For important guidance on the use of this record, please click here.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

The remains of Uptons Mount battery which was constructed as part of the civil war defence of Pendennis Castle.

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 10552: PENDENNIS PENINSULA FORTIFICATIONS
• Conservation Area: FALMOUTH

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SW 83 SW 10
• National Record of the Historic Environment to Historic Environment Records data transfer
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 428627
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 18709.43
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW83SW 10

Monument Type(s):

• BATTERY (17th Century - 1601 AD to 1700 AD)

Full description

Cromwell's Battery/ Uptons Mount battery/ Civil War Redoubt, at SW 8200 3228, with earthworks running from it - east to SW8205 3239, and south and east to SW 8211 3207 - were constructed in 1646 during the civil war by the Royalist defenders of Pendennis Castle against Parliamentarian siege works (see PRN 18709.44). The earth works are recorded on Christian Lilly's plan of 1715 (b2). In 1985 remains of the battery were found in a small excavation, though the area has been disturbed by the installation of oil tanks and WWII trenches nearby (b2). The earthworks were found to consist of ramparts, which possibly had wattle gabions, with rock-cut ditches and parapet walls in places. Scheduled January 1993 as 10552/02.

In October 1645 a hastily built crownwork was started under Generals Hopton and Hyde but never finished. Lilly's survey of 1715 shows the incomplete crownwork as little more than a breastwork. Colonel Elis Durnford's plan of 1793 shows the old line of the crownwork, which was left intact by Fletcher, completely enclosed by a palisade running from the salient of the lunette parallel with its flanks to the sea to the east and west - presumably to demarcate the extent of the defensible land.

Part of the breastwork of Johnson's crownwork was subsequently used as the revetment to a building platform for married soldiers' quarters built in 1902. The area around the married quarters was desingated for occupation by a platoon of infantry during World War Two, and a line of zig-zag trenches was constructed between here and a lunette, used as a defence post to serve as an infantry strong post (21). However, most of this feature was destroyed during the construction of the oil storage depot to the north in the Second World War and the site is partly covered with thick scrub.

--------------------------------
Site history:
1: 1927. DRAKE, S/IAM
3: 1987. WESTON, SM/IAM
4: 1988. HARTGROVES, S/CAU
5: 1988. HARTGROVES, S/CAU
--------------------------------

Field Investigator's Comments, OS/ Roberts, JM, 1980 (Survey). SCO29739.

<1> Hals, W, 1740, The Compleat History of Cornwall, 129 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3429.

<2> Lilly, C, 1715, An Exact Plan of Pendennis Fort (Bibliographic reference). SCO3870.

<3> Norden, J, 1728, Speculi Britanniae Pars (Bibliographic reference). SCO4001.

<4> Polwhele, R, 1803, History of Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO4140.

<5> Lysons, D & S, 1814, Magna Britannia, VOL III, CORNWALL, 989, 99, 104 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3885.

<6> Hitchins, F & Drew, S (Eds), 1824, The History of Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO3595.

<7> TREGONNING HOOPER, 1827, UNKNOWN TITLE, VOL I, NO 6, 7-9 (Unedited Source). SCO5851.

<8> Thomas, R, 1827, History and Description of the Town and Harbour of Falmouth, 110-113 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4698.

<9> Thomas, R, 1851, Letters to the West Briton (Article in newspaper). SCO4699.

<10> Brine, F, 1855, Shilling Trip to Falmouth (Bibliographic reference). SCO2906.

<11> Pasfield Oliver, S, 1875, Pendennis and St Mawes (Bibliographic reference). SCO4086.

<12> Beckett, R, 1961, Tercenteniary of Falmouth (Bibliographic reference). SCO2815.

<13> Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, 1963, Pendennis and St Mawes Castle (Unedited Source). SCO7885.

<14> Carew, R, 1969, The Survey of Cornwall, 1602 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3044.

<15> Institute Of Cornish Studies, 1987, Place-Names Index (Bibliographic reference). SCO3621.

<16> Padel, OJ, 1985, Cornish Place-Name Elements, 85, 177-180 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4064.

<17> Hartgroves, S & Sharpe, A & Roberts, C, 1985, Pendennis Castle and the Headland, Falmouth (Report). SCO3459.

<18> Morley, B, 1988, The Castles of Pendennis and St Mawes (Bibliographic reference). SCO3957.

<19> Sharpe, A, 1989, Pendinas Castle (Report). SCO4367.

<20> Walker, R, 1989, Pendennis Castle Resistivity Survey 1989 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5007.

<21> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), T2.2 (Report). SCO1563.

<22> National Monument Record, Civil War Redoubt (Photograph). SCO31391.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Related records

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.