h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Much has been written on this site and elsewhere about the association between Devon and Wessex. Both the Cornish Nationalists and the Wessex Regionalists have a vested interest in believing Devon to be a part of Wessex; the Cornish because it provides them with a readymade “national” boundary (at the Tamar), and the Wessex Regionalists because it expands their “empire”. On the other hand you would be hard pushed to find any trueborn Devonian who would claim that Devon was ever a part of Wessex. So what was the true status of Devon in the Dark Ages?

In order to obtain an unbiased account, I turned to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and found the following:-

In the main article on Devon, it is stated: “The Dumnonii survived the 7th Century Saxon Conquests, but both Saxon and Briton became subjects of Wessex.”

Note that there is no mention of the Britons being evicted from Devon.

In the main article on Cornwall, it is stated: “Cornwall was the last part of England to submit to the Saxons.”

Unfortunately, this can be interpreted in two ways, i.e. both Devon and Cornwall were subjugated by Wessex without becoming a part of Wessex, or Devon became a part of Wessex but Cornwall did not. In an attempt to clarify this, I next looked at the entry for Dorset.

“Dorset became part of the West Saxon Kingdom.”

It certainly didn’t say that about Devon, but it still left the status of Devon as a bit ambiguous, so I then looked at the entry for Somerset, which left no doubt as to Devon’s status.

“From the 7th Century, Somerset formed the westernmost part of the Kingdom of Wessex.”

So there we have it. If Somerset was the westernmost part of Wessex, Devon could not possibly have been a part of Wessex. Therefore Devon must have shared the same status as Cornwall, in being under the subjugation of Wessex without being a part of Wessex.

Plymouth Exile

Plymouth Exile,

An interesting piece of research.

I believe that this matches how most Devonians see the situation.

Does the EB shed any additional light on Dumnonia??

Kerswell,

Surprisingly, there is only one entry in EB for Dumnonia. It is in the article on Anglo-Saxon England, in which it states that:-

"By the end of the 6th century, the Saxons had pushed westward as far as the borders of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall) and the Welsh Marches"

There are no other mentions of Dumnonia, Devon or Cornwall in the article.

Plymouth Exile

Recently I came across the website of Lord Bath, who is patron of the Wessex Society.

Interestingly he claims he is half Cornish.

It appears that Lord Bath has somewhat more enlightened views than the Society he supposedly heads.

In an early 1999 article he wrote about the possible regional authority for the South West, and proposed a Wessex Region. However he seemed to acknowledge that in defining the boundaries of such a region there needed to be a process of careful consultation, including and especially in Devon and Cornwall.

So I wrote to him asking him to clarify his views.

Here is his response

"Thank you for your communication.
I avoid taking up a definitive position concerning where the regional boundaries are finally drawn, but it will depend very much on the size of the units that will be on offer, and the resources available to support them. I have met Cornishmen who fiercely reject any notion of union (even) with Devon. But if it should turn out that only larger units are on offer, then I am thinking that it will fall to the inhabitants of both (or all three) of these units to devise a constitution that will be of benefit to us all. So if such a region is indeed created, then it might furnish a less controversial start to the cooperation, if the name of that region reflected those divisions, ie Wessex and Cornwall, or Wessex and Dumnonia perhaps. On the other hand, it is possible that our (central) government will opt for smaller units such as you suggest from the very start - if they are persuaded that this is indeed what the inhabitants of the south-west truly want."

I am not sure what consultation the Wessex Society undertook before trying to annex Devon into their proposed 'Wessex region'. I suspect that the answer is 'none' as far as Devonians are concerned because the reaction both on this website and in other media have indicated arespounding 'no thanks'.

It would appear that the Wessex Society are out of step with their patron, because when the issue of Devon's Celtic background and being 'apart from not a part of Wessex' the good old WS just went into denial.

Is there a devon organisation agaisnt this? If there isn't one should be started.

.Defnaswarrior

Defnaswarrior,

There is a petition set up for Devonians to oppose the setting up of the 7 county South West Regional authority or a "Wessex" authority including Devon, and proposing greater devolution to Devon itself.

You can find a link to it at the foot of this website

[Broken link removed by Moderator]

There was a petition set up by the Wessex Society trying to promote such an iidea - last I looked it had 7 signatures!!!

Defnaswarrior,

If you use a search engine and enter 'Dewnans', you will find Ozzie Exile's web site. At the bottom of the page you will find a link to the petition. This is one of two petitions for Devon, both rejecting the concepts of either a seven county South West Region or a Wessex Region including Devon. At last count, the Devon petitions had a total of 952 signatures. A similar Cornish petition had 522 signatures and a Wessex petition had (wait for it) 8 (yes eight) signatures, despite there being over 40 members of the Wessex Society. So as you can see, the Wessex organisation is a joke which stands no chance whatsoever of achieving a Wessex Region. It is very much a one man band, the band leader being a guy from Bristol called Nick Xylas. Whenever Wessex activists have put up candidates in elections, their votes have been pathetically small, even in the Wessex heartland (such as Hampshire).

Plymouth Exile