Hingston Down, Devon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hingston Down is a hill spur approximately one mile east of Moretonhampstead and 10 miles west of Exeter in Devon. Some historians now claim that this was the site of the 838 battle between a Cornish/Danish alliance against the West Saxons rather than at the site at Hingston Down near Callington, Cornwall.^[1]

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to a Hengestesdun, ("Stallion Hill") and says that in 838 "There came a great ship army to the West Wealas where they were joined by the people who commenced war against Ecgberht, the West Saxon king. When he heard this, he proceeded with his army against them and fought with them at Hengestesdun where he put to flight both the Wealas and the Danes."

It has been claimed that the Hingston Down, Devon site is the more probable site as Ecgberht's army would have been based east of Exeter and the Danish fleet is believed to have landed at Plymouth Sound. An ancient trackway (now largely followed by the B3212 road) runs from Plymouth across Dartmoor in a virtual straight line towards Exeter. The trackway begins to descend from the moor close to Moretonhampstead and it is claimed that Ecgberht's West Saxon army lay in wait with his army concealed in the thickly wooded Teign Valley. This position would have provided a quick retreat of 10 miles to Exeter if the attack had not gone to plan. The Wealas and the Danes were "put to flight" back across the wilds of Dartmoor. In 838 the whole of Dartmoor and the South Hams was still exclusively Cornish territory and the Exe-Taw line was the border between Cornish and West Saxon lands. It was nearly a full century later in 936 when King Athelstan fixed the east bank of the River Tamar as the boundary between Anglo-Saxon Wessex and Celtic Cornwall,^[2] as up until 927 the two peoples had lived together in Exeter "aequo jure" - as equals.^[3]^[4].