Lost Plymouth

Download or read book Lost Plymouth written by Felicity Goodall and published by Birlinn Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LOCAL HISTORY. During World War II, Plymouth earned the distinction as the most bombed city outside London. But it was planners not bombers which destroyed most of the history of the city. Few traces remain of Plymouth's best known sons, Drake and Hawkins. By the 19th century, houses built by Elizabethan merchants had deteriorated into the worst slums in Europe, second only to Warsaw. The population of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse quadrupled between 1800 and 1840, and whole families were forced to live in tiny, windowless rooms. Plymouth's lost history includes the first man to sail around the world in both directions; the shocking image which helped end the slave trade; the first convicts bound for Botany Bay; and the man who navigated over 3,000 miles in an open boat with only the stars to guide him.