Gafulford

Gafulford (alternatively Gafulforda, Gafolforda or Gavelford[1]) is the site of a battle in South West England known from the first entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 823 AD (usually corrected to 825 AD): "Her waes Weala gefeoht Defna aet Gafulford".[2] A translation is: "there was a fight between the Weala and the Defna at Gafulford".

The whereabouts of Gafulford is not known today, though it is generally assumed to be in the west of Devon or the east of Cornwall. Of the several locations that have been proposed, Camelford in Cornwall and Galford near Lew Trenchard in West Devon have had the widest acceptance.

  1. ^ The first three names are variant spellings found in the extant versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gavelford is found in Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum.
  2. ^ Benjamin Thorpe, ed. (1861). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, according to the several original authorities. Vol. 1. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. p. 110.