Editing Looe (section)

===Medieval era===
{{see also|Looe Bridge}}
[[File:FoweyLooeRiversMapCornwallUK.gif|thumb|Sketchmap of the East and West Looe Rivers]]
The town was able to provide some 20 ships for the [[Siege of Calais (1346)|Siege of Calais]] in 1347.

An early wooden bridge over the Looe River was in place by 1411; but it burned down and was replaced by [[Looe Bridge|the first stone bridge]], completed in 1436. This featured a chapel dedicated to [[Saint Anne|St Anne]] in the middle. The current bridge, a seven-arched [[Victorian era|Victorian]] bridge, was opened in 1853. By that time Looe had become a major port, one of Cornwall's largest, exporting local [[tin]], [[arsenic]] and [[granite]], as well as hosting thriving [[fishing]] and [[Boat building|boatbuilding]] industries.

With effective civic leadership, Looe thrived in the Middle Ages and Tudor era, being both a busy port and situated with close access to the main road from London to [[Penzance]]. By then the [[textile industry]] was an important part of the town's economy, in addition to the traditional boatbuilding and fishing (particularly [[pilchard]]s and [[crab]]s). Trade and transport to and from thriving [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]] also contributed to the town's success. The [[Old Guildhall, Looe|Old Guildhall]] in East Looe is believed to have dated from around 1450.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://welcometolooe.com/explore/the-old-guildhall-museum-looe/|title=The Old Guildhall Museum, Looe|publisher=Welcome to Looe|access-date=9 August 2023}}</ref>

The constituencies of [[East Looe (UK Parliament constituency)|East Looe]] and [[West Looe (UK Parliament constituency)|West Looe]] were incorporated as [[parliamentary borough]]s in 1571 and 1553 respectively. They both survived as [[rotten borough]]s. and each returned two [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] (MPs) to the [[unreformed House of Commons]] until the [[Great Reform Act]] of 1832. For example, [[Charles Wager|Admiral Sir Charles Wager]], a son and grandson of Kentish mariners, was an MP for West Looe early in his political career (1713–1715) and at the end of it (1741–1743). The [[coat of arms|seal]] of East Looe was [[blazon]]ed ''An antique one-mast vessel in it a man and boy against the side of the hulk three escutcheons each charges with three bends'', with the legend "Si, comunetatis de Loo". The seal of West Looe was ''An armed man holding a bow in his right hand and an arrow in his left'', with the legend "Por-tu-an ''vel'' Wys Westlo".<ref>{{cite book|last=Pascoe|first=W. H.|title=A Cornish Armory|page=133|year=1979|publisher=Lodenek Press|location=Padstow, Cornwall|isbn=0-902899-76-7}}</ref>