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

Barracks for eight officers and 136 men were constructed in 1779 between the existing gunners' barracks and the north east curtain, on the site of the old Governor's stables, to house the militia force which had been embodied in response to unease prompted by the American declaration of independence in 1778.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded

Monument Type(s):

• BARRACKS (18th Century to Unknown - 1779 AD)

Full description

Barracks for eight officers and 136 men were constructed in 1779 between the existing gunners' barracks and the north east curtain, on the site of the old Governor's stables, to house the militia force which had been embodied in response to unease prompted by the American declaration of independence in 1778.

A return of barracks from 1846 records that the building had stone walls with weatherboarding. Ordnance plans of 1848 and a late C19 photo, copuled with repair schedules, help to reconstruct what the building would have looked like between the 1830s and 1850s.

The barrack was on two storeys with the lower storey built below the level of the parade, lit by a wide 'airy'. It was covered with a slate hipped roof behind a parapet with three chimney stacks at equal intervals along the ridge. It was divided by cross walls into four distinct zones comprising a pair of independently accessible two storey barracksw ith four rooms on each storey, sandwiched by eight officers' rooms, four to the north and four to the south, with adjacent servants' rooms, one for each officer. Each block was reached by a bridge across the area or via the area entered by external stairs. To prevent men falling into the area, it was surrounded by a 'reeling', a stout oak barrier. Each room was lit by two double hung vertical sliding sashes with window seats in the reveals. Officer's rooms were well appointed, with cupboards for storage, brass hat and cloak pins, a bed, a table and a chair. They were painted a buff colour with skirting and chair rail painted in with the wall. The rooms were heated by fireplaces with iron grates and Purbeck hearth stones. Off each was a servants' room probably without a window with a small fireplace and a bed. In the area outside the officers' ranges were dedicated privies. For much of the life of the barracks, officers cooked in their rooms, there being no separate mess available.

The soldiers' rooms were a little more crowded: each accommodated eight or nine men, two to a bed. Often married soldiers wives lived in the barracks, their beds alongside those of the other soldiers, screened by hanging blankets. There was a women's privy for use of soldiers' wives to the rear of the barracks. The wall were finished with limewashed plaster, the only fixtures being window seats, peg rails and accoutrement shelves set between the chimneybreast and the walls. On the back of the door in each room was a towel roll for the use of the occupants. The soldiers cooked in their barrack rooms, each of which was equipped with a coal fired range, the coal being kept in sheds in the area.

In 1846 it was reported that the canteen, establishment for enrolled pensioners, and a dispensary or surgery for the civil practicioners who attended the troops had been placed in the old barracks, reducing its capacity to five officers and 90 men. The Board put forward the solution of 'converting four officers quarters and four officers servants rooms at Pendennis Castle (in the barracks of 1776) into barrack accommodation for 40 men and placing the officers in Castle House' and allowed for 'fitting up and fixing cast iron shelves, racks, pins and wrought iron musket bands in each of the rooms agreeable to the regulation pattern, - cutting out and making good the walls (of presumably the servants rooms) and three coat paitning the shelves, pin rail etc'. The additional quarters were ready for occupation in 1847, returned for one officer and 130 men.

The accommodation table on the Odnance Survey of 1866, records that all the barrack accommodation was devoted to Royal Artillerymen and was occupied at that time by one field officer, eight officers, one staff sergeant, 131 NCOs and privates, no married soldiers and there were 32 soldiers in the hospital.

In 1902 the building was described as 'married soldiers quarters'. The Royal Artllery barracks and new married quarters, built below the Hornwork, both completed by 1902, made the old barracks redundant. The building appears on Ordnance Surveys made in 1907 and 1910 and it was almost certainly used as barracks during World War One.

A photograph taken after the Second World War shows nissen huts constructed on the basement storey, the top one appearing to have been removed. These served as a soldiers' canteen and mess. The last remnant of the barracks, an 8300 gallon water tank, originally in the area but presumably deliberately buried during the demolition for continued use, is shown on plans of 1930 and presumably survives to this day (1).

<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), Site E5 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth

Related records

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