Plymouth Blockhouse and Harbour Chain (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Plymouth.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Plymouth; City of.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SX483539
Latitude 50.36626° Longitude -4.13361°

Plymouth Blockhouse and Harbour Chain has been described as a certain Chain Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

There was a blockhouse on the harbour chain opposite the castle, according to Leland. (PastScape ref. King 1983)

"On the south-west side of the entrance is a blockhouse, and next to it on a rocky hill is a strong square castle castle with a large round tower at each corner. It does not appear to be very old." (Chandler)

The mouth of the gulph wherin the shippes of Plymmouth lyith is waullid on eche side and chainid over in tyme of necessite. On the south west side of this mouth is a blok house: and on a rokky hille hard by it is a strong castel quadrate having a eche corner a great rounde tower. It semith to be no very old peace of worke. (Toulmin Smith)

Comments

The castle is Quadrant castle. This blockhouse was clearly the tower with the chain works. PastScape place this at SX485533 (Mount Battern Point). However, it seems clear that the Blockhouse with the chain works was adjacent to (not opposite) Castle Quadrant. The wharf enclosed by the chain was probably only Sutton Harbour with the chain crossing to Coxside, where West Pier and the marine lock are now, rather than Mount Batten Point. This would make the protected area very much smaller than that seemingly imagined by King and, given the walls mentioned by Leland may represent a precursor to the West Pier the chain could have been little more than 50m in length rather than the 400m suggested by the PastScape record. This is, in fact, clearly shown on the chart of 1540.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1392596.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk and CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 120
  Lysons, D. and S., 1822, Magna Britannia Vol. 6 Devon p. 398-9 online transcription
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Plymouth Map of c. 1540 online copy online copy
  B.M. Harleian MS. 1326 (Survey of 1623) British Library collection information
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 110
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 214 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

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