Gafulford (alternatively Gafulforda, Gafolforda or Gavelford[The first three names are variant spellings found in the extant versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gavelford is found in Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum.]) is the site of a battle in South West England known from the first entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 823 AD (usually corrected to 825 AD): "Her wæs Weala gefeoht Defna æt Gafulford".
The whereabouts of Gafulford is not known today, though it is generally assumed to be in the west of Devon or the east of Cornwall. Of the several locations that have been proposed, Camelford in Cornwall and Galford near Lew Trenchard in West Devon have had the widest acceptance.
Historical setting
The battle at Gafulford was one of a series of encounters between the Cornish (
Wealas) and (possibly) the Saxons (here called
Defnas, although technically this translates only as the people of Devon) that took place during the westward expansion of the Saxons under King Egbert, ruler of
Wessex from 802 to 839 AD. It is known, on the basis of charters that he signed, that Egbert was at
Crediton on 19 August 825,
[Alexander (1922). p. 193.] and he was in
Southampton by 26 December 825.
[Alexander (1922). p. 196.] Not long afterwards he went on to defeat the
at the Battle of Ellandun.
Suggested locations
Camelford
Early historians and writers assumed that Gafulford was at the present day town of
Camelford in East Cornwall. The poet
John Milton was an early supporter of this theory, in his
History of Britain of 1670.
In 1848 John Allen Giles wrote in his book The Life and Times of Alfred the Great that, "About the same time that this engagement Ellendunn was fought on the borders of Mercia, the Britons of Cornwall rebelled, and assailed the West-Saxons in the rear: but the men of Devonshire mustered in large numbers and met the enemy at Camelford: a furious conflict ensued, apparently with little advantage to either party, for, whilst most of the Chroniclers omit to state on which side the victory fell, Florence of Worcester alone tells us that the Britons were defeated, and Henry of Huntingdon says that many thousands were slain on both sides."
More recently Ralph Whitlock wrote in The Warrior Kings of Saxon England (1991): "The 'Wala' are held to be the Britons (Welsh), the 'Defna' the people of Devonshire, and 'Gafulford' has been tentatively identified as Camelford."[See, for instance, Browne Willis (1716). Notitia Parliamentaria p. 82.]
Galford
Most recent historians prefer attribution to Galford on the
River Lew near
Lew Trenchard in West Devon. Sabine Baring-Gould was the first to make this suggestion.
Robert Higham, in his book
Making Anglo-Saxon Devon (2008), points out the derivation of the name is
Gafol-ford meaning
tax/tribute ford, and based on this derivation, he goes on to say that the location may have been a meeting place where either the West Saxons exacted tribute from the Cornish kings, or where tolls were levied on trade between the two territories.
[Higham (2008). p. 33.] It had already been pointed out that such a location might well be a place where a dispute leading to fighting could arise.
[Transactions of the Plymouth Athenaeum vol 8, p. 63, 1882: "No one seems to have observed that Gafulford may be "the ford of the tax or toll " — gavel = tax – ie the ford at which toll was taken, the very spot where, in these primitive times, a dispute and fight should have arisen."] Higham also states that the battle may have been an influence on the early development of the nearby town of
Lydford,
[Higham (2008). p. 183.] which, as the westernmost
burh in Wessex, suggests that the West Saxons did not consider Cornwall to be a defensible part of their kingdom.
Other locations
Several other locations have been proposed:
-
In 1877, Kerslake wrote "The place meant by Gafulford is no doubt what is now called Fulford, in the parish of Dunsford, about eight miles west of Exeter, upon one of the southeastern spurs of Dartmoor."
[Kerslake (1877). A primaeval British metropolis: with some notes on the ancient topography of the south-western peninsula of Britain p. 76.] However, in 1922, J. J. Alexander rejected this interpretation on Phonology grounds, pointing out that if Gafulford could change into Fulford, then Defenascir (the ancient name for Devonshire) would have mutated into Fenshire or Funshire.[Alexander (1922). p. 195.]
-
In a paper of 1897, J. May. Martin came to the conclusion that Gafulford was at a place known as Keymelford near Copplestone in Mid Devon. He used the existence of the ten-foot-tall granite pillar decorated with Celtic designs at the centre of the village as part of the evidence for his assertion.
-
The topographer Richard Nicholls Worth suggested in his History of Devonshire (1886) that the location was probably an ancient passage on the River Tamar.
-
There have been claims that the location was at Slaughterbridge near Camelford.
[
]
Although this association is based on the name and the proximity to Camelford, it is generally accepted that
slaughter probably derives from the
Old English word
slohtre meaning
marsh,
so the name has no likely connection to any battle.
Other interpretations
Commentators have pointed out that although it is known that King Egbert was pushing west into Devon and Cornwall at that time, the
Anglo Saxon Chronicle does not state that he was present at this battle – Higham says the men of Devon (
Defna) may have been led by their
ealdorman.
[Higham (2008). p. 34.] It has also been pointed out that there is no mention of who won the battle, though it has generally been assumed that it was the invading Defnas.
[Alexander (1922) at p. 196 cites Florence of Worcester (d.1118) as saying that the Cornish were defeated.] However Fletcher
has suggested that a Saxon victory seems unlikely, particularly given Egberts presence at Crediton (as witnessed in the charters) at a time when he is preparing for war with Mercia. Fletcher instead argues that the local fyrd may well have been defeated and Egbert's attention diverted west at an unwelcome moment. The incident has also been presented as a raid by the Cornish into Devon.
Notes and references
Sources
