Some History of Falmouth

There is evidence that before Falmouth Town was created, ships came into the harbour for safety against bad weather and among these were the expedition headed by the ambassador of Nanpan from Southampton in 1489 to treat with Ferdinand of Spain and to confer the Order of the Garter on the King of Portugal. In 1506 King Philip came to shelter from the storms and had great difficulty understanding the language of the local inhabitants.

There is an interesting map of the time of Queen Elizabeth showing stakes planted in the sea where they tried to seal off the town from Spanish invasion . The map also shows and confirms that at that time no village existed where Falmouth now stands.

The town of Truro who had held undisputed control over Falmouth harbour thought the idea by Killigrew to establish a town at the entrance to the harbour a threat to their control and so combined with Penryn and Helston tried to stop the town from being recognised by King James who immediately directed privy counsellors to make inquiries into the alleged facts to the governor of Pendennis Castle, Sir Nicholas Hals who said,” I well approve of Mr Killigrew’s project for building a town and custom house at Smithike, as being near the mouth of the Fal harbour for the quick and necessary supplies of ships, brought thither by their own occasions or contrary winds, without being obliged to go up two miles to Penryn or nine to Truro to take in or out their cargoes or ladings ,and make entries on the custom house at such a distance.”So the king decided in favour of Killigrew who, encouraged by the decision, resumed his building.

This town was only a double line of houses running from the custom’s house and Market Strand along the verge of the harbour.

The buildings began on the south side of the creek which had an embankment built across it so that the tide was excluded from flooding the Moor.

In 1653 a market was established and the Penryn custom House was moved to Falmouth. authorities. In 1660 a proclamation was issued by Charles 2 nd , that Smithike should from and for ever after that date be called Falmouth town which in 1665 grew to about two hundred houses .

Sir Nicholas Slanning and Francis Bluets of Trevethan who had married the heiress Jane Killigrew, supported the King so that throughout the civil war vital war munitions were imported from France and Holland in return for Cornish tin. Cromwell’s parliamentarians tried to put a stop to the trade by posting 2 ships off the Lizard but without much success whilst Sir Nicholas organised a fleet of royalist privateers to attack Cromwell’s merchantmen who were continually complaining of the trouble they caused. Sir Nicholas later died with many Falmouth Cornishmen when they lay siege to Bristol.

In 1644 the royalists were virtually a lost cause so that Charles 1 st wife was sent down to Falmouth where she sailed on the 14 th of July for France. A year later a ship was kept in Falmouth Harbour in case the king had to leave the country quickly. Although the King’s army surrendered at Tressillian Bridge, Pendennis Castle resisted the siege until the end when starvation faced them after they had eaten all the food including the cats and dogs of the garrison.

Now Cromwell’s army after taking over the town built an earthwork between Gyllyngvase beach and the Docks which cut off the castle completely by land.

Before the Packet station was developed in the town in 1668, it was already a large and prosperous community, servicing the ships had already been the main business of the town although there is a report in 1662 that the town consisted “chiefly of alehouses”. Port books of the period show that malt from Penzance and Southampton and hops from various ports of the South West were being imported for the several malt houses in the town.

Perhaps I should explain that if Falmouth were like London at the time people and even small children drank large quantities of beer for it was considered safer to drink than water but the port books do show considerable imports to the town of wine from Spain , France and Madeira and spirits from Plymouth and London

Of course bread was the staple food so that corn was ground at the local mills in Penryn whilst Falmouth had two which were worked by the tide, one of which was situated in front of Bar Road.

In 1668 the town had a sizeable fleet of 27 Packet ships from ten to 250 tons in size and by the end of the century Falmouth had become a busy centre west of Plymouth exporting mainly to the Mediterranean.

Combined with this activity was the necessary business to allow all this to happen. For example, salt for the fishery was brought from France and Portugal whilst the local population were provided with such things as tobacco, soap, drugs, fruit and manufactured goods mainly from London.

Brinley Morris

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