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| HER Number: | MCO62378 |
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| Name: | PENDENNIS - C15 postern |
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Summary
A back gate or postern is shown by Norden on his plan of 1600 in which he represents it as an inclined open passage through the parapet leading to a bridge across the ditch.
Protected Status: None recorded
Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded
Monument Type(s):
- POSTERN (16th Century to Unknown - 1558 AD)
Full description
A back gate or postern is shown by Norden on his plan of 1600 in which he represents it as an inclined open passage through the parapet leading to a bridge across the ditch. A plan of 1700 in which alternative proposals for the land outworks were discussed shows a square tambour inside the ramparts enclosing the postern gate. Lilly calls the postern the 'back gate' and recorded two 6-pdrs 'facing the back gate'. He also mentions another two 6-pdrs on 'Back Gate Platform', presumably the south flank of Bell Bastion. The Buck brothers engraving of 1734 shows a small pitched roof over the gate structure (possibly to protect the drawbridge winding mechanism) on the escarp face of the back gate and a fenced bridge over the ditch. This arrangement is echoed in an unsigned plan of 1762.
An Ordnance plan of 1811 indicates that the ditch palisade emerged from the ditch to enclose the counterscarp end of the bridge within a redan shaped wooden tambour - an alteration probably made during the Napoleonic Wars.
The 1866 Ordnance Survey plan clearly shows a drawbridge against the scarp and a wide fixed bridge projecting from the counterscarp. The postern passage appears to have been approached down a flight of wide steps from within the fort (1).
<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), site L3.1 (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 L3.1. |
Associated Finds: none recorded
Associated Events
- ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth
Related records
| 18709 | Part of: PENDENNIS - Post Medieval fort (Monument) |
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