Mount Edgcumbe Blockhouse

Has been described as a Certain Artillery Fort

There are major building remains

NameMount Edgcumbe Blockhouse
Alternative NamesBlockhouse at Garden Battery; Wilderness Point; Barnpool
Historic CountryCornwall
Modern AuthorityCornwall
1974 AuthorityCornwall
Civil ParishMaker With Rame

Mount Edgcumbe blockhouse is a small square stone structure of two storeys opposite Devil's Point which controlled Barnpool beach and the entrance to the Hamoaze (Saunders). It is thought to have been built c.1545, but the earliest mention of it is in 1602 (Carew).

The building is 6.0m square with walls 1.0m thick. The doorway is granite in the north-west corner and was defended by a vertical slot like a portcullis slot but used as a machicolation. There are two gun ports splayed externally a little wider than internally, a probable third in north east wall. The roof and stairs are modern, and indications of a modern roof line are clear. The building is shaped like a low tower and the battlements are mostly old. The building needs some repair. (Cornwall & Scilly HER)

Gatehouse Comments

A part of a private scheme of defences of Plymouth Sound by Sir Peter Edgecombe which included Stonehouse.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSX456531
Latitude50.3581809997559
Longitude-4.17194986343384
Eastings245600
Northings53170
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 25
  • Saunders, Andrew, 1997, Channel Defences (London; Batsford/English Heritage) p. 69, 117
  • Pye, Andrew and Woodward, Freddy, 1996, The historic defences of Plymouth (Exeter: Exeter Archaeology Fortress Study Group South West) p. 35-6
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 73
  • Carew, R., 1969, The Survey of Cornwall 1602 p. 166

Antiquarian

  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England  (Sutton Publishing) p. 110
  • Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 214 online copy

Journals

  • Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 138 p. 218-19
  • Sheppard, P.A., 1974, 'Parochial Check-Lists of Antiquities' Cornish Archaeology Hendhyscans Kernow Vol. 13 p. 69 online copy
  • Girouard, 1960, Country Life , Vol. 127 p. 1598, 1601
  • Beckerlegge J J, 1939, Transactions of the Devonshire Association Vol. 71 p. 178-9