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Summary

Formed during the early 1860s, the 'Pendennis Drive Committee' campaigned to create a headland carriage drive to benefit Falmouth's inhabitants and visitors. The new road was completed in May 1865 by the contractor responsible for the construction of the Falmouth Hotel.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded

Monument Type(s):

• DRIVE (19th Century to Unknown - 1865 AD)

Full description

Formed during the early 1860s, the 'Pendennis Drive Committee' campaigned to create a headland carriage drive to benefit Falmouth's inhabitants and visitors. The new road was completed in May 1865 by the contractor responsible for the construction of the Falmouth Hotel.

Castle Drive more or less follows the Ordnance field boundaries which themselves reflect the sudden change from steep slope to ploughable meadow. It is even possible that Cornish hedges were backfilled on the uphill side to create a level road surface. Whatever the method, the escarpment created by the
construction of Castle Drive in 1863 presented a reasonable obstacle to an enemy attempting to rush the fort from the east. Similarly it would have hindered the garrison from sallying forth on the glacis. It is perhaps for a combination of these reasons and the need for buttressing, that the 1866 Ordnance Survey shows seven flights of steps at 15 ft intervals along the south east face of the drive. The use of the lower part of the East Glacis in 1914 for constructing entrenchments, perhaps as practice for engineers, may
reflect an earlier function of the ground as a training area. This is reinforced by the position of the rifle range firing points nearby. The flights of steps may have been a requirement of the Castle Drive project to allow troops free access to this training area.

A number of small quarries which appear on the 1866 Ordnance survey on both the east and west sides of the headland may relate to the construction of this road. The army cannot have failed to realise how useful such a road would be to the military, almost certainly causing them to support and encourage the project. A small carriage park off the drive overlooking Pendennis Point, has in more recent years, metamorphosed into a car park (1).

<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), site U7 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth

Related records

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