BIRTH OF A CITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 116, 13 November 1939, Page 6

BIRTH OF A CITY

PLYMOUTH'S CHARTER

BASE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, November 11

The anniversary of the granting of the charter which made Plymouth a borough and removed the growing town from the jurisdiction of the Priory of Plympton, is being celebrated tomorrow".

The history of the emancipation of towns from Royal or ecclesiastical control is the history of England. In those far-off times the origins of the great towns of today were found in guilds of merchants, carrying on business for which local conditions gave particular facilities For instance, Plymouth grew on sea-borne trade. -'

These guilds found the need both for relief from outside control and for enacting and enforcing rules for their own mercantile protection. This freedom was obtained by means of charters, granted often in return for payment to the King.

Though many towns received charters before Plymouth—Norwich, for instance, was first chartered in 1428 —Plymouth is unique in that the charter was granted by Act of Parliament and not by Royal favour. However these charters were granted, it is upon the incorporation of ancient boroughs that the great British tradition of local self-government has been built.