Themes

Preparation of the Saints' Shore Way text is coming to the final stages. In addition to good walking maps, direcitons and points of interest, the intital section of the book outlines major themes connecting Brittany and Britain. The Age of Saints is the starting point, as on walking this coast we can easily imagine those monks and their followers in their little boats landing on what was (and still is in part) a wild and lonely shore so many centuries ago.
In medieval times, long-standing commercial connections (as least since the neolithic period) came to a peak with the cloth trade, especially in the Breton areas of Léon and Trégor covered by the Saints' Shore Way route. Large and small ports alike were involved in the export of high-quality linen produced in the interior. Morlaix was the major hub, with hundred of merchants in the town involved in buying and selling material.
A less positive link highlights the rivalry of British and Breton corsairs who patrolled the Channel and other shipping routes in the hope of intercepting enemy trading vessels and seizing their cargoes. The subsequent struggle for naval dominance between England and France in the 18th and 19th centuries is well-known. The Bretons, renowned for their maritime skills, have always produced a large proportion of sailors for the French navy.
In WWII a more rewarding partnership led to large numbers of people being transferred both ways across the Channel,  with intelligence agents going into Brittany and civilian and military refugees coming out to safety, often often taken to the ports of Cornwall and Devon. Ernest Sibiril, one of the most famous heroes who risked his life many times to take passengers to England is honoured today in his home town of Carantec on the Saints' Shore Way route. The family boat-building business is still in operation and The Requin (The Shark), the boat he finally escaped in when under threat of arrrest, is in the museum there.
These are just a few of the many fascinating links which have bound Brittany and Britain for good or ill in historical times.