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Summary

The Ravelin, the longest uninterrupted stretch of Ivy's curtain, looks as though it may have been designed as a battery to command both the harbour mouth and Falmouth Bay. Ivy complained that he 'only received four pieces of Ordnance for the defence of the front of the fort which requires 12 at least'.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded

Monument Type(s):

• RAVELIN (16th Century - 1540 AD to 1600 AD)

Full description

The Ravelin, the longest uninterrupted stretch of Ivy's curtain, looks as though it may have been designed as a battery to command both the harbour mouth and Falmouth Bay. Ivy complained that he 'only received four pieces of Ordnance for the defence of the front of the fort which requires 12 at least'. The ravelin is the only feature of a length suitable to mount such a battery.

Norden's plan of 1600 depicts a plain parapet with terreplain behind, reduced where it skirts the ditch of the castle. The ravelin may well be the 'Saulting Platform' described by Lilly in his survey of 1715. Lilly recorded that there were mounted two demi-culverins, five sakers, one saker culverin, two 12-pdrs and one 6-pdr here. In Lilly's survey it is drawn much as Norden showed it except for the terreplein which is reduced to a firing step in places.

The Buck brothers engraving of 1734 shows a flagstaff in the salient. An unattributed plan of 1762 shows the east face of the ravelin pierced by two externally slpayed embrasures.

By plans of 1793 a further two embrasures had appeared in the west face of the ravelin. This arrangement remained through the surveys of 1811, 1821 and 1828. On the Ordnance contour plan of the late 1840s the ravelin is renamed 'salient No 5'.

In 1846 the Commanding Engineer proposed that the sea front of the castle be armed with 56-pdrs on dwarf traversing platforms. The work was ordered by the Board of Ordnance in 1848 and by November of that year it was reported that 'the three slaients of the sea front of Pendennis Castle are ready to receive the armament intended for them'. A contour survey in 1848 recorded the positions of three centre pivot mountings for guns in the salient of Bell Bastion, the ravelin and Pigs Pound Bastion. The three new emplacements were subsequently armed with 32-pdr guns on cast-iron traversing carriages. The new emplacement is clearly shown on the Ordnance Survey plan of 1866 as are the pairs of flanking embrasures which are recorded as having stone paved platforms.

Between 1854 and 1907 and probably around 1895, a battery of three guns on muzzle pivoted traversing carriages was built against the west face of the ravelin at its junction with the south face of Pigs Pound Bastion. The construction involved the replacement of the shillet revetment with a concrete parapet with shell and cartridge lockers. The battery originally had drop-down seats where the gun detachment could
take a rest from the heavy work. Subsequently and probably around 1910, an emplacement for a traversing gun on Vavasseur carriage was constructed over the westernmost emplacement. The Ordnance Survey map of 1910 also shows an emplacement for a centre pivot gun on traversing carriage behind this. The curious clip rail on the Vavasseur emplacement identified the type of carriage one would have expected to find here. The Vavasseur carriage relied upon a very steep slide to take up the recoil of the gun but the huge forces involved tended to make early models jump off their racers, hence the rail was designed with a lip which the carriage would hook underneath to prevent this. A photograph taken of the castle in the 1930s by His Majesty's Office of Works shows the Vavasseur carriage and slide mounting a breech-loading gun displaced below the chemise. This unusual gun and carriage are more often found aboard ships and it
may be that Pendennis functioned during the late 19th century as a training establishment for Royal Marines just like Fort Cumberland at Portsmouth with similar batteries. Alternatively this may be a 5 in BL gun like the ones mounted at St Mawes Grand Sea Battery in 1891 suggesting an earlier date for Practice Battery. The centre pivot emplacement could have mounted many types of gun and carriage but might possibly have been one of the salient emplacements of 1847 relocated.

The next significant alterations to the ravelin were probably made in 1895 when the 6 in hydropneumatic batteries were built. This work seems to have involved the blocking of the flanking embrasures except for the easternmost which was converted into a depression range finder cell. The subsequent development of the Ravelin can be deduced from changes to the Ordnance Surveys, scant documents and educated
guesswork. The control of fire for two 6 in hydropneumatic batteries would have to be directed by a Commander, probably assisted by an Officer in Charge of Submarine Mines. The most likely location for the Battery Command Post seems to be the ruined cell buried in the east flank of the Ravelin close to the depression range finder cell geographically positioned between One Gun Battery and Half Moon Battery.

The addition of 6 in guns at St Anthony and two batteries of 6-pdr QF guns at Middle Point and St Mawes made to the Falmouth Coast Fortress in 1897 and 1902 increased the complexity of the Fire Command and by 1906 a Fire Command Post had been built on top of the war shelter serving One Gun Battery. The earlier Battery Command Post soon fell into disrepair, its function having been largely subsumed by the Fire Command Post, however, a cell for the Battery Commander of Half Moon Battery was constructed in the Ravelin. The two were able to talk to each other via a speaking tube.

Between 1907 and 1910 and probably during the alterations to Half Moon Battery in 1909, a further two position finder cells were added to the ramparts for fire direction. One of these was constructed with a bomb proof telephone exchange in the east face of the ravelin and the other on the roof of the war shelter for One Gun Battery.

By 1910 a cell for the electric light director had been constructed adjacent to the battery commander's cell in the salient angle. This replaced the directing cell at lower level on the salient of the counterscarp.

Prior to the introduction of the telephone exchange, all military lines had to go through the civil exchange in Clare Terrace, Falmouth. The Falmouth Defence Scheme revised to 1911 descibes the new facility as a 25 line exchange, manned by one Royal Engineer and six Royal Engineer telephonists. During the First World War No 1 Electric Light (Falmouth) Company manned the defence lights and telephonic communications at Pendennis. An entry in the Fort Record Book for the Fire Command dated December 1939 refers to "work in hand including telephone exchange." This almost certainly means that the equipment was being updated for in 1944, the exchange is once again referred to, "serving the new Battery Observation Post etc", and a schematic in the Fort Record Book indicates the exchange in question to be the one built between 1907 and 1910 in the parapet of the ravelin. By 1939 a Director No 17 had been constructed in an embrasure of the practice battery and on completion of the new Battery Observation Post for Half Moon, was connected to it by Magslip transmission. The Director No 17 had no personnel protection and was almost certainly constructed primarily for practice, although it may have doubled as an emergency position in war time.

On 16 October 1941 a new Battery Observation Post was completed and manned for duty. The building replaced the Battery Command Post and electric light directing cell in the salient of the Ravelin. During the construction, the position finder cell adjacent to the old Fire Command Post was used as the Battery Commander's Cell.

By 1947 an anti-aircraft radar set No 3 and a new coast defence radar set were emplaced on Practice Battery behind Director No 17 and a hut was built behind to house the radar screen observers. A further two radar vans may have been parked in the salient of south bastion by 1949 and by 1955 a complex of buildings and radar sites had grown up behind practice battery, including one long radar hut for the
observers. All surface trace of the structures was obliterated between 1957 and 1964 by the Ministry of Works (1).

<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), Site N1 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth

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