Stonehouse Town Defences
Has been described as a Questionable Fortified Manor House, and also as a Questionable Artillery Fort, and also as a Certain Urban Defence
There are masonry ruins/remnants remains
Name | Stonehouse Town Defences |
Alternative Names | Stone Manor, East Stonehouse; Estonehouse |
Historic Country | Devonshire |
Modern Authority | Plymouth; City of |
1974 Authority | Devon |
Civil Parish | Plymouth |
Stonehouse town wall is located on a limestone ridge overlooking Stonehouse Pool to the south, and defended the town of Stonehouse to the north. It was erroneously identified by Worth as the wall to Stonehouse Manor. It existed in 1540 and was demolished between 1725, when it was extant, and 1779. It extended from a blockhouse on Stonehouse Pool in the west, and in the east joined an earlier park boundary just to the west of Millbay, at or near the junction of Emma Place Ope and Barrack Place. It seems to have formed part of a defensive scheme emplaced by Sir Piers Edgecumbe in the late C15/early C16. Henry VIII granted a licence to crenellate in 1515. The wall was crenellated and included a bastion and main gate as well as the blockhouse. A 110m length of wall survives although the western blockhouse has been demolished, as has the gatehouse which was at the junction of Durnford Street and Emma Place. There are remnants of the bastion to the west of the gate and a small late medieval gunport just to its west. The wall is built of roughly coursed rubble limestone and survives to near its original height in the central section where it retains a parapet and sentry walk. The wall has recently been surveyed and small-scale excavations have been undertaken, 1994-5. (PastScape)
This site is a scheduled monument protected by law
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid Reference | SX461542 |
Latitude | 50.3675384521484 |
Longitude | -4.16506004333496 |
Eastings | 246120 |
Northings | 54200 |