Gafulford

Gafulford (alternatively Gafulforda, Gafolforda or Gavelford) is the site of a battle in South West England known from the first entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 823 AD (usually corrected to 825 AD): "Her waes Weala gefeoht Defna aet Gafulford". A translation is: "there was a fight between the Weala and the Defna at Gafulford".

The whereabouts of Gafulford is not known today, though it is generally assumed to be in the west of Devon or the east of Cornwall. Of the several locations that have been proposed, Camelford in Cornwall and Galford near Lew Trenchard in West Devon have had the widest acceptance.

The battle at Gafulford was one of a series of encounters between the British (Wealas) and the Saxons (here called Defnas) that took place during the westward expansion of the Saxons under King Egbert, ruler of Wessex from 802 to 839 AD. It is known, on the basis of charters that he signed, that Egbert was at Crediton on 19 August 825, and he was in Southampton by 26 December 825. Not long afterwards he went on to defeat the Mercians at the Battle of Ellandun.

Early historians and writers assumed that Gafulford was at the present day town of Camelford in East Cornwall. The poet John Milton was an early supporter of this theory, in his History of Britain of 1670. More recently, Ralph Whitlock wrote in The Warrior Kings of Saxon England (1991): "The 'Wala' are held to be the Britons (Welsh), the 'Defna' the people of Devonshire, and 'Gafulford' has been tentatively identified as Camelford." Camelford was also one of the supposed locations of the final battle between King Arthur and Mordred.

Most recent historians prefer attribution to Galford on the River Lew near Lew Trenchard in West Devon. Sabine Baring-Gould was the first to make this suggestion. Robert Higham, in his book Making Anglo-Saxon Devon (2008), points out the derivation of the name is Gafol-ford meaning tax/tribute ford, and based on this derivation, he goes on to say that the location may have been a meeting place where either the West Saxons exacted tribute from the Cornish kings, or where tolls were levied on trade between the two territories. It had already been pointed out that such a location might well be a place where a dispute leading to fighting could arise. Higham also states that the battle may have been an influence on the early development of the nearby town of Lydford, which, as the westernmost burh in Wessex, suggests that the West Saxons did not consider Cornwall to be a defensible part of their kingdom.

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