Details

The monument includes the remains of a medieval quay, now disused but built
originally to serve the adjacent settlement at Old Town, the seat of medieval
secular authority on the Isles of Scilly, situated on the southern coast of
the island of St Mary's. The monument is divided into two separate constraint
areas.
The quay survives with two piers forming a partial enclosure of the north east
corner of Old Town Bay. Each pier survives as an unmortared structure of
water-worn granite boulders. The much larger southern pier combines a landing
platform and breakwater, extending into the bay from the north east shore and
angled at its tip. The slighter northern pier forms a slender breakwater
extending SSW from the bay's north shore, leaving a gap approximately 45m wide
between the ends of the two piers.
The southern pier extends 50m WSW from the bay's upper shore, tapering in
width from 22m at its landward end to 15m at its seaward edge, where it turns
to give an 18m long, slender, north westward projection. It has a core of
densely packed boulders, faced along both sides and rising to 3m high by its
seaward tip. Its original upper surface has been disrupted by wave action. An
earlier facing wall is visible within the pier's core rubble, indicating at
least two phases of construction. The outer part of the pier belongs to the
earlier phase, built with a core of large boulders faced by courses of
vertically-set slabs, each generally 0.5m-0.75m high. The early phase inner
facing, now embedded within the pier, shows a former width of approximately
15m at the landward end. In the later phase, the pier was substantially
thickened to its present width by adding a core of smaller boulders against
the earlier inner facing. This later core is faced by roughly coursed boulders
and some dressed slabs, generally under 0.5m across, with remnants of iron
cramps securing them in place.
The slighter northern pier extends 24m SSW from the shingle upper shore, with
a packed boulder core faced along the ESE by roughly coursed slabs, mostly
laid end-on to the face and rising to 0.75m high. The WNW side is more
disrupted by wave action but traces of a lower course of facing slabs give a
width of 4m on the north, tapering over the southern 10m to 1m wide at the
tip. A relatively recent attempt to stabilise the ESE facing of this pier has
left a thin mortar capping over parts of the facing's upper slabs.
The construction and fortunes of this quay are intimately bound with the
development of the settlement at Old Town which it served. By the mid-12th
century, a parish church had been established to the west of Old Town Bay and
c.AD 1150 the presence of the church and settlement attracted a Viking raid
recorded in an Icelandic saga. By the mid-13th century, Ennor Castle had been
built on a knoll close to the north east of the bay, a natural harbour then
called `Porthenor'. The large quay in this scheduling provides the third
surviving element of this settlement's former pre-eminence, reflecting the
point of trade generated, controlled and protected by the neighbouring centre
of authority. The quay is first specifically mentioned in 1554 but by then the
pattern of defences on the islands was changing to serve national strategic
considerations rather than local defence needs, culminating in the late 16th
century in a total shift of defensive focus to the Hugh, the south western
promontory on St Mary's, 1.5km to the west. The island's focus of settlement
and trade followed the defensive shift, migrating to the isthmus linking the
Hugh with the rest of St Mary's and provided with a new quay from 1601. This
left Ennor Castle redundant and its settlement and harbour in decline. By 1652
the new settlement had acquired its present title and dominance as Hughtown,
while Ennor had become `Old Town', its quay depicted on most maps and plans
from 1655 onwards. The decline of Old Town was noted in 1756 by the antiquary
Borlase, describing the neglect of the quay and its anchorage and failing to
include it in his list of usable harbours on Scilly. Borlase described the
quay as a `poor little pier' sheltering `several fishing boats', a function
which it still performed when photographed in the 1880's; by then both piers
of the quay appear in a similar state of deterioration as is visible today.
The small beacon marking the tip of the southern pier is excluded from the
scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The Isles of Scilly, the westernmost of the granite masses of south west
England, contain a remarkable abundance and variety of archaeological remains
from over 4000 years of human activity. The remote physical setting of the
islands, over 40km beyond the mainland in the approaches to the English
Channel, has lent a distinctive character to those remains, producing many
unusual features important for our broader understanding of the social
development of early communities.
Throughout the human occupation there has been a gradual submergence of the
islands' land area, providing a stimulus to change in the environment and its
exploitation. This process has produced evidence for responses to such change
against an independent time-scale, promoting integrated studies of
archaeological, environmental and linguistic aspects of the islands'
settlement.
The islands' archaeological remains demonstrate clearly the gradually
expanding size and range of contacts of their communities. By the post-
medieval period (from AD 1540), the islands occupied a nationally strategic
location, resulting in an important concentration of defensive works
reflecting the development of fortification methods and technology from the
mid 16th to the 20th centuries. An important and unusual range of post-
medieval monuments also reflects the islands' position as a formidable hazard
for the nation's shipping in the western approaches.
The exceptional preservation of the archaeological remains on the islands has
long been recognised, producing an unusually full and detailed body of
documentation, including several recent surveys.

Quays are structures designed to enhance the natural landforms of coastal or
riverside locations by providing sheltered landing places with sufficient
depth of water alongside to accommodate vessels over part of the tidal cycle.
The features and complexity of quays vary enormously depending partly on their
date but also on their situation and exposure, the nature of the underlying
geology and alluvium, and the volume and types of trade they need to handle.
By their nature, quays also tend to occur in proximity to centres of trade and
administrative authority. Usually in locations already sheltered to some
extent by natural features, basic elements of quays may include platforms
built up and out along a part of the coast or riverside that is naturally deep
or artificially dredged, or along an artificial cut forming a small dock on a
riverside or coast. Such features occur among the earliest surviving quays in
England known from larger Roman urban centres, notably London, where they form
the basis for an almost continuous development of quays to the present day.
At least 26 quays are recorded on the Isles of Scilly, twelve of which remain
in use. Of the disused quays, only that in Old Town Bay, St Mary's, is known
to be of medieval date; most of the islands' disused post-medieval quays are
associated with specific aspects of the islands' development and history,
including the kelp-burning industry and a quay serving the former quarantine
station on St Helen's.
Quays display a considerable diversity of form, setting and construction. They
comprise valuable sources of information on patterns of earlier trade,
authority and settlement, and their medieval and later development shows
clearly the relationship between economic forces and technological innovation
in adapting the natural landscape. All medieval quays that are disused and
survive substantially intact as upstanding monuments are nationally important.
Disused post-medieval examples surviving substantially intact and forming
distinctive indicators of pre-19th century trades and activities are also
considered likely to be of national importance.
The Old Quay survives well, retaining clear evidence for its manner of
construction and the later enlargement of the southern pier. The unintensive
post-medieval use of the quay leaves it unusual as an early quay little
encumbered by later and modern modifications. Along with the broadly
contemporary castle and church at Old Town, it forms one of the three
principal and surviving elements of the main secular settlement on Scilly
during the medieval period. Of those, it is the only element which directly
conveys the importance of maritime trade among that settlement's functions.
Its siting adjacent to the medieval focus of settlement and authority on the
islands, and its subsequent decline when that focus later shifted, shows
clearly the stimuli which medieval quays required for their construction and
maintenance. Its decline also demonstrates a major aspect of the impact which
developing national defensive policies in the 16th century had on coastal
settlement and society.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Arlott, J, Island Camera, (1983)
Borlase, W, Observations on Ancient and Present State of the Isles of Scilly, (1756)
Bowley, R L, The Fortunate Islands: A History of the Isles of Scilly, (1968)
Thomas, C, Exploration of a Drowned Landscape, (1986)
Other
Title: 1:2500 Ordnance Survey Map; SV 9110
Source Date: 1980
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Waters, A/CAU, AM 107 for Scilly SMR entry PRN 7549, (1988)

Source: Historic England