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Summary

The outer defences of Pendennis Castle built in the 17th century were almost completely demolished between 1788 and 1793.

Protected Status

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

Other References/Statuses

• Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey: 5560

Monument Type(s):

• HORNWORK (17th Century to Unknown - 1627 AD)

Full description

Seventeenth century outer defences of Pendennis Castle. Probably constructed on the line of the earlier 16th century Henrician Bastioned Traverse which itself may have made use of an existing prehistoric defensive ditch (1).

In 1627 a hornwork designed by the military engineer Bernard Johnson was completed. A late C17 plan shows the completed arrangement.

Lilly's survey of 1715 shows the works reasonably accurately in plan and section. The hornwork and flanking traverses are substantial, their section being not much less than that of the Elizabethan rampart. A drawbridge is shown where Castle Road crosses the hornwork west traverse.

The hornworks were almost completely demolished under the engineer Liutenant Richard Fletcher between 1788 and 1793 to level the glacis.

In 1804 the Commanding Royal Engineer wrote to the Inspector General Lieutenant General Morse at Plymouth reporting in the general state of the works in the Western District. He describes the Hornworks thus: "…the ground of the old Horn Work, of the land front, has been cut away so as to lay that approach open to the front, and flank, fire of the body of the place".

A plan of 1821 indicates that sections of ditch below the 'Exercising Ground for the troops' were all that remained of the Hornwork and traverse. This arrangement is echoed by the first contour plan of the headland dated 1850 where the remains are described as 'Old Intrenchment' and 'Ditch'. On the east side of the headland a flanking demi-bastion, where the ditch arrives at the sea and a bridge are recorded thereon. The 1866 Ordnance Survey indicates a boundary fence or wall, probably the dockyard boundary constructed down the floor of the ditch, effectively bisecting it lengthways.

In 1846 the Commanding Royal Engineer describes the line of the outworks as only partially traceable.

The ditch adjacent to the demi-bastion at the western end of the surviving east traverse may have provided access for miners excavating the Falmouth tank sewer in 1925 some twelve metres below. At about this time maps begin to show the ditch terminating short of the communitor chamber suggesting that it may have been filled with spoil from the excavation. Despite this the East Traverse remains the best surviving remnant of the Pendennis hornwork.

The table-land continued to be used for training engineers and artillerymen and as a military camp through the two world wars. In 1914 companies of the regular army and militia gathered at Pendennis Camp prior to departure for the Western Front and in 1940, 10000 officers and other ranks from the British Expeditionary Force landed at Falmouth, many being accommodated at the Hornworks.

In June 1944 the American Army joined the British and Commonwealth allies as part of the D-Day invasion force and by the end of the month the Hornworks were covered by hutted encampments, vehicles and equipment. No photography, aerial or narrative, has been found to establish the layout of the Hornworks Camp, however the 'ghosts' on many aerial photographs of the area taken after World War Two suggest ranks of huts or tents seperated by roads.

Despite the clearance of the site, a few temporary buildings survived to be recorded by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit prior to their removal in the early 1990s. These were a communications hut, quonset hut and nissen huts.

During the 1980s the gentle downhill slope from the land front of Pendennis Castle to the redoubt was 'cut and filled' to level the area for a car and coach park, effectively destroying some archaeology and burying the remainder (2).

<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth, 200-202 (Unassigned). SCO27865.

<2> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), site T2.1 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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