Gafulford
location mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
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 wæs Weala gefeoht Defna æt 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.
Historical setting
The battle at Gafulford was one of a series of encounters between the Cornish (Wealas) and (possibly) the Saxons (here called Defnas, although technically this translates only as the people of Devon) 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.
Suggested locations
Camelford
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.
In 1848 John Allen Giles wrote in his book The Life and Times of Alfred the Great that, "About the same time that this engagement Ellendunn was fought on the borders of Mercia, the Britons of Cornwall rebelled, and assailed the West-Saxons in the rear: but the men of Devonshire mustered in large numbers and met the enemy at Camelford: a furious conflict ensued, apparently with little advantage to either party, for, whilst most of the Chroniclers omit to state on which side the victory fell, Florence of Worcester alone tells us that the Britons were defeated, and Henry of Huntingdon says that many thousands were slain on both sides."
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.
Galford
Most recent historians prefer attribution to Galford on the River Lew near Lew Trenchard in West Devon.
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