Early History.

The manor of Calstock is first mentioned in the Domesday Book, but it is possible that the area may have been producing tin for the Romans, or even the Phoenicians, long before that. The Romans were certainly in Cornwall, and following their retreat from Britain, there was a flourishing of the Celtic kingdoms, until the coming of the Saxons.

Calstock was part of the Saxon Kingdom of Dumnonia which resisted the spread of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Eventually, only Cornwall was left standing resisting the men of Wessex, and the final battle for Cornwall’s independence from the Saxons was fought here in the parish in the battle of Hingston Down in 838AD.

Calstock Parish takes its name from this time, as do most of the names of the places within the parish - although some Celtic ones still survive. The origin, development and meaning of some 65 of these names are dealt with in the little booklet which is entitled The Place Names of Calstock Parish. In 1066, we know that the lord of the manor was a Saxon called Asgar, who lost the Manor, and probably his life at the Conquest. The manor (which had the same boundaries as the parish) became part of the now defunct Earldom of Cornwall, eventually becoming part of the Black Prince’s Duchy of Cornwall in 1337.

This part of Calstock Parish’s history is told in the booklet by Patrick Coleman entitled The Early History of Calstock Parish

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