City of Plymouth: History
=== Early history ===
Upper Palaeolithic deposits, including bones of Homo sapiens have been found in local caves, and artefacts dating from the Bronze Age to the Middle Iron Age have been found at Mount Batten, showing that it was one of few principal trading ports of pre-Roman Britannia dominating continental trade with Armorica. An unidentified settlement named Tamari Ostts is listed in Ptolemy's Geographia and is presumed to be located in the area of the modern city. An ancient promontory fort was located at Rame Head at the mouth of Plymouth Sound with ancient hillforts located at Lyneham Warren to the east, Boringdon Camp and Maristow Camp to the north.
The settlement of Plympton, further up the river Plym than the current Plymouth, was also an early trading port. As the river silted up in the early 11th century, mariners and merchants were forced to settle downriver, at the current day Barbican near the river mouth. At the time this village was called Sutton, meaning south town in Old English. The name Plym Mouth, meaning "mouth of the river Plym" was first mentioned in a Pipe Roll of 1211. Plympton Priory owned land at Sutton and secured a charter from Henry III in 1254 granting the priory the right to hold a weekly market and annual fair at Sutton, making it a market town.
During the Hundred Years' War, a French attack in 1340 burned a manor house and took some prisoners, but failed to get into the town. The town was burned by Breton raiders in 1403. On 12 November 1439, the market town of Sutton was incorporated as a borough and was formally renamed 'Plymouth', with a subsequent charter the following year formalising its boundaries. It was the first time a borough charter had been issued by parliament, rather than directly from the monarch.
In the late 15th century, Plymouth Castle, a "castle quadrate", was constructed close to the area now known as The Barbican; it included four round towers, one at each corner, as featured on the city coat of arms.
The castle served to protect Sutton Pool, which is where the fleet was based in Plymouth prior to the establishment of Plymouth Dockyard. An act of Parliament, the Fortification of Plymouth Act 1512 (4 Hen. 8. c. 20), was passed to further fortify Plymouth. The work included defensive walls at the entrance to Sutton Pool, across which a chain was extended in times of danger. Defences on St Nicholas Island also date from this time, and a string of six artillery blockhouses were built, including one on Fishers Nose at the south-eastern corner of the Hoe. This location was further strengthened by the building of a fort (later known as Drake's Fort) in 1596; it was the site of the Citadel, established in the 1660s. …