Change has not missed Devon. Shorelines have altered - the gradual silting of the Torridge allowed Bideford to prosper as Barnstaple declined. The medieval bridge over the Exe at Exeter is now high and dry, and the village of Hound Tor on Dartmoor has been deserted for centuries. An inhospitable place to dwell, Dartmoor has always been used for grazing; today's fattening profitmakers, ponies, stand in wet and boggy soil. But the ponies are also standing in a man-made landscape, a remnant of the moor's human history.

Continuity, therefore, is also evident in Devon. Today's magistrates' court is sited within the Norman castle at Exeter, a city which has lost little of its historical importance as a centre of ecclesiastical and political administration. The cathedral and city wall are surrounded by modern buildings; and the quayside is still in use, although the trade there now is connected more with leisure than exports.

Geological Time

Come on, we even had an era named after us!

Prehistoric Devon

Kents' Cavern, Dartmoor, etc.

The Romans

Dark Age Devon

1066 and Beyond

The Civil War

Key battles at Great Torrington and Bovey Heathfield; sieges I can't fully recall!

Industrial Times and the Victorians

Devonians were expertly exploiting their natural resources of tin, wool and granite well before the industrial revolution, so that Defoe could comment happily on the seething industrial activity in the county. The development of steam power in the north of England, however, soon left Devon behind industrially - the county was well endowed for water power but lacking the coal necessary for steam. As industry developed elsewhere, however, Devon's resources were called up once more. This led to, for example, the development of copper mining at Tavistock, the location of Heathcoat's lace factory at the Luddite-free Tiverton and the redevelopment of silver and lead mines at Bere Ferrers. As Victorian urban improvement schemes flourished, so Devon's granite made its way across the country. Devon's phases of industrial activity do not therefore necessarily coincide with those of other parts of England.

Nature may have omitted to supply Devon with coal, but she did supply the south part of the county with bracing sea air, salt water and a mild climate. Consequently the latter part of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of resort development in Devon, fuelling transport improvements and service industries. Initially a response to local demand, and coming later than resorts closer to the social centre of England, the development of resorts helped to create wealth and allowed urban improvements at coastal settlements such as Exmouth, Dawlish and in the county town Exeter, through which all travellers passed. Once again, Devon had been a forerunner in urban improvements with the creation of Northernhay in Exeter in the early seventeenth century; but more extensive urban development was dependent on prosperity and necessity. In Exeter this occurred in the 1830s once transport improvements had improved communications with distant areas (particularly Bath). The subsequent increase in wheeled traffic led to, for example, street widening schemes and the development of Queen Street and Ironbridge Road. The arrival of railways also impacted on Exeter, as the building trade and railway construction became major sources of employment. Some buildings were given a facelift; others were built not of local rock but of newly transportable brick. Local resources therefore initially provided the wealth and sources for urban development; further development came with transport improvements which brought greater movement between parts of Devon and the rest of the country.

Exeter was at the hub of such development; other towns in Devon, not so well connected as the county capital, or with prosperity dependent on a different economic base, developed in different ways at different times. Tavistock, for example, was extensively redeveloped by the seventh Duke of Bedford as the town's local tin and copper mining expanded in the first half of the nineteenth century. Totnes, enriched in the sixteenth century through tin and cloth export, was merely a backwater for the lesser gentry by the nineteenth century, and its layout and housing went undisturbed by Victorian improvers. There was therefore variety in the timing and extent of such development in Devon, depending on local circumstances but influenced by links to other places.

Agriculturally Devon was ahead of the early improvers, farmers being praised for their good husbandry, but by the nineteenth century Devon farmers were viewed as behind the times. Farming practices were largely a response to Devon's climatic and geological conditions, hence for example the breeding of hardy red cattle in the wet and windy Culms area, and the use of sand as a soil improver in the South Hams. Early piecemeal enclosure had also been possible in Devon because of Dartmoor's role as a common grazing area. Modern enclosure was later attempted on Dartmoor, opened up by the turnpike of 1780, at Princetown, without great success; such an isolated and bracing spot, however, made it perfect for prisoners and consumptives from all over England.

Devon has always had a strong maritime connection, unsurprisingly in view of its two coastlines. An important means of communication for both potential traders and invaders, the sea is also a source of food, minerals and (allegedly) health. This economic importance is reflected culturally in the county, particularly in architecture. St Peter's Church, Tiverton, was largely financed through wealth generated by the seaborne cloth trade, and carvings within the church commemorate this. At the church of St Nectan at Stoke, the Countess Gytha is depicted standing on the shore, reflecting the close local links with the sea.

A successful port requires a thriving and accessible hinterland to maintain its function. The decline of Devon's cloth industry by the mid eighteenth century reduced the county's export capacity and the function of Devon's coastal settlements as ports was therefore becoming less important by the modern period. This continued as overland communications improved. Nevertheless Devon's coastlines still provided important access to the New World, particularly for emigrant labour during the agricultural depressions of the nineteenth century. Devon also continued to foster mariners - Chaucer's shipman and Sir John Hawkins were succeeded by recruits to Dartmouth College. Devon's ports also retained their victualling and repair functions, albeit on a lesser scale.

Fishing and trade can be smelly and noisy, and require immediate access to the sea. Ironically, the sea was of almost marginal importance in the early development of resorts as a modern function of coastal settlements. The forerunners of seaside resorts were spa towns, and if Jane Austen is any guide, for every person who went to take the waters at Bath there were at least three whose primary objective was to socialise, plus assorted servants. Equally so with the Devon resorts: moreover sea bathing being a private affair and the picturesqueness of the sea going unappreciated by Georgian gentility, sight of and rapid access to the sea was not a primary concern. This is reflected in the structure of the early resort towns of Devon, whose focus, unlike that of ports or fishing villages, is towards parades rather than the beach. If smelly, noisy sea-related activities occurred they were kept well away from the social focus of the settlement, and if these activities were too numerous or the site too difficult to access the place did not flourish as a resort. With the advent of railways, bank holidays and ice cream vendors, Devon's resorts became less exclusive and their popularity was fuelled by railway advertising.

The Modern Era