Plymouth Blockhouse, Fishers Nose Tower

Has been described as a Certain Artillery Fort

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NamePlymouth Blockhouse, Fishers Nose Tower
Alternative NamesLambhay Point; Queen Elizabeth's Tower
Historic CountryDevonshire
Modern AuthorityPlymouth; City of
1974 AuthorityDevon
Civil ParishPlymouth

Although depicted on a plot of 1540 as part of Henry VIII's coastal defences, the blockhouse may have been built in the late 15th century and modified in 1523. It is polygonal in plan, and was shown as two-storyed and crenellated with gun embrasures on the lower floor on the 1540 plot. It was incorporated into the lower fort of Plymouth Fort in 1595 and remained as part of the Lower Fort of the Royal Citadel from the 1660s. In 1716 it was renamed 'Queen Elizabeth's Tower'. Used as an Air Raid Protection Shelter during World War Two. It is architecturally different from the other Plymouth blockhouses as it has no granite embrasures. (PastScape)

Remains of tower built for coastal defence. c1537-39. Battered Plymouth limestone rubble walls with dressed granite quoins. Rectangular plan projecting to the west and returned back to the cliff at the east end. Part of a series of towers built in Plymouth during the reign of Henry VIII. (Listed Building Report)

Not scheduled

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 ReferenceSX481536
Latitude50.3629188537598
Longitude-4.13635015487671
Eastings248150
Northings53630
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Duffy, Michael, 1999, 'Coastal Defences and Garrisons 1480-1914' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 158-60
  • Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 76
  • Pye, Andrew and Woodward, Freddy, 1996, The historic defences of Plymouth (Exeter: Exeter Archaeology Fortress Study Group South West) p. 129
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 118
  • Bracken, 1931, History of Plymouth (Plymouth) p. 68

Primary Sources