Ince Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Innis

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SX401565
Latitude 50.38670° Longitude -4.25017°

Ince Castle has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Ince Castle 1653 according to documents, but circa 1630 in style. Remarkable in plan, style and in use of brick. English bond brick with stone dressings and hipped slate roof. Rectangular with 4 storey projecting towers at corners with pyramidal roofs above modillion eaves cornices. Embattled parapet. 2 storey continuous moulded cornice. with bund over ground floor. Glazing bar sash windows, mostly C18 and reproduction main entrance to west, approached by a long flight of steps to first floor level. Segment headed granite doorway, disused, flanked by pairs of mullion windows under commondrip, pediment over and cornice raised over it. Ground floor windows are C19 tripartite variety (see others on ground floor). 2 windows (on ground floor of flanking towers) retain plain stone mullion casements under segmented arch. Interior: modern Chinese Chippendale staircase in front. South-east tower contains a mid C17 staircase. The plan may relate to 'toy forts' like the nearby Mont Edyecumbe House. The style with corner hursts may relate to current court fashion (see Wilton). The first floor entry (as in the earlier castle keeps) is quite anachronistic and idiosyneratic. For full appreciation and for discussion of rival building dates and builders see Christopher Hussey's articles in Country Life 16 March 1967 and 23 March 1967. (Listed Building Report)

Comments

Rejected by King and Spreadbury. Salter says dates from 1640 and mainly domestic but had some small cannon found after Civil War siege.
This C17 house, with some decorative battlements and called a castle does seem to have got mentioned by a lot of castle gazetteers but there were many similar house. This is one of those situations where once a building gets in a listing of medieval castles it stays there as all subsequent authors then have to reject it. This is rejected as a medieval building but wider definitions of the castle, such as that used by John Goodall in The English Castle 1066-1650, do include such buildings of the early modern period.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1329260
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 437472.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6248.10.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Ince Castle Gardens
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 21
  Cooper, Nicholas, 1999, Houses of the Gentry, 1480-1680 (Yale University Press) p. 157-8, 168, 225, 245
  Spreadbury, I. D., 1984, Castles in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Redruth) (reject)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 78 (reject)
  Pevsner, N. revised by Enid Radcliffe, 1970, Buildings of England: Cornwall (Harmondsworth) p. 83
  Jope, E. (ed), 1961, Studies in Building History (Odhams) p. 212-4
  Oman, Charles W.C., 1926, Castles (1978 edn Beetham House: New York) p. 108-9
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 4 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 360 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hussey, Christopher, 1967 16 March, Country Life
  Hussey, Christopher, 1967 23 March, Country Life

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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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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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