there is a break. Then there is another
:06:57. > :07:04.10 metre section. It seems quite an effort to cut back through slate.
:07:04. > :07:14.How did they do what? It may seem hard, but with van Ryan Pickett is
:07:14. > :07:19.
:07:19. > :07:22.quite easy. That match with an iron Chris and I are now heading a few
:07:22. > :07:29.miles upriver to Calstock, because records say there was a silver
:07:29. > :07:39.smelter here, somewhere near the church at the top of the village.
:07:39. > :07:40.
:07:40. > :07:45.Four years ago Chris came here looking for that smelter. We did
:07:45. > :07:51.not find it. We thought it would be near the church. There is no sign
:07:51. > :07:54.of it. What we found was an enormous Roman fort. Chris' team
:07:54. > :07:58.had stumbled upon evidence of the biggest Roman fort ever found in
:07:58. > :08:08.Cornwall. They were able to build up a detailed picture of what it
:08:08. > :08:08.
:08:08. > :08:15.must have looked like. There for it measured about 180 metres north to
:08:15. > :08:20.south. And the same dimension east to west. It would probably have
:08:20. > :08:26.held 800 to 1000 men. It was a joyous occasion when we found out
:08:26. > :08:29.what it was. I cannot describe it really. It was the first sign of a
:08:29. > :08:33.substantial Roman presence in the Tamar Valley. But why were they
:08:33. > :08:40.here? It's possible to get some idea from the top of the church
:08:40. > :08:50.that sits slap bang in the middle of the site. Not only do we have a
:08:50. > :08:52.
:08:52. > :08:57.great advantage point, it is a focal point macro of communication.
:08:57. > :09:06.-- point. The reason we really think the Romans were here it is
:09:06. > :09:10.the mineral content. Lead and silver deposits. We know minerals
:09:11. > :09:14.are coming out of the south-west in pre- history. This would not be a
:09:14. > :09:19.new industry. The Romans didn't stick around for long, probably
:09:19. > :09:22.less than a century. They left the Valley much as they'd found it -
:09:22. > :09:32.thoroughly British, but not yet English, with this river at the
:09:32. > :09:32.
:09:33. > :09:42.heart of an ancient kingdom. Here on the tamer roar we would have
:09:43. > :09:45.
:09:45. > :09:49.been in the middle of the kingdom. -- here on the Tamar. All speaking
:09:49. > :09:53.a single language through the area, so having a cultural unity as well
:09:53. > :09:57.as being a single kingdom. Saxons started to settle this
:09:57. > :10:00.Valley in the 600s after conquering Dumnonians east of the river. But
:10:00. > :10:03.the Tamar presented a formidable barrier, and it was another two
:10:03. > :10:12.centuries before they were to advance into what remained of the
:10:12. > :10:20.ancient kingdom to the west, and take control. Believe it or this is
:10:20. > :10:25.a ford - Lamerhooe Ford. You can see the track where tractors and
:10:25. > :10:28.horses still make it across today. This could be the very spot where
:10:28. > :10:31.the Saxons crossed over from Devon en route to their final decisive
:10:31. > :10:39.battle with the Britons, because where they fought is only two miles
:10:39. > :10:44.across the river from here. Rather Hingston Down. To the ancient
:10:44. > :10:50.Britons this was a sacred place. Their burial mounds lie dotted
:10:50. > :10:59.across this site. It rises steeply to more than 1,000 feet above sea
:10:59. > :11:02.level and offers commanding views in every direction. The British
:11:02. > :11:07.must have had a clear view of their Saxon enemy as they made their way
:11:07. > :11:10.up here from the river below. And time perhaps to contemplate an
:11:10. > :11:13.inevitable outcome. The AS Chronicle records that Egbert, king
:11:13. > :11:20.of the West Saxons, defeated the Cornish and their Viking allies at
:11:20. > :11:27.the Great Battle of Hingston Down in 838. This is the place where
:11:27. > :11:29.Cornwall ceased to exist as an independent kingdom. Within a
:11:29. > :11:39.century England had become one nation under King Athelstan, and
:11:39. > :11:42.the Tamar fixed as a border between the shires of Devon and Cornwall.
:11:42. > :11:48.But to this day, the Cornish have remained in some way apart from the
:11:48. > :11:52.rest of England, with the Tamar more than just a county boundary.
:11:52. > :11:54.Look at the places named on this sign post on the Devon side -
:11:54. > :11:57.Luckett, Callington, Sydenham, Tavistock - all good English names,
:11:57. > :12:07.those ton, ham and stock endings all being Saxon words for a
:12:07. > :12:09.
:12:09. > :12:13.settlement. But on the opposite bank it's a different story. We're
:12:13. > :12:19.less than two miles from the Tamar on the Cornish side and look at the
:12:19. > :12:29.contrast. Launceston has that Saxon ending found so commonly in England,
:12:29. > :12:29.
:12:29. > :12:38.but what about the other three? They don't sound English at all.
:12:38. > :12:41.They are not. In this area we find a distinctive mixture of Cornish
:12:41. > :12:44.and English place names. The Saxon conquest obliterated ancient place
:12:44. > :12:46.names from every part of southern England except Cornwall. Professor
:12:46. > :12:56.Oliver Padel has studied the distribution of names beginning
:12:56. > :12:57.
:12:57. > :13:03.with Tre. In Devon and Cornwall we see a terrific contrast.
:13:03. > :13:08.Immediately we notice there are 3 in Devon compared with about 1200
:13:08. > :13:14.in Cornwall. And in Cornwall they are covered all over the County
:13:14. > :13:19.except in the more land areas, and they go right up to the River Teme
:13:19. > :13:24.her. It was the linguistic boundaries. That match the River
:13:24. > :13:26.Teme are. Pockets of English place names on the Cornish side of the
:13:26. > :13:31.river, like Calstock, suggest the Saxons did settle Cornwall
:13:31. > :13:38.immediately next to the river. But Professor Padel says this was an
:13:38. > :13:41.exception. Anglo-Saxon peasant farmers moved in, bringing their
:13:41. > :13:45.language and place names with them. They moved into those bits of
:13:45. > :13:52.Cornwall. In the rest of Cornwall, the population has remained the
:13:52. > :13:54.same and get its language. -- kept. This may help account for
:13:54. > :13:57.Cornwall's enduring sense of difference. The Cornish language
:13:57. > :14:01.survived in the far west until the 18th Century, but disappeared from
:14:01. > :14:06.the valley long before that. By the end of the Middle Ages, the valley
:14:06. > :14:09.had become thoroughly Anglicised. Land, with all its great mineral
:14:09. > :14:13.wealth on one side owned by the Duke of Cornwall,on the other, by
:14:13. > :14:15.Tavistock Abbey. But that was before the Tudors came to the
:14:15. > :14:19.throne in the late 15th Century. Their reign brought contrasting
:14:19. > :14:24.fortunes for the two sides of the valley. And the family that lived
:14:24. > :14:26.here was in the thick of it. In 1483, local landowner Richard
:14:26. > :14:36.Edgecumbe spoke out against the Yorkist, Richard III, during the
:14:36. > :14:43.Wars of the Roses. The king's men put him under house arrest. But he
:14:43. > :14:47.was having none of it. As the story goes, which has doubtless been
:14:47. > :14:55.embellished, he slit the throat of a couple of centuries and made
:14:55. > :15:00.haste towards the river with the King's men in hot pursuit. He hit
:15:00. > :15:04.in the undergrowth by the river. He had to think quickly because his
:15:04. > :15:10.life was in danger. He took off his cap, he put a stone in it, and he
:15:10. > :15:17.put it in the river. The King's men heard the splash and saw the cap
:15:17. > :15:20.floating off and decided he must have turned. -- drowned. Edgecumbe
:15:20. > :15:22.escaped and fought alongside Henry Tudor at Bosworth in 1485. This
:15:23. > :15:28.allegiance brought massive wealth to the Edgcumbes and they rebuilt
:15:28. > :15:31.Cotehele, one of the finest Tudor houses in the country. Even in this
:15:31. > :15:38.small river valley we can see how powerful national forces massively
:15:38. > :15:43.shaped the fortunes of its inhabitants. Across the river lay
:15:43. > :15:47.Tavistock Abbey. Its fate, at the hands of the Tudors, couldn't have
:15:47. > :15:53.been more different. This is the ancient port of Morwellham, one of
:15:53. > :15:56.England's busiest inland ports right up until the 19th Century.
:15:56. > :16:02.For centuries before the industrial era it had served Tavistock and the
:16:02. > :16:09.surrounding area. In the Middle ages this place and the land for
:16:09. > :16:13.miles around, was in the hands of Tavistock Abbey. Next to the port,
:16:13. > :16:16.the Abbot's country house still stands, wonderfully preserved. I've
:16:16. > :16:21.come to view a recent discovery that throws further light on the
:16:21. > :16:31.Tudors' impact upon the Tamar Valley. It's pretty dark in here so
:16:31. > :16:31.
:16:31. > :16:34.I'm going to pull open this sliding door. Wow! Look at that. In the
:16:34. > :16:37.process of restoring one wing of this medieval building, the owners
:16:37. > :16:47.removed a layer of lime wash and exposed an extraordinary set of
:16:47. > :16:50.
:16:50. > :16:58.designs. 500 year-old paintings emulating strips of tapestry. These
:16:58. > :17:08.designs include the Tudor Rose. The houses of York and Lancaster, put
:17:08. > :17:12.
:17:12. > :17:15.together. Here are the pomegranates of Catherine of Aragon. This
:17:15. > :17:17.painting obviously symbolises the union of the two houses, which
:17:17. > :17:19.occurred when Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon. The owners
:17:20. > :17:22.believe this painting suggests Catherine of Aragon stayed here,
:17:23. > :17:26.shortly after landing in Plymouth, on her way to the London Court.
:17:26. > :17:30.Equally, it could have been painted as a proof of loyalty to the Tudor
:17:30. > :17:33.crown. But a fat lot of good that did the Abbey if it was. Henry VIII
:17:33. > :17:36.broke with the church of Rome and dissolved the monasteries. In 1539,
:17:36. > :17:46.he gifted the whole of Tavistock Abbey's estate to his political
:17:46. > :17:48.ally, Sir John Russell, the first Earl of Bedford. Tudor patronage of
:17:48. > :17:52.Cotehele and Tavistock ensured the Valley's loyalty to the crown for
:17:52. > :17:55.the next century. But that loyalty was to be tested by a conflict that
:17:55. > :17:58.tore apart the whole nation. For the first time since the Saxons,
:17:58. > :18:08.the Tamar became a border between warring factions, with control of
:18:08. > :18:11.
:18:11. > :18:21.July 1644. The English Civil War is raging in the West. A small Cornish
:18:21. > :18:31.force loyal to the king guards Horsebridge. The Cornish are making
:18:31. > :18:38.a great deal of money by sending tin abroad. Po cid mack using that
:18:38. > :18:42.money for weapons. -- they are. The Cornish still saw themselves as a
:18:42. > :18:50.separate people. Intent on crossing into Cornwall and seizing control
:18:50. > :19:00.of the tin trade, a Parliamentarian army approaches from Tavistock.
:19:00. > :19:03.
:19:03. > :19:13.They see Cornwall as the centre of The Cornish Royalists put up some
:19:13. > :19:17.
:19:17. > :19:21.resistance but are heavily The Parliamentarians, under the
:19:21. > :19:31.Earl of Essex, force their way into Cornwall and the Royalists take a
:19:31. > :19:35.
:19:35. > :19:41.More than 100 were left dead or dying after the skirmish at
:19:41. > :19:48.Horsebridge, most of them Cornish supporters of the King. But the
:19:49. > :19:52.Cornish had their revenge a month later. Let's have a pint. The Earl
:19:52. > :20:00.of Essex may have won this little battle, but history says he was
:20:00. > :20:05.foolhardy to move into Cornwall. soon as he went across that bridge
:20:05. > :20:10.he was in hostile territory. The Cornish were not interested in
:20:10. > :20:14.Parliament. They were staunch supporters of the King. They were
:20:14. > :20:20.having none of it. They gave him a rough time. They gave his army a
:20:20. > :20:24.rough time. They had trouble finding food. This is an army of
:20:24. > :20:27.10,000 men. The Parliamentarians went on to suffer a humiliating
:20:27. > :20:35.defeat in Lostwithiel, some of it possibly dished out by women - not
:20:35. > :20:39.that their contribution to the cause was always welcome. There was
:20:39. > :20:46.an edict put out by the King that women dressed as men would be put
:20:46. > :20:52.to death if there were found fighting. Many women did fight.
:20:52. > :20:56.Lots of big houses were defended by the female staff. We know there
:20:57. > :21:00.were female soldiers dressed as men. In 1645, Cornish Royalists are back
:21:00. > :21:04.guarding the Tamar. This time Cromwell's New Model Army is fast
:21:04. > :21:06.approaching. In a last ditch attempt to stave off defeat,
:21:06. > :21:16.Cornish commander Sir Richard Grenville puts an audacious
:21:16. > :21:24.
:21:24. > :21:29.proposal to the Duke of Cornwall. Who is with me? He proposed that
:21:29. > :21:34.Cornish royalist soldiers should guard the bridges and set up a sort
:21:34. > :21:39.of semi independent Cornish state, what the Prince of Wales as its
:21:39. > :21:44.head, which would stand as a neuter between the parliamentarians on the
:21:45. > :21:49.one hand and the King on the other. It was the last time really in the
:21:49. > :21:53.historic period at least at the idea of some sort of independent
:21:53. > :21:56.form was mooted. Grenville's proposal was rejected out of hand,
:21:56. > :22:01.and Civil War in the West came to an end with Royalist capitulation
:22:02. > :22:04.at Torrington in Devon, four months later. Any hopes for independence
:22:04. > :22:14.the Cornish entertained were washed away by the tide of loyalism
:22:14. > :22:15.
:22:15. > :22:22.following the Restoration of The Tamar became less border, more
:22:22. > :22:25.county boundary. And it was what Devon and Cornwall had in common
:22:25. > :22:31.that determined the valley's future - the mineral deposits that ran
:22:31. > :22:34.under the river. The Industrial Revolution saw the west Cornish
:22:34. > :22:44.return - this time in peace, lured by a massive copper strike in
:22:44. > :22:47.
:22:47. > :22:56.Gunnislake. They were not out of work. They were more induced by the
:22:56. > :23:03.spectacular Ridgers. -- riches. The miners were exceptionally rich. The
:23:03. > :23:06.mine itself and the village grew hand in hand. The boom spread to
:23:06. > :23:13.both sides of the river - like here at Devon Great Consols, on land the
:23:13. > :23:17.Dukes of Bedford had appropriated from Tavistock Abbey. When this
:23:17. > :23:24.mine was discovered, it was the greatest Cupper strike in World
:23:24. > :23:29.Mining history. -- copper strike. A �1 share that was being hawked
:23:29. > :23:35.around Tavistock, suddenly the value leapt. This mine provided
:23:35. > :23:41.employment for something like 12 on that people directly. Indirectly it
:23:41. > :23:43.supported maybe 5000-7000 in the immediate neighbourhood. Devon
:23:43. > :23:46.Great Consols produced fantastic riches for Francis Russell, the 7th
:23:46. > :23:49.Duke of Bedford. He rebuilt Tavistock in what's come to be
:23:49. > :23:54.known as the Bedford style, and provided hundreds of houses for his
:23:54. > :24:04.Cornish miners. These houses, still in demand today, were not simply a
:24:04. > :24:07.
:24:07. > :24:12.result of the Duke's generosity. built perhaps up to 300 of these
:24:12. > :24:17.model cottages, but I only after considerable public pressure.
:24:17. > :24:21.Basically Tavistock was his town and the town was up in arms about
:24:21. > :24:24.this mining boom causing such insanitary conditions. Living
:24:24. > :24:26.conditions for most miners stood in stark contrast to the opulent
:24:26. > :24:34.surroundings enjoyed by the Bedfords at their summer retreat
:24:34. > :24:44.overlooking the river at Endsleigh. Francis Russell's glamorous parents
:24:44. > :24:45.
:24:45. > :24:50.built this house in 1810. They were real a socialite. They were the
:24:50. > :24:55.David and Victoria of their time. The parties that were here or of
:24:55. > :25:01.that calibre. Had there been Hello magazine, they would have been in
:25:01. > :25:08.it. The great and the good of the English establishment came here to
:25:08. > :25:15.play, in what is now an upmarket country hotel. All these Shiels
:25:15. > :25:20.represent either very close friends to us mack families. They are a lot
:25:20. > :25:24.of the high-society at the time who would have Fishwick the Duke. We
:25:24. > :25:30.have Spencer, we have very recognisable names. They would have
:25:30. > :25:32.eaten here. This has always been the dining room. It was a world
:25:32. > :25:40.away from the dank dangerous places where miners toiled underground,
:25:41. > :25:43.just five miles downstream. The copper boom came to an abrupt halt
:25:44. > :25:46.when prices crashed in 1866, but the Bedfords struck it lucky all
:25:46. > :25:49.over again thanks the demand for pesticide from American cotton
:25:49. > :25:59.plantations. But the arsenic had to run out sometime and by the close
:25:59. > :26:00.
:26:00. > :26:03.of the 19C mining had all but ceased in the Tamar Valley. What
:26:04. > :26:10.they left on the walls of the cabins that they excavated, for a
:26:10. > :26:15.couple of metres either side was arsenic ore. That was there for the
:26:15. > :26:25.taking. No cost. It became instantly the world's biggest
:26:25. > :26:36.
:26:36. > :26:46.The contaminated waste from arsenic production has left a huge scar on
:26:46. > :26:47.
:26:47. > :26:54.the landscape. A deadly reminder of the Valley's industrial heritage.
:26:54. > :26:59.Elsewhere though the evidence is slowly disappearing. Much like the
:26:59. > :27:02.miners who abandoned this area in search of work in distant lands.
:27:02. > :27:12.They left behind what must be one of the country's most attractive
:27:12. > :27:23.
:27:23. > :27:25.We're now approaching Calstock. Tamar Valley still has armies of
:27:25. > :27:28.invaders. Now they are friendly - pleasure boats bring visitors away
:27:28. > :27:38.from the hustle and bustle of Plymouth, to soak up the valley's
:27:38. > :27:46.For 400 years this tiny Bridge at Gunnislake in the heart of the
:27:46. > :27:49.valley was the southernmost crossing point on the Tamar. Now
:27:49. > :27:51.you can cross the river on a suspension bridge that soars above
:27:51. > :27:59.the mouth of the estuary, completely bypassing the Tamar
:27:59. > :28:04.Valley 10 or so miles upstream. I wonder how many of the millions who
:28:04. > :28:09.visit Cornwall every year even know the valley exists? Cornish
:28:09. > :28:12.nationalists like to think of the Tamar as a national border. Most
:28:12. > :28:18.tourists see it as nothing more than a beautiful gateway to another
:28:18. > :28:20.holiday by the sea. But it's so much more than that. Written on the
:28:20. > :28:27.landscape around this winding, historic river is evidence of
:28:27. > :28:37.forces that shaped the lives of the Cornish and the English alike.
:28:37. > :28:38.