King Charles Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Tresco.
In the historic county of Isles of Scilly.
Modern Authority of Isles of Scilly.
1974 county of Isles of Scilly.
Medieval County of Isles of Scilly.

OS Map Grid Reference: SV88241611
Latitude 49.96354° Longitude -6.34871°

King Charles Castle has been described as a certain Artillery Fort.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

King Charles' Castle is an artillery castle built between 1550 and 1554, situated on the highest point on the west side of Castle Down overlooking New Grimsby Harbour, Tresco. The castle was part of a series of fortifications built on the Isles of Scilly between 1548 and 1554 in response to a threat from the French. After an abortive attempt to construct an artillery castle on St Mary's, whose remains are known as 'Harry's Walls', the emphasis focused on Tresco. King Charles' Castle was built to command the northern entrance to the harbour. The castle is cruciform in plan with the hall and kitchen forming the eastern half, from which the accommodation chambers project to the north and south, and with a semi-hexagonal gun platform extending to the west. The castle was originally of two storeys but the walls now only rise up to 3.4 metres high. A guardroom was attached to the east wall, the main entrance to the castle. The ground-floor gun platform of semi-hexagonal plan originally consisted of 5 gun ports. Despite early prominence, the castle was superseded as the islands' chief stronghold by the building of the Star Castle on St Mary's, 1593-1594. However an earthen artillery defence was added to the north and east of the artillery castle by Royalists during the English Civil War, which on Scilly lasted from 1642-1651. It is a rectangular earthwork with three bastions consisting of a bank up to 2 metres in height externally and an outer ditch 0.4 metres deep on the north and east sides. The south west corner is protected by a steep face of natural rock outcrop. The defence was designed to protect the castle from landward attack. The Royalist's are believed to have blown up part of the castle when they abandoned it in 1651 and much of the stone was used to build a blockhouse, known as Cromwell's Castle, in 1651-2. The castle was partially excavated in 1954, which uncovered pottery, a 16th or 17th century bronze buckle and two coins of Henry VIII and Edward VI. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1013667, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 15411
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1328850
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 303391.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 7294.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- English Heritage
  Historic Cornwall
Books
- Bowden, Mark and Brodie, Allan, 2011, Defending Scilly (London: English Heritage)
  Campbell, Adele (ed), 2004, Heritage Unlocked; Guide to free sites in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (London: English Heritage) p. 76-7
  Duffy, Michael, 1999, 'Coastal Defences and Garrisons 1480-1914' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 158-60
  Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 17
  Saunders, Andrew, 1997, Channel Defences (London; Batsford/English Heritage) p. 120
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 207
  Saunders, Andrew, 1989, Fortress Britain (Beaufort Publishing Ltd) p. 27
  Spreadbury, I. D., 1984, Castles in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Redruth)
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1982, The history of the King's Works Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) (London) p. 587-93
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 248
  Pevsner, Nikolaus (revised by Enid Radcliffe), 1970, Buildings of England: Cornwall (Harmondsworth) p. 211
Periodical Articles
- Bowden, Mark and Brodie, Allan, 2011, 'Defending Scilly' Research News No. 16 p. 8-11 online copy
  Brodie, A., 2010, 'The Tudor Defences of Scilly' English Heritage Historical Review Vol. 5 p. 24-43
  Miles, T.J. and Saunders, A.D., 1971, 'King Charles's Castle, Tresco, Scilly' Post-Medieval Archaeology Vol. 4 p. 1-30
Guidebooks
- O'Neil, B.H.St.J., 1950, Ancient Monuments of the Isles of Scilly (HMSO) p. 17-18
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- SP16/368, No. 110 (Survey of 1637) The National Archives reference
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Bowden, Mark, 2011, Isles of Scilly: Military Defences, 1540-1951: Earthworks and Minor Sites (English Heritage Research Department Report series 56-2011) online copy

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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.
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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.

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.

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*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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