The small and quaint town of Fowey is nothing if not charming. This adorable little slice of earth sits pleasantly at the mouth of the River Fowey and the village easily evokes in the mind an image of a classic, antiquated town that belongs in a Final Fantasy game from the early 1990s. Not surprisingly, Fowey finds its roots planted firmly in medieval times.
In those days Fowey was already a force to be reckoned with thanks to its placement alongside the River and trade with Europe flourished. Not surprisingly, this caused the criminal element to come to Fowey in a big way. Most port towns began to have problems with piracy from the 1500s on but Fowey was already well-known for smuggling by the 1300s. If that weren't enough trouble for the town, the French began to attempt invasions of Fowey at intermittent times throughout the next few centuries. Fowey generally fared pretty well thanks to its heady defense of walls and archers but the French did succeed in ravaging the town here and there. Dutch forces also began to try to infiltrate Fowey a century or two later but Fowey was by then a formidable town that had been well-versed in battle for generations.
If it seems like Fowey was plagued by warfare and crime at nearly every turn in its early life, this assumption wouldn't be too far from the truth. Even during the English Civil War Fowey saw quite a bit of bloodshed compared to many other locations in Cornwall. This would have been the middle 1600s and Foley was by nearly all accounts a Royalist town. The Parliamentarian troops led by the Earl of Essex came down in great numbers and surrounded a large swath of land in which Fowey was a part of. King Charles I and his Royalist forces also came down to the area and a large amount of violence ensued all while Fowey sat frightened in the midst of this epic struggle. It is said that Charles was even grazed by a musket bullet while he was looking onward toward Fowey. One wonders how many lives would have been saved or lost had Charles I been killed right then and there rather than executed at the end of the war.
Thankfully, Fowey is no longer subject to random spurts of strife and violence and by all accounts it is a decidedly quaint and pleasant place to live. It still commands quite a bit of cache as one of the most venerated port towns in the United Kingdom and fishing is still a big business in town. The town does however get quite a bit of tourism as well and this is largely due to the amazing adventures that have taken place in this battle-torn town. As such, we can lament the loss of life that has occurred throughout Fowey's history but we can also learn from it and be enthralled with the stories that Fowey has been privy to.
| 
+44 (0)1726 832551
