LIMPET MIDDENS
There are shell middens in many places on the Isles of Scilly, refuse heaps that in some cases date back to the Bronze Age. They contain bones and other rubbish thrown out by the inhabitants, especially common limpet Patella vulgata shells. There seems to be a correlation between the size of the limpet shells and the living conditions of the people at that time: the smaller the shell apparently the tougher life had become for the people, as the shells were being harvested before they had reached full size. It is reported that they are very chewy and uninteresting, but presumably they were at least an easily accessible food and protein source. However, the University of Bristol Expedition in 1978 declared limpets were delicious in a risotto!
Limpet shell middens have been found at many archaeological sites on Scilly, on any islands that have been inhabited at any time. Middens were often in use up to the nineteenth century, and frequently can be dated by pottery shards and other remains layered in with the shells and other rubbish. When the inhabitants of Samson were evacuated from the island in 1839 they left behind a huge pile of limpet shells. Some of the beach pebbles used to knock limpets off the rocks were also found. There is evidence that some limpets were collected for fishing bait, but it is also very probable they were eaten even in quite recent times (Ratcliffe & Straker, 1996). Although limpets were the main species taken, remains of other edible molluscs have also been identified from the middens. These are mostly the species that would be expected: cockles, scallops and topshells, all of which are still common around the islands.
CHAPTER 3 Later History – People and Their Influence on the Islands
Back to the sunset bound of Lyonesse – A land of old upheaven from the abyss By fire, to sink into the abyss again; Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt, And the long mountains ended in a coast Of ever-shifting sand, and far away The phantom circle of a moaning sea.
Tennyson, The passing of Arthur
THE HISTORY OF England and how it was reflected in the Isles of Scilly is perhaps peripheral to our story of the natural history. But throughout the centuries there has been commerce with the mainland of Britain, as well as short-lived invasions, and a variety of traffic between Scilly and the Continent, at least as far as the Mediterranean. People bring all manner of goods with them when they travel – but it is often the unrecorded or accidental materials they may have carried that are of greatest interest to us.
MEDIEVAL SCILLY
The early history of Scilly is shrouded in the mists of time. An archipelago of small islands just visible on a clear day off the coast of Cornwall was bound to seem mysterious and attractive. There are many tales and legends associated with the islands, many of them bound up with tales of giants, Vikings and especially King Arthur. In the absence of written records, however, real history can only be deduced from the artefacts and remains left by the early occupants on Scilly.
There is little material evidence of trade from abroad prior to Roman times, although some finds suggest that the islands were not totally isolated. By Roman times finds of Samian and other wheel-made pottery, pipe-clay figurines on Nornour and Roman coins indicate links with France, elsewhere on the Continent and the Mediterranean (Ashbee, 1974). These contacts were very likely to have been instrumental in the importation of plants – both deliberately for food and accidentally as weed seeds, among seed corn or caught up in goods and packaging – that may have been some of the early colonists of cultivated fields.
Later, during the early Middle Ages, long-distance trade increased between western Britain, Ireland, France and the Mediterranean. Scilly was in an excellent position to benefit from ships calling in for fresh water and supplies, and in return to acquire goods such as amphorae of wine and olive oil from the eastern Mediterranean and wine and pottery from Gaul. A site on Teän was possibly a small trading post at the time (Ratcliffe & Johns, 2003).
During the twelfth century Tavistock Abbey administered the northern part of the Isles of Scilly. At this time a Benedictine Priory was established on Tresco, with small churches on the other islands. This would have been significant in the botanical history of the islands, for the monks were much involved in long-distance trade all around Britain and the Continent and would, deliberately or accidentally, have been another vehicle for the introduction of plants. Scilly produced dried seabirds and fish, which were exchanged for goods from further afield (Ratcliffe, 1992). The monks are credited with the introduction of various herbs, some of which still occur in Scilly, such as soapwort Saponaria officinalis and tansy Chrysanthemum vulgare. They may also have reintroduced elder, and they are said to have brought the first narcissi to Scilly, as they had done already on St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. Whether or not this is true, it is from those original narcissi growing semi-wild around the former priory that eventually grew some of the flowers that centuries later became the foundation of the bulb industry.
In the early fourteenth century Ennor Castle, on the hill above Old Town, St Mary’s, was held by Ranulph de Blanchminster, who was charged with keeping the peace and who was expected to pay the king an annual tribute of 300 puffins Fratercula arctica or 6s 8d. Apparently puffins counted as fish and so could be eaten in Lent; their feathers were also valuable. What is not clear is whether the ‘puffins’ were actually puffins or Manx shearwaters Puffinus puffinus, which at one time were known as ‘puffins’ (as is suggested by their scientific name). There is a record that during Ranulph’s occupation he imprisoned the king’s coroner for taking away a whale that had been beached on his land and only released him on payment of 100 shillings. In 1337 Scilly became part of the original Duchy of Cornwall when Edward the Black Prince became the first Duke of Cornwall.
ELIZABETHAN SCILLY
It was Queen Elizabeth I who in 1570 leased Scilly to Francis Godolphin, initially for 38 years at £20 per annum. This link with the Godolphins was to continue, more or less, until the heir to the Godolphins, the then Duke of Leeds, gave up the lease in 1831 and the Duchy of Cornwall resumed control. The next period in Scilly’s history seems to have been a nervous time, with the threat of invasion ever in the offing. Despite this nothing much was done to prepare to repel possible attack during the early years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, despite, one would have thought, there being a very real threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada. Then, near the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Star Castle was built, followed by the first defences on what is now the Garrison.
THE CIVIL WAR IN SCILLY
During the Civil War the Garrison defences were improved and King Charles’s Castle was built on Tresco to defend the harbour at New Grimsby. The islands passed from Royalist to Parliamentary hands and back again. Unfortunately the Royalist command by Sir Richard Grenville led to the islands becoming a base for piracy, which annoyed not only Parliament but also the Dutch. It was not long before both the English fleet and the Dutch set sail to capture the Isles of Scilly. Eventually the Royalists surrendered to Admiral Blake after the Garrison had come under relentless fire from his ships and from Oliver’s Battery, which had been built on Tresco, and the Dutch backed off. Later, another fortification known as Cromwell’s Castle was built in a better position overlooking the harbour of New Grimsby (Fig. 15), to ward off further attack by the Dutch (the fortifications at Charles’s Castle on the hill overlooking Tresco Channel being so badly placed as to be useless for defence).
In 1660 the monarchy was restored, and the Godolphins returned to Scilly. But it does not seem to have been quiet for long. Spain became a threat again, and in the second half of the century there was a massive programme of building on the promontory of the Garrison and elsewhere to strengthen the defences.
Turk (1967) refers to a comment by Richard Ligon