Helston Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Helston.
In the historic county of Cornwall.
Modern Authority of Cornwall.
1974 county of Cornwall.
Medieval County of Cornwall.

OS Map Grid Reference: SW65652739
Latitude 50.10025° Longitude -5.27799°

Helston Castle has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The site of Helston Castle, probably a fortified manor house, is now occupied by the Bowling Green. It was in use in the late C12 but is otherwise unrecorded (Henderson). The castle was erected by Edmund Earl of Cornwall (1272-1300) and in 1478 is described by William of Worcester as being in ruins. Leland also saw traces of the castle, and the traditional site as marked on the OS 25" is probably accurate and is the obvious one for a medieval structure (Toy). The castle may have been more a defensive structure than a manorial one since the traditional site commands the valley, the river approach and the river crossing, and Toy mentions that there was a bridge across the Cober at St Johns in medieval times. No trace of the castle remains (Field Investigators Comments F1 NVQ 11-JAN-72). (PastScape)

Comments

Helston was a significant borough, one of the five Stannary Towns. It had a jail (presumably the castle) and was a place where rents were collected (including rents in the form of beer) so a safehouse for these rents and taxes would have been needed. The record of use in the C12 by Henderson implies an earlier, presumably timber, castle in the town rebuilt in stone in the late C13. The comment by NVQ (presumably Norman V Quinnell) about this being a defensive structure rather than 'manorial' may be a response to Henderson description of the site as a 'fortified manor house'. More of an administrative centre than a domestic house, particularly if it was used as a jail, so not a fortified manor house but a castle, although probably quite small.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 425399.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 30104.

Books
- Higham, Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 136-43
  Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 21
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 77 (vanished)
  Henderson, Charles (edited by Rowse, A.L. and Henderson, M.I.), 1963 (original written 1935), Essays in Cornish history (Clarendon Press) p. 71
  Toy, H.S., 1936, History of Helston (London) p. 398-9
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 3-4 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Preston-Jones, Ann and Rose, Peter, 1986, 'Medieval Cornwall' Cornish Archaeology Hendhyscans Kernow Vol. 25 p. 135-185 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 70, 84
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 194, 321 online copy
  Harvey, J.H. (ed), 1969, Itineraries (of) William Worcestre (Clarendon Press) p. 20
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Stephanie Russell, December 2002, Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey: Helston (Cornwall County Council) Download copy
  Henderson, C., 1914, Notebooks of Parochial Antiquities. MS At RIC. VOL I, 182

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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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