Details

The monument includes the remains of a late-18th century battery, superseded
by and incorporated within a mid-19th century fort and battery with associated
glacis. The monument is situated at the eastern end of a spur which lies
between the villages of Kingsand and Cawsand overlooking Cawsand Bay on the
Cornish side of the coastal approach to Plymouth.
Historical sources provide details of the battery of 1779 and the construction
of the fort and battery in 1860 following a recommendation of 1858 that it
should be constructed to defend against ships entering the bay to enfilade the
shore. An extant boundary stone on the north east side of the fort, one of a
number which indicated the extent of the War Department property, reads W-D
1867 and has been taken as indicating that the fort was completed in that year
although parliamentary reports record it as complete in 1863. It was abandoned
as a military installation in 1926 following which it has been used for
private residences in between periods of dereliction.
A pair of granite sett gun platforms located just to the east of the highest
ground within the fort provide the only visible remains of the battery of
1779, although below ground remains will survive.
The fort of 1860 includes a substantial loopholed curtain wall of monumental
limestone ashlar. This mostly survives for its entire circuit defining an area
near triangular in shape. Entry was gained by way of two entrances, one
through the north wall and one through the south wall. The main entrance way
to the fort on its north west landward face was approached by a curving
trackway. Much of this entrance way has been destroyed and then rebuilt in the
1990s. This wall was defended by a pair of musketry canopiers at the northern
corner, a further two along the sea face, and another at the south corner. The
landward face had the additional protection of a loopholed bastion,
demi-bastion, and a dry moat which is now infilled over much of its length.
Inside the fort are seven gun positions on the seaward face, most retaining
elements of their racer rails and two retaining central pivots of reused
cannon. These guns would have fired en-barbette over the parapet wall in front
of them and over the outer curtain wall. Lying within the array of gun
positions is a partly sunken earth covered expense magazine with surviving
alcoves and shelving; it has a new stairway built over it. A further expense
magazine lies just to the south of the seaward gun positions; this may have
served gun positions to the south east which have now been removed. It is now
used as a workshop. The main underground magazine is located in the centre of
the fort under a traverse and cavalier. The major element of this magazine is
the shell store which is surrounded by a lamp passage with splayed lamp
windows which retain some of their original fittings and thickened glass
fragments. The magazine also retains other original features such as timber
battens and door surrounds. A passage way, totally covered by the traverse,
gave access to the magazine and connects the inner walkways on both the north
and south sides of the fort. The magazine is also accessed via a spiral
stairway from the cavalier, the entrance being covered by an iron trapdoor.
The main magazine served, by way of a hoist, those gun positions mounted on
the cavalier. Still surviving are many elements of the hoist which at its
upper level feeds into a recess in a purpose built part sunken stone built
expense magazine which retains some wooden fragments of its original door
frame. Mounted on top of the cavalier are four granite gun platforms, revetted
with brick walling, facing the landward side of the fort and thus placed to
cover the glacis and hillside to the west. The guns fired through limestone
ashlar embrasures beyond which splays have been cut in the earthen rampart.
The southern curtain wall of the fort has incorporated on its inner face a row
of former barracks, which are Listed Grade II, and have been converted into
dwellings as has the demi-bastion and caponier on the south west corner. An
original entrance way through the barracks in the southern curtain wall
survives as does the exterior ramp which served it. The fort has associated
land within the original War Department boundary marked by boundary stones,
one of which survives at the northern corner of the glacis whilst another
dated 1867 lies on the north east corner of the fort. The land exterior to the
fort itself comprises a glacis and a long curving approach road leading from
the original military road to the entrance at the north.
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling, these are; the row of
barracks (now converted to housing, Nos 1-12) lying against the inner face of
the south west curtain wall, all modern structures and buildings built after
1926 including all private dwelling houses, second expense magazine, used as a
workshop, all garages, modern fencing, gates, gateposts and stiles, builders'
waste dumps, soil dumps, benches and fittings, modern surfacings of paths,
roads and hardstanding areas, and the retaining wall at the south west
exterior of the dry moat; although the ground beneath all these features is
included except that below the four most westerly garages. Totally excluded
from the scheduling are the four most westerly garages lying east-west,
opposite the northern exterior curtain wall of the fort. Also totally excluded
is a septic tank and the ground beneath it located behind the row of
east-west garages in the area of the glacis.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The strategic position of Plymouth, vital to the defence of the South West and
the Channel Coast and supporting a major naval dockyard, has led to the
development of extensive and complex systems of fortification. Many of these
systems owed their design and construction to periods of political unrest
within Europe, or to specific threats of invasion, both real or imagined.
Their development can also be seen as a response to the sometimes rapidly
changing nature of warfare. Plymouth is one of four locations in England where
there has been continuity of fortification over at least five centuries and,
of these, it has the greatest concentration of 18th and 19th century forts and
batteries.

The mid-19th century fort at Cawsand, which was part of the network of
defences on the western approaches to Plymouth harbour and docks, survives as
a near complete example of a Palmerstonian fort. It just predates the
recommendations of The Royal Commission of 1860 which engendered the
construction of some 70 forts and batteries in response to the strengthening
of the French navy. The available historical documentation provides a wealth
of detail and War Department reports of the late-19th century give precise
details of the cost of construction of the fort and its subsequent armaments
over the period from 1867 to 1903. The fort retains a near complete circuit of
original walling including a bastion and demi-bastion on its landward side as
well as a glacis. Many features of its interior are particularly well
preserved including the main magazine and many of its raised gun platforms.
The fort figures as an element within the defence of one of the nation's most
important naval ports and dockyards during a period in which an invasion by
the French was thought to have been possible.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Dixon, M, The Existing and Proposed Defences of Plymouth, (1780)
Pye, A, Woodward, F, The Historic Defences of Plymouth, (1996), 72-3
Pye, A, Woodward, F, The Historic Defences of Plymouth, (1996), 73-5
Sheppard, P A, Cawsand Fort Survey, (1979)

Source: Historic England