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Summary

A battery of irregular pentagonal plan, consisting of a platform behind stone walls associated with the mid-C18 walls around the south side of the Garrison.

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 15434: POST-MEDIEVAL BREASTWORK, CURTAIN WALL AND ASSOCIATED DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES ON THE PERIPHERY OF THE GARRISON, ST MARY'S
• Listed Building (I) 62521: OUTER WALLS AND GATEWAY

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SV 90 NW 32
• National Record of the Historic Environment to Historic Environment Records data transfer
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1445075
• NBR Index Number: 111235
• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SV90NW 32
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 7906.26
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SV90NW 3

Monument Type(s):

• COASTAL BATTERY (18th Century - 1740 AD to 1750 AD)

Full description

A battery of irregular pentagonal plan, consisting of a platform behind stone walls associated with the mid-C18 walls around the south side of the Garrison (7906.18), is situated at its south west tip near the earlier Morning platform (7904.14). A WW2 pill box stands in its eastern angle (7909.06). The site is Scheduled (h1).

The battery at Morning Point indicated on a 1741 map (b1) is the early platform (7904.14). A 1742 proposal shows the site adapted, but not the angular plan (b2). The latter is shown on a 1746 map, but may not have been finished by this time, the source referring to the walls as "...the line proposed" (b3). It is recorded on Tovey's 1750 plan (b4). Troutbeck noted five 9-pdrs mounted here in 1793 (b5, b11) the 1888 and 1907 maps mark Morning Point battery as 'dismantled' (b7, b8). Thomas notes that the derivation of the place-name, given to the battery from the low point it occupies, is uncertain (b10). Carpenter describes a 1780s 24-pdr Blomefield gun now dismantled here (b11).

The 1978 OS fieldworker found the battery apparently of C17 origin, with three phases of walling including a major rebuild 1715-42 and later work (h2).

The site was visited in 1984 and 1988 (h3, h4).

On a visit in 1990, a complicated building square was found, including heightening of the north face (h5).

The 1991 survey shows a natural rock outcropping inside the north angle (h6).

The north and north east faces are considerably thinner than the front ones. Features include drainage holes; four paved gun platforms around the south side and traces of another around the pill box; west entrance with door fixings and recesses to the south east; access through wall beside entrance to modern structure outside south west face. The monument is included in the Schedule.
(b12) - Parkes, C, 1994, Pers Comm, ,

Prior to revision of the Garrison defences SMR this site was recorded under 7423.25 (b2).

Described in 1995 (12): A pentagonal battery projecting ESE and entered via a narrow gap in its WNW apex. The walls enclose an internal area measuring 40m by up to 21m. The walling is quite varied reflecting changes of plan and differing phases. The northern walls are generally 0.7 to 0.9m wide, rising in places to 2m wide and are largely faced by neat level-coursed ashlar slabs and characteristic of Tovey's refurbishment to the north. Near the centre is an abrupt joint to thicker walls, 1.5 m high and lowered to 0.8m high. The southern walls are much more substantial, generally 2.5m wide, up to 2.75m high on their steeply battered outer faces and forming a low parapet up to 0.6m high on the inside, including wide shallow embrasures formed by breaks in the inner coping of the outwardly chamfered wall top. These embrasures may reflect refurbishment during the 1793-1815 wars. Drainage slots perforate the parapet by the hardstandings. Several metres before the battery's western entrance apex, the fabric returns to the smaller slab ashlar at the junction which bisects an earlier embrasure. This western walling is 1.3m wide and 1.2 m high on the inner face and includes a blocked sallyport doorway which was probably replaced by the sallyport located just west of the battery's entrance. Five hardstandings were provided for the cannon of which four survive intact.

Described in 2005 (13): The battery is constructed on the granite substrata and is set behind a finger of granite that extends into the sea. It is is a good condition, it is well maintained and because of its location it is under no threat from coastal erosion. The earthen tops of the front walls of the battery are being eroded by visitors walking along the walls. An early 19th century century 18 pounder canon is mounted on a wooden gun carriage on iron trucks.

See also (14, 15).

--------------------------------
Site history:
1: 1958. SAUNDERS, A/IAM
2: 1978. NJA/OS
3: 1984. UNKNOWN/MSC - ICS
4: 1988. WATERS, A/CAU
5: 1990. JOHNSON, N/CAU
6: 1991. UNKNOWN/EH
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National Monument Record, Defending the Isles of Scilly (Survey). SCO29941.

National Monument Record, The Garrison Survey, St. Mary's, Isle of Scilly (Survey). SCO29940.

Ordnance Survey, 1978, OS78/F50/13 (Photograph). SCO30378.

Ordnance Survey, 1978, OS78/F50/14 (Photograph). SCO30379.

Ordnance Survey, 1978, OS78/F50/15 (Photograph). SCO30380.

<1> UNKNOWN, 1741, A PLAN OF HUGH GARRISON IN ST MARY'S ISLAND AT SCILLY (Unedited Source). SCO5540.

<2> UNKNOWN, 1742, A PLAN OF HUGH FORT ALIAS THE STAR CASTLE (Unedited Source). SCO5544.

<3> UNKNOWN, 1746, A PLAN OF HUGH FORT, I, 1810 (Unedited Source). SCO5551.

<4> Tovey, A, 1750, A Plan of the Peninsula and Fortifications on St Mary's (Bibliographic reference). SCO4950.

<5> Troutbeck, J, 1796, Survey of the Ancient and Present State of the Scilly Islands (Bibliographic reference). SCO4965.

<6> Birch, JF, 1974, Plan of the Garrison on the Island of Saint Mary, Scilly (Bibliographic reference). SCO2851.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1880s, 1st Edition 1:2500 Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4048.

<8> Ordnance Survey, 1900s, 2nd Edition 1:2500 Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4050.

<9> O'Neil, BH St J, 1961, Isles of Scilly MOW Guide (Bibliographic reference). SCO4042.

<10> THOMAS, AC, 1989, THE NAMES OF THE BATTERIES ON THE GARRISON, ST MARY'S, ISLES IF SCILLY (Unedited Source). SCO8924.

<11> Carpenter, AC, 1984, The Cannon of Pendennis and St. Mawes Castles, Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO5087.

<12> Field Investigator's Comments, MPPA/Hooley, D. 1995 (Survey). SCO29739.

<13> Field Investigator's Comments, EH/Fletcher, M. 2005. (Survey). SCO29739.

<14> Brodie, A, 2011, The Garrison, St Mary's Isles of Scilly: The Defences of the Garrison 1500-1945 - survey report, figs. 31, 33. (Bibliographic reference). SCO24047.

<15> Bowden, M and Brodie, A, 2011, Defending Scilly, 34-50 (Bibliographic reference). SCO29932.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO3128 - Garrison Walls, Isles of Scilly, conservation plan
• ECO3819 - Isles of Scilly Military Defences, 1540-1951 (Ref: RDRS 56-2011)
• ECO6309 - The Garrison, St. Mary's: Survey

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