Brownsea Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Branksea; Poole; Brensey

In the civil parish of Studland.
In the historic county of Dorset.
Modern Authority of Dorset.
1974 county of Dorset.
Medieval County of Dorset.

OS Map Grid Reference: SZ03058764
Latitude 50.68834° Longitude -1.95825°

Brownsea Castle has been described as a certain Artillery Fort.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Brownsea Castle, now a country house, was rebuilt on the site of a small Henrician coastal artillery fort or blockhouse, built between 1545-47 by Henry VIII as part of his network of coastal defences to protect against French and Spanish invasion. The fort was refortified during the Civil War by the Parliamentarians and was then bought and converted into a country house in 1726. In the mid-19th century the house was remodelled and a new Tudor style facade, gatehouse and pier built. This was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1897. Any remains of the original castle are now in the basement of the house, though sections of the later house reflect its original structure. Although nothing remains on the surface of the original Henrician blockhouse, its physical aspect can be interpreted from a 1597 map of Poole Harbour. It consisted of a square single-storey stone building surrounded on three sides by a moat with a hexagonal gun platform on the seaward side which was enclosed by a low wall. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1120277
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 457504.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6 019 003.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- National Trust
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
Books
- Harrington, Peter, 2007, The Castles of Henry VIII (Oxford: Osprey) p. 8, 33, 56, 57
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 14
  Pomeroy, Colin, 1998, Discover Dorset Castles and Forts (Dovecote Press) p. 50-2
  Saunders, Andrew, 1997, Channel Defences (London; Batsford/English Heritage) p. 49, 50, 118
  Wilton, P., 1995, Castles of Dorset (Wimborne)
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 69 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 126
  Morley, B.M., 1976, Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defence (London) p. 32-3
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1975, The history of the King's Works Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) p. 465-72
  Pevsner, N. and Newman J., 1972, Buildings of England: Dorset (London) p. 117-8
  RCHME, 1970, An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset Vol. 2: south-east (HMSO) p. 279-81 no. 3 (plan) plates 158-60 online transcription
  Short, 1963, A Short History of Brownsea Island (National Trust)
  O'Neil, B.H.St.J., 1960, Castles and Cannon: A Study of Early Artillery Fortifications in England (Oxford: Claredon Press) p. 53 plate 14
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  van Raalte, 1906, Brownsea Island (London) p. 19-68 (history)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 239-40 online copy
  Hutchins, J., 1861-73 (3edn), History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset (Blandford) Vol. 1 p. 648-51
  Sydenham, 1839, History Town and Country of Poole (Poole) p. 387-94
Periodical Articles
- Lutyens, 1921, Country Life Vol. 49 p. 430-6 (not very helpful)
  van Raalte, C., 1905, 'Brownsea Island' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Vol. 26 p. 187-94 (history only) online copy
Guidebooks
- Brownsea Island Guide Book (National Trust)
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- SP12/163/41 (Survey of 1583) The National Archives reference
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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