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Arthurian legend is not unique to Wessex, of course. Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Cumbria all have sites strongly associated with Arthur. However, Thomas Malory explicitly identified Camelot with Winchester, while a fortuitous “discovery” of Arthur’s tomb by the monks of Glastonbury Abbey brought pilgrims (and their money) to the supposed site of his burial.

In a way, this is ironic, as Arthur, if he existed, almost certainly fought to prevent Wessex – that is, the kingdom of the West Saxons – from ever being created. Historians will probably debate forever whether Arthur was a real person, an amalgamation of several people, or an entirely fictional character. Whichever is the case, he would have fought on the side of the native Romano-Britons against the incoming Saxons.

The earliest source for the figure of Arthur is Gildas’s The Ruin of Britain. This does not mention Arthur by name, but does talk about a figure called “the bear”, Arcturus in Latin. The later Arthurian tradition dates back to Geoffrey of Monmouth, writing in the 12th century.

Since then, Arthur has been subject to a number of reinterpretations, from the Victorian romanticism of Tennyson to the grimy realism of HTV’s Arthur of the Britons. Real or not, he is an infinitely fascinating and adaptable character.

The Battle of Hingston Down in 838 was a decisive victory by a West Saxon army led by King Ecgberht against a combined force of Britons and Danes. It appears to have marked the final West Saxon conquest of Devon, and the end of a century of warfare with the Britons of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall).

There is some debate about the location of the battle. Most historians believe that it happened at Hingston Down near Callington in Cornwall, but there is another Hingston Down near Moretonhampstead in Devon which could also plausibly have been the site.

The result of the battle probably ensured that Dumnonia was reduced to just Cornwall, which became a client kingdom of Wessex, whilst retaining some degree of autonomy. Further kings of Cornwall are recorded later in the 9th century, and possibly into the 10th, though again, the evidence is inconclusive.

It would be another 90 years before King Athelstan would finally fix the boundary between Wessex and Cornwall at the River Tamar. Even now, the majority of the English place names in Cornwall are found in the east of the Duchy, between the Tamar and the River Lynher, a couple of miles to the west.