Two years after the Norman Conquest, in 1068, there was a rebellion in the South-West, causing William the Conqueror to order that castles be built. One of these was sited in the Manor of Trematon, 1½ miles south-east of the village, and it became the administrative centre for the area. At this time, the honour of Trematon was in the hands of William's half-brother Robert, the Count of Mortain. (An honour consisted of a number of estates; that of Trematon numbered thirty-three, which was the largest such honour in Cornwall.)

Robert soon founded and promoted a market. The Prior of the Saxon monastery and cathedral at St Germans (some two miles away) was not pleased, as his own market was "reduced to nothing by reason of the market which the Count of Mortain has established hard by at a certain castle of his own."

In 1075 Robert ceded Trematon to Richard de Valletort, a Norman knight who had fought at the Battle of Hastings. Hoping it would grow in conjunction with the market, de Valletort founded a borough in the vicinity of the castle. He also built a new parish church, dedicated to St Stephen, atop the hill on the opposite side of the valley from the castle.

The Domesday Book, completed in 1086, records: "Trematone ..... there are five hides" (about 600 acres). "Arable land is 25 carucates in demesne" (a carucate was the area a plough team could till in a year) "and there are three carucates and 50 bondservi" (bondservi or serfs were servants who lived in the house of their lord and laboured at all kinds work without wages, being fed and clothed and transferred with the land) "and 20 villeins and 30 borderers" (a villein was also bound to the manor, but had the right to own about 30 acres of land, while borderers had land on the border of the manor to which they were bound) "with 7 ploughs, 40 acres pasture and 20 acres wood formerly worth £10 now £8. The King has the castle and a market rendering 3/-". (By contrast, the total population in the area now covered by Plymouth was only 61.)

The ancient tin mining industry, which had been dormant since Roman times, was revived soon after the accession of Henry II in 1154. A local seaport had to be found for the shipment of the refined metal, and during Henry's reign Saltash developed as a major port exporting tin. The total extent of home and foreign trade cannot be estimated, but apart from shipments of tin it was undoubtedly small, and Saltash was to be eclipsed as a trading port by Plymouth before the year 1260.

In the late twelfth century (about 1190) the de Valletorts, realising that the market and borough by Trematon Castle were not prospering because they were in the wrong position, decided to establish a new borough near the Tamar foreshore where a major land highway crossed a water highway, a good location for trade.

This planned settlement was laid out on the hillside above the existing waterside community of fishermen and ferrymen. The original ferry access route (now Culver Road) formed the southern boundary, and two new roads running parallel to it (now Albert Road and Fore Street) were created. More than a hundred building plots were set out, an area of relatively flat land amongst the surrounding steep gradients (now part of Alexandra Square) was reserved for a market place, and a large chapel, dedicated to St Nicholas, was erected on the eastern side of the market square. The parish church remained at St Stephens, the new St Nicholas's Chapel acting as a chapel of ease and as a community hall for the new borough.

People were encouraged, by burgage rents lower than the manorial dues which were levied on the surrounding area, to settle in this new town of Esse, and we know that Esse was already established as a seaport borough and market by 1201, as the account of an Assize from that year mentions jurors coming from the Borough of Esse.

^ top ^