| Description | Totnes is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England. According to the Historia Regum Britanniae written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in around 1136, "the coast of Totnes" was where Brutus of Troy, the mythical founder of Britain, first came ashore on the island. In AD 907, when it was fortified by King Edward the Elder as part of the defensive ring of burhs built around Devon. Some time between the Norman Conquest and the compilation of the Domesday Book, William the Conqueror granted the burh to Juhel of Totnes, who was probably responsible for the first construction of the castle. Juhel did not retain his lordship for long, however, as he was deprived of his lands in 1088 or 1089, for rebelling against William II. By 1523, according to a tax assessment, Totnes was the second richest town in Devon, and the sixteenth richest in England. |
