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Summary

A platform, known as the Long Platform, runs along the north-eastern edge of the area called Pendennis
Point. It is first shown on a drawing by Norden dating to 1600 but probably dates to the Henrician works of the 1540s.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded

Monument Type(s):

• PLATFORM (16th Century to Unknown - 1540 AD)

Full description

A platform, known as the Long Platform, runs along the north-eastern edge of the area called Pendennis
Point. It is first shown on a drawing by Norden dating to 1600 but probably dates to the Henrician works of the 1540s. It is depicted as a high wall with a watch tower at its north end. Two guns are mounted on cavalier platforms at each end, the northernmost en barbette and one in an embrasure. Between these are two other guns mounted on the terreplein.

Called the 'Blockhouse Long Platform' on a survey of 1715. The survey depicts the curtain in plan pierced by 12 embrasures, the whole rampart being set back from the low cliff edge by about 10ft. The survey records the armament as ten demi-culverins and three whole culverins. The platform is shown on Ordnance plans of 1725 clearly connected to the blockhouse. The Buck brothers represent the work in 1734 as a revetted barbette battery, mounting 12 guns. The Ordnance plan of 1752 shows a battery with eight steeply splayed embrasures behind a deep parapet labelled "nine I8-pdrs mounted." The difference between the numbers of embrasures and guns in all of these records might suggest that guns were also mounted on the roof of
the blockhouse, which may have been considered an integral part of the Blockhouse Long Platform.

By 1811 the work is shown dotted on plan - annotation normally used to depict a ruin, and in 1821 it is shown diagramatically and labelled "remains of an old entrenchment."

A proposal made in 1829 by the Commanding Engineer for a new sea battery occupying the Point shows the Blockhouse Long Platform in section as a gently sloping flat area. It is 83 ft 4 in deep and rises 12 ft from front to back. No parapet is shown. A survey of the land leased to old soldiers and castle permanent
staff made in 1847 indicates that the Blockhouse Long Platform was divided into two separate plots, separated by a narrow band, almost certainly the old powder road leading from Crab Quay to the Blockhouse which had been used to transport powder from the packets up to 1826. The two plots were leased to the Barrack Master and the Master Gunner free of charge and were almost certainly cultivated for food by these men and their families.

A very detailed survey made for a progress report on Point Battery, under construction in January 1849, shows a parapet at the cliff edge 9 ft wide and 5 ft high. This parapet is once again shown on an Ordnance contour plan of 1846 when it is labelled' old entrenchment'.

No mention is made of the site's previous function on the 1866 Ordnance Survey, although the area is traversed by a rifle range and a target shelter and butts had been constructed at the south end for training Riflemen Volunteers.

An archaeological investigation conducted on the platform during 1996-7 confirmed the sequence proposed by the documentation indicating that the stone gun platform had been removed immediately prior to the cultivation of the site. Also in one area a shallow depression with an earthen bank to its seaward faces was identified. This may well be a field fortification built around the position of a 60-pdr
or 75mm gun thought to have been mounted near the Blockhouse during World War Two (1).

<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), site V2.3 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth

Related records

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