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| HER Number: | MCO62326 |
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| Name: | PENDENNIS - C18 cavaliers |
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Summary
The curtain was improved in 1796 during the Revolutionary war with France when four cavaliers or barbettes were constructed along the land front
Protected Status: None recorded
Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded
Monument Type(s):
- BASTION (18th Century to Unknown - 1796 AD)
Full description
The curtain was improved in 1796 during the Revolutionary war with France when four cavaliers or barbettes were constructed along the land front. The designer of the cavaliers was a young Royal Engineer who records the event along with the renewal of the palisade in the ditch, in a personal journal. A letter between the Commanding Engineer to the Inspector General of Fortifications in 1804 describes "the barbette (No 1) was lately constructed to plunge into that field (Hospital Field), and to command the approach".
The cavaliers are shown in an Ordnance Survey plan of 1811, which diagramatically suggests that each was designed for two field guns. A plan accompanying the returns of the Ordnance Storekeeper dated 1821 depicts the cavaliers with parapets, each pierced by two embrasures. The Ordnance contour survey of 1848 suggests the embrasures had been blocked in the intervening period making the cavaliers barbette batteries. The cavaliers also appear to be connected by a firing step or path running behind the parapet, presumably at the same level as the cavaliers' terreplein, necessitating a raised parapet. By the time of the detailed survey of 1866, small buildings had begun to gather at the cavalier bases.Tucked into the re-entrant anlges are a soldiers' urinal and a fowl shed.
In 1902 the cavaliers were cut into, making them unusuable and the soldier's urinals demolished to make room for a new cookhouse and baths for the company of Royal Artillery, to support the new Royal Artillery barracks.
The physical evidence today suggets that the revetment supporting the banquette linking the two batteries was then ectended to maintain the continuity of the banquette (1).
<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), site E1.2 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.
Sources / Further Reading
| [1] | SCO1563 - Cornwall Event Report: Linzey, R. 2000. Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000). site E1.2. |
Associated Finds: none recorded
Associated Events
- ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth
Related records
| 18709 | Part of: PENDENNIS - Post Medieval fort (Monument) |
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