Trafalgar Way
Encyclopedia
The Trafalgar Way is the name given to the historic route used to carry dispatches with the news of the Battle of Trafalgar
overland from Falmouth to the Admiralty
in London. The first messenger in November 1805 was Lieutenant Lapenotiere, of HMS Pickle
, who reached Falmouth
on 4 November after a hard voyage in bad weather. He then raced to London
bearing the dispatches containing the momentous news of Lord Nelson's victory and death in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
Following the death in action of the Commander in Chief, Admiral Lord Nelson, his deputy, Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood
, took command of the British Fleet. Because his ship, the Royal Sovereign
, had been dismasted, Collingwood transferred to the undamaged frigate HMS Euryalus
to control operations. Shortly after the battle a severe storm blew up and lasted for several days. Collingwood was faced with the challenge of ensuring the safety and survival of his own and the captured ships: at the same time he needed to report the outcome of the battle to the Admiralty in London as soon as possible.
and four.” Edited versions of Collingwood’s four documents that Lapenotiere delivered were published in The London Gazette on 6 November and subsequently in most papers. The first report contained the words “I fear the numbers that have fallen will be found very great, when the returns come to me; but it having blown a gale of wind ever since the action, I have not yet had it in my power to collect any reports from the ships”. This news triggered understandable anxiety, particularly amongst the families of the 18,465 men who had been with Nelson at Trafalgar, to learn the details of the casualty lists, or “butcher’s bill” as they were commonly known.
Lapenotiere made 21 stops to change horses on the way from Falmouth to London and his “account of expenses”, which was carefully saved for posterity in Admiralty records, shows his route, where he changed horses and his costs. The route he took was the main Falmouth to London coaching road of 1805 and the expenses involved for each leg were:-
To date no record has been found to show exactly where he obtained fresh horses, although in some of the smaller places there was probably only one stable or coaching inn available.
The "race". Commander John Sykes of the 18-gun sloop
HMS Nautilus
had been ordered by Nelson to patrol off Cape St. Vincent
in southwest Portugal. He met the Pickle as she sped homewards on 28 October and, having heard Lapenotiere’s news of the battle, he appears to have elected to abandon his ordered station and escort the Pickle for her safety, but they lost sight of each other in very heavy weather. When Nautilus made Plymouth late on 4 November Sykes reported to Admiral Young, who feared that Pickle might be missing.
As a precaution the Admiral therefore ordered Sykes to travel to the Admiralty to report the sketchy details of the battle that he had learnt from Lapenotiere at sea. As he reached Exeter, neither Lapenotiere nor Sykes were aware that they were now only a few miles apart on the same road in an involuntary race for London. Sykes reached the Admiralty at 2 a.m. on Wednesday 6 November, about an hour behind Lapenotiere.
and was able to send a second dispatch containing this information from some of the ships. Lieutenant Robert Benjamin Young
, commanding the cutter Entreprenante
(the smallest vessel present at the Battle of Trafalgar) took this dispatch to Faro
on the Portuguese Algarve where it was handed to the British consul who delivered it to the British Embassy in Lisbon
. From there it sailed on the 4th November aboard the next routine packet vessel, the Lord Walsingham which reached Falmouth on 13 November.
The mails she carried were taken by special carriage over the route followed by Lapenotiere and reached the Admiralty in London on Friday 15th. The casualty lists appeared in The Times
on Monday 18th, thus ending the eleven days of anxiety for the families of the men of the Royal Sovereign, Mars, Dreadnought, Bellerophon, Minotaur, Ajax, Defiance, Leviathan, Defence and Revenge.
The third dispatch. By 4 November, order was being restored to the damaged British ships and Collingwood had shifted his flag from the frigate Euryalus to the Queen
, a ship of the line of the Mediterranean squadron that had rejoined Collingwood after the battle. Considerable progress was also being made with the task of repatriating the Spanish prisoners to Spain. He was now able to dispatch the Euryalus to England with his third dispatch, and she sailed from off Cape Trafalgar on 7th with the captured French Commander in Chief, Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve
, on board.
On Sunday 24 November, it was reported from Falmouth that “ The hon. Capt. Blackwood
landed here this evening, from his majesty's ship Euryalus, which he left off the Lizard this morning, and came up in his 8-oared cutter; he went off express for London immediately”.
Blackwood followed in the steps of Lapenotiere, reaching London late on 26th, and The Times of Thursday 28th carried Collingwood’s assessment of the condition and whereabouts of the ships of the defeated French and Spanish fleets, the prize list. The same dispatch also contained further casualty lists which now included first details from the Victory, Britannia, Temeraire, Prince, Neptune, Agamemnon, Spartiate, Africa, Bellisle, Colossus, Achille, Polyphemus and Swiftsure. The prize list reported that during the battle four French ships had “hauled to the Southward and escaped”, and their whereabouts were still unknown to Collingwood as he wrote his third dispatch.
More dispatches. The Admiralty, however, was not concerned because it had already received very satisfactory reports of the whereabouts of the escaped French ships from another messenger who rode into London from the West Country. On Saturday 9 November, the frigate Aeolus had sailed into Plymouth with the news that they had been taken as prizes by Captain Sir Richard Strachan
off Cape Ortegal
on Monday 4th.
The captain of the Aeolus, Lord Fitzroy, “set off with dispatches at 10 A.M. for the Admiralty, (the horses decorated with laurels) in a post-chaise and four”. The following day Captain Baker of the Phoenix arrived in Plymouth and took another chaise to London with further details of the Ortegal action, including the British casualty lists. The details carried by these officers were published in London on 11 and 12 November.
Although both Lord Fitzroy and Captain Baker travelled from Plymouth, they joined The Trafalgar Way at Exeter and followed it to London.
Collingwood’s fourth dispatch. The final news from Trafalgar contained the casualty list from the Tonnant which was published in London on 4 December. It had not reached Collingwood until 9 November, when the Queen anchored off Cape Spartel
after the departure of the Euryalus. The dispatch containing this report was sent to Lisbon and from there by the routine packet Townshend arriving at Falmouth on Friday 29 November. The mails she carried were taken up the same well-worn route to the Admiralty.
Lt Lapenotiere's 37-hour journey by post chaise and those of the other messengers that followed were commemorated by the inauguration of The Trafalgar Way and by the New Trafalgar Dispatch
celebrations in 2005. Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal unveiled a plaque at Falmouth on 4 August 2005 to launch a series of events along the Way.
The Trafalgar Way is now marked by a series of commemorative plaques giving details of his journey and commemorating local people who fought with Nelson at Trafalgar. They can be seen at Falmouth
, Penryn
, Truro
, Fraddon
, Bodmin
, Launceston, Lifton, Bridestowe
Okehampton
, Sticklepath
, Crockernwell, Tedburn St Mary
, Nadderwater, Exeter
, Clyst Honiton, Honiton
, Wilmington
, Kilmington
, Axminster
, Bridport
, Dorchester, Blandford Forum, Woodyates
, Salisbury
, Andover
, Overton
, Basingstoke
, Hartfordbridge, Camberley
, Bagshot
, Egham
, Staines
, Hounslow
, Hammersmith
, Kensington
and finally on the Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall.
The locations shown above in bold type are where he changed horses, and plaques like that at Crockernwell (left) have been erected. Other communities
on the route have erected similar plaques to record the passing of the messengers with their sensational news and to commemorate their local men who fought alongside Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar.
The Ordnance Survey
produced a special commemorative map, showing the route.
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
overland from Falmouth to the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
in London. The first messenger in November 1805 was Lieutenant Lapenotiere, of HMS Pickle
HMS Pickle (1800)
HMS Pickle was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting. of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as an armed tender on the Jamaica Station...
, who reached Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
on 4 November after a hard voyage in bad weather. He then raced to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
bearing the dispatches containing the momentous news of Lord Nelson's victory and death in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
Following the death in action of the Commander in Chief, Admiral Lord Nelson, his deputy, Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood
Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood
Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as Nelson's successor in commands.-Early years:Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne...
, took command of the British Fleet. Because his ship, the Royal Sovereign
HMS Royal Sovereign (1786)
HMS Royal Sovereign was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, which served as the flagship of Admiral Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar. She was the third of seven Royal Navy ships to bear the name. Designed by Sir Edward Hunt, she was launched at Plymouth Dockyard on 11...
, had been dismasted, Collingwood transferred to the undamaged frigate HMS Euryalus
HMS Euryalus (1803)
HMS Euryalus was a Royal Navy Apollo Class frigate of 36 guns, which saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar and the War of 1812. During her career she was commanded by three prominent naval personalities of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period, Henry Blackwood, George Heneage Dundas and...
to control operations. Shortly after the battle a severe storm blew up and lasted for several days. Collingwood was faced with the challenge of ensuring the safety and survival of his own and the captured ships: at the same time he needed to report the outcome of the battle to the Admiralty in London as soon as possible.
First news of the battle
The first dispatch. Collingwood entrusted the safe delivery of his first reports of the battle to the captain of H M Schooner Pickle, Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere, but could not spare him at once owing to the storm. On Saturday 26 October, the Pickle was finally detached: Lapenotiere carried Collingwood’s first dispatch, written on 22 October, containing his initial report of the battle, and a second, written on 24th, describing the effects of the storm on the ships that had survived. He also carried copies of two General Orders addressed to the Fleet. The Pickle reached Falmouth on Monday 4 November and Lapenotiere then travelled overland to London. He rode “express in a post chaiseChaise
A chaise, sometimes called chay or shay, is a light two - or four-wheeled traveling or pleasure carriage, with a folding hood or calash top for one or two people....
and four.” Edited versions of Collingwood’s four documents that Lapenotiere delivered were published in The London Gazette on 6 November and subsequently in most papers. The first report contained the words “I fear the numbers that have fallen will be found very great, when the returns come to me; but it having blown a gale of wind ever since the action, I have not yet had it in my power to collect any reports from the ships”. This news triggered understandable anxiety, particularly amongst the families of the 18,465 men who had been with Nelson at Trafalgar, to learn the details of the casualty lists, or “butcher’s bill” as they were commonly known.
Lapenotiere made 21 stops to change horses on the way from Falmouth to London and his “account of expenses”, which was carefully saved for posterity in Admiralty records, shows his route, where he changed horses and his costs. The route he took was the main Falmouth to London coaching road of 1805 and the expenses involved for each leg were:-
| Falmouth to Truro, | £ 1 : 2 : 6 | ........continued | To Blandford | £ 2 : 10 : 6 |
| To the Blue Anchor | £ 2 : 17 : | To Woodyates Woodyates Woodyates is a small hamlet, sometimes considered a village, in the county of Dorset, near its border with Wiltshire, in the west of England.-History:... |
£ 2 : 5 : | |
| To Bodmin | £ 1 : 19 : | To Salisbury | £ 1 : 17 : 6 | |
| To Launceston | £ 3 : 6 : 6 | To Andover | £ 2 : 15 : | |
| To Oakhampton | £ 3 : 4 : | To Overton | £ 1 : 13 : | |
| To Crockernwell | £ 1 : 16 : 6 | To Basingstoke | £ 1 : 14 : | |
| To Exeter | £ 1 : 17 : 6 | To Hertford-bridge | £ 1 : 15 : 6 | |
| To Honiton | £ 2 : 14 : | To Bagshot | £ 1 : 12 : | |
| To Axminster | £ 1 : 11 : 7 | To Staines | £ 1 : 17 : 6 | |
| To Bridport | £ 1 : 16 : 6 | To Hounslow | £ 1 : 14 : 6 | |
| To Dorchester | £ 2 : 14 : 6 | To Admiralty | £ 2 : 5 : | |
| Total | £46 : 19 : 1 |
To date no record has been found to show exactly where he obtained fresh horses, although in some of the smaller places there was probably only one stable or coaching inn available.
The "race". Commander John Sykes of the 18-gun sloop
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
HMS Nautilus
HMS Nautilus
In addition to several other ships, ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Nautilus, after the Greek word for a sailor. was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1762 and put up for sale in 1780. was a 16-gun sloop launched in 1784 and wrecked in 1799. was a 14-gun brig-sloop built c. 1794 and...
had been ordered by Nelson to patrol off Cape St. Vincent
Cape St. Vincent
Cape St. Vincent , next to the Sagres Point, on the so-called Costa Vicentina , is a headland in the municipality of Sagres, in the Algarve, southern Portugal.- Description :This cape is the southwesternmost point in Portugal...
in southwest Portugal. He met the Pickle as she sped homewards on 28 October and, having heard Lapenotiere’s news of the battle, he appears to have elected to abandon his ordered station and escort the Pickle for her safety, but they lost sight of each other in very heavy weather. When Nautilus made Plymouth late on 4 November Sykes reported to Admiral Young, who feared that Pickle might be missing.
As a precaution the Admiral therefore ordered Sykes to travel to the Admiralty to report the sketchy details of the battle that he had learnt from Lapenotiere at sea. As he reached Exeter, neither Lapenotiere nor Sykes were aware that they were now only a few miles apart on the same road in an involuntary race for London. Sykes reached the Admiralty at 2 a.m. on Wednesday 6 November, about an hour behind Lapenotiere.
Subsequent dispatches
The second dispatch. By 28 October Collingwood had transferred his flag to EuryalusHMS Euryalus (1803)
HMS Euryalus was a Royal Navy Apollo Class frigate of 36 guns, which saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar and the War of 1812. During her career she was commanded by three prominent naval personalities of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period, Henry Blackwood, George Heneage Dundas and...
and was able to send a second dispatch containing this information from some of the ships. Lieutenant Robert Benjamin Young
Robert Benjamin Young
Commander Robert Benjamin Young, RN was an officer in the Royal Navy. His service in small ships led to his presence observing the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 from the deck of the tiny 10 gun cutter HMS Entreprenante...
, commanding the cutter Entreprenante
HMS Entreprenante (1799)
HMS Entreprenante , was a 10-gun cutter that the Royal Navy captured from the French in 1798. The British commissioned her in 1799 and she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, participating in the Battle of Trafalgar...
(the smallest vessel present at the Battle of Trafalgar) took this dispatch to Faro
Faro, Portugal
Faro is the southernmost city in Portugal. It is located in the Faro Municipality in southern Portugal. The city proper has 41,934 inhabitants and the entire municipality has 58,305. It is the seat of the Faro District and capital of the Algarve region...
on the Portuguese Algarve where it was handed to the British consul who delivered it to the British Embassy in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. From there it sailed on the 4th November aboard the next routine packet vessel, the Lord Walsingham which reached Falmouth on 13 November.
The mails she carried were taken by special carriage over the route followed by Lapenotiere and reached the Admiralty in London on Friday 15th. The casualty lists appeared in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
on Monday 18th, thus ending the eleven days of anxiety for the families of the men of the Royal Sovereign, Mars, Dreadnought, Bellerophon, Minotaur, Ajax, Defiance, Leviathan, Defence and Revenge.
The third dispatch. By 4 November, order was being restored to the damaged British ships and Collingwood had shifted his flag from the frigate Euryalus to the Queen
HMS Queen (1769)
HMS Queen was a three-deck 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 September 1769 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was designed by William Bateley, and was the only ship built to her draught...
, a ship of the line of the Mediterranean squadron that had rejoined Collingwood after the battle. Considerable progress was also being made with the task of repatriating the Spanish prisoners to Spain. He was now able to dispatch the Euryalus to England with his third dispatch, and she sailed from off Cape Trafalgar on 7th with the captured French Commander in Chief, Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and Spanish fleets defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar....
, on board.
On Sunday 24 November, it was reported from Falmouth that “ The hon. Capt. Blackwood
Henry Blackwood
Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, 1st Baronet, GCH, KCB , whose memorial is in the St. John's Church, Killyleagh, was a British sailor....
landed here this evening, from his majesty's ship Euryalus, which he left off the Lizard this morning, and came up in his 8-oared cutter; he went off express for London immediately”.
Blackwood followed in the steps of Lapenotiere, reaching London late on 26th, and The Times of Thursday 28th carried Collingwood’s assessment of the condition and whereabouts of the ships of the defeated French and Spanish fleets, the prize list. The same dispatch also contained further casualty lists which now included first details from the Victory, Britannia, Temeraire, Prince, Neptune, Agamemnon, Spartiate, Africa, Bellisle, Colossus, Achille, Polyphemus and Swiftsure. The prize list reported that during the battle four French ships had “hauled to the Southward and escaped”, and their whereabouts were still unknown to Collingwood as he wrote his third dispatch.
More dispatches. The Admiralty, however, was not concerned because it had already received very satisfactory reports of the whereabouts of the escaped French ships from another messenger who rode into London from the West Country. On Saturday 9 November, the frigate Aeolus had sailed into Plymouth with the news that they had been taken as prizes by Captain Sir Richard Strachan
Sir Richard Strachan, 6th Baronet
Sir Richard John Strachan, 6th Baronet GCB was a British officer of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral.-Childhood:...
off Cape Ortegal
Battle of Cape Ortegal
The Battle of Cape Ortegal was the final action of the Trafalgar Campaign, and was fought between a squadron of the Royal Navy and a remnant of the fleet that had been destroyed several weeks earlier at the Battle of Trafalgar...
on Monday 4th.
The captain of the Aeolus, Lord Fitzroy, “set off with dispatches at 10 A.M. for the Admiralty, (the horses decorated with laurels) in a post-chaise and four”. The following day Captain Baker of the Phoenix arrived in Plymouth and took another chaise to London with further details of the Ortegal action, including the British casualty lists. The details carried by these officers were published in London on 11 and 12 November.
Although both Lord Fitzroy and Captain Baker travelled from Plymouth, they joined The Trafalgar Way at Exeter and followed it to London.
Collingwood’s fourth dispatch. The final news from Trafalgar contained the casualty list from the Tonnant which was published in London on 4 December. It had not reached Collingwood until 9 November, when the Queen anchored off Cape Spartel
Cape Spartel
Cape Spartel is a promontory in Morocco about above sea level at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, 12 km West of Tangier. It is frequently but incorrectly referred as the northernmost point of Africa, which is instead Ras ben Sakka, Tunisia....
after the departure of the Euryalus. The dispatch containing this report was sent to Lisbon and from there by the routine packet Townshend arriving at Falmouth on Friday 29 November. The mails she carried were taken up the same well-worn route to the Admiralty.
The Bicentenary
New Trafalgar Dispatch
The New Trafalgar Dispatch was part of the bicentenary celebrations of Lord Nelson's famous and momentous victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, in 1805...
celebrations in 2005. Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal unveiled a plaque at Falmouth on 4 August 2005 to launch a series of events along the Way.
The Trafalgar Way is now marked by a series of commemorative plaques giving details of his journey and commemorating local people who fought with Nelson at Trafalgar. They can be seen at Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
, Penryn
Penryn, Cornwall
Penryn is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the Penryn River about one mile northwest of Falmouth...
, Truro
Truro
Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...
, Fraddon
Fraddon
Fraddon is a village in central Cornwall, United Kingdom, in the parish of St Enoder. It is roughly midway between Newquay and St Austell and is south of the linked villages of St Columb Road and Indian Queens....
, Bodmin
Bodmin
Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...
, Launceston, Lifton, Bridestowe
Bridestowe
Bridestowe is a village in West Devon, England. It is located outside Okehampton on the edge of Dartmoor and on the A30 main road. Its population in 2001 was 552, although it had been over twice as large in the early 19th century. The name derives from Saint Bride, who is featured in a church...
Okehampton
Okehampton
Okehampton is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and has an estimated population of 7,155.-History:...
, Sticklepath
Sticklepath
Sticklepath is a village on Dartmoor, in the county of Devon, England. Its history is unusual in that, unlike most villages, it did not evolve around a manor. It never had a rectory or a squire...
, Crockernwell, Tedburn St Mary
Tedburn St Mary
Tedburn St Mary is a village situated approximately 8 miles north-west of Exeter, Devon, England. It has a population of approximately 1500.Tedburn St Mary won the Calor Village of the Year competition in 2001.- External links :*...
, Nadderwater, Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
, Clyst Honiton, Honiton
Honiton
Honiton is a town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. The town's name is pronounced in two ways, and , each pronunciation having its adherents...
, Wilmington
Wilmington, Devon
Wilmington is a village between Axminster and Honiton in East Devon on the A35 road.The village is now in the parish of Widworthy although this is a recent change. Prior to 1989 houses on the north side of the A35 were in Offwell Parish and only those on the south side were in Widworthy...
, Kilmington
Kilmington, Devon
Kilmington is a village near Axminster in East Devon off the A35 road.It includes Coryton, a brick house with Portland stone dressings built in 1754-6 by Benedictus Marwood Tucker, sheriff of Devon in 1763. Some remains of the older mansion can also be seen at Old Coryton.The parish church of St...
, Axminster
Axminster
Axminster is a market town and civil parish on the eastern border of Devon in England. The town is built on a hill overlooking the River Axe which heads towards the English Channel at Axmouth, and is in the East Devon local government district. It has a population of 5,626. The market is still...
, Bridport
Bridport
Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England. Located near the coast at the western end of Chesil Beach at the confluence of the River Brit and its Asker and Simene tributaries, it originally thrived as a fishing port and rope-making centre...
, Dorchester, Blandford Forum, Woodyates
Woodyates
Woodyates is a small hamlet, sometimes considered a village, in the county of Dorset, near its border with Wiltshire, in the west of England.-History:...
, Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
, Andover
Andover, Hampshire
Andover is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is on the River Anton some 18.5 miles west of the town of Basingstoke, 18.5 miles north-west of the city of Winchester and 25 miles north of the city of Southampton...
, Overton
Overton, Hampshire
Overton is a village and parish in Hampshire, England located west of the town of Basingstoke, and east of Andover and Whitchurch. The village of Quidhampton lies to the north of the village. The River Test rises 1 km to the east near the hamlet of Ashe....
, Basingstoke
Basingstoke
Basingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...
, Hartfordbridge, Camberley
Camberley
Camberley is a town in Surrey, England, situated 31 miles southwest of central London, in the corridor between the M3 and M4 motorways. The town lies close to the borders of both Hampshire and Berkshire; the boundaries intersect on the western edge of the town where all three counties...
, Bagshot
Bagshot, Surrey
Bagshot is a small town in southeastern England. It is situated in the northwest corner of Surrey within the county's Surrey Heath council district, close to the border with Berkshire, and is also in the diocese of Guildford. In the past Bagshot served as an important staging post between London,...
, Egham
Egham
Egham is a wealthy suburb in the Runnymede borough of Surrey, in the south-east of England. It is part of the London commuter belt and Greater London Urban Area, and about south-west of central London on the River Thames and near junction 13 of the M25 motorway.-Demographics:Egham town has a...
, Staines
Staines
Staines is a Thames-side town in the Spelthorne borough of Surrey and Greater London Urban Area, as well as the London Commuter Belt of South East England. It is a suburban development within the western bounds of the M25 motorway and located 17 miles west south-west of Charing Cross in...
, Hounslow
Hounslow
Hounslow is the principal town in the London Borough of Hounslow. It is a suburban development situated 10.6 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It forms a post town in the TW postcode area.-Etymology:...
, Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
, Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
and finally on the Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall.
The locations shown above in bold type are where he changed horses, and plaques like that at Crockernwell (left) have been erected. Other communities
Wilmington, Devon
Wilmington is a village between Axminster and Honiton in East Devon on the A35 road.The village is now in the parish of Widworthy although this is a recent change. Prior to 1989 houses on the north side of the A35 were in Offwell Parish and only those on the south side were in Widworthy...
on the route have erected similar plaques to record the passing of the messengers with their sensational news and to commemorate their local men who fought alongside Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar.
The Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
produced a special commemorative map, showing the route.
External links
- Contemporary West Country reports of the arrival of news of the Battle of Trafalgar
- London Gazette Extraordinary of 6 November 1805
- Falmouth start of Trafalgar Way
- The Ordnance Survey website
- The Trafalgar Way Map
- The New Trafalgar Dispatch
- Sea Britain 2005 website
- The Trafalgar Way Trust. Contact trafalgar_devon@btinternet.com for further details.