Lesingey Round, Penzance (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castle Horneck

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SW45343035
Latitude 50.11864° Longitude -5.56372°

Lesingey Round, Penzance has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Castle Horneck, (commonly called Lezingy Round) on the hill top... about a mile west of Penzance, is a circular inclosure of nearly an acre and a half..formed by a broad and high annular mound of earth, still in good preservation' (Edmunds). Lesingey Round is a 'small univallate earthwork of a type common in Cornwall. Rampart 12ft. - 15ft. high from bottom of ditch, c. 6ft. high in interior. Ditch remains without encroachment. Almost undisturbed. It is situated on the summit of a hill with a good all round view but the natural slopes are not very steep. The entrance could not be identified; the inner slope of the rampart is absent in places but the outer slope is continuous. A field wall has been erected round the outer perimeter of the ditch, and the whole of the area enclosed is wooded. There are no traces of occupation on the near level interior of the earthwork. No conclusions could be made regarding the date of this feature. Its situation and the strength of the bank indicates a defensive purpose. It seems possible that a mediaeval occupation of an earlier fortification may have taken place,and that it may have been the Castle Horneck referred to by Norden. In 1696 the field name was 'Castle Close' (see 6"). The present house called 'Castle Horneck' is 400.0m to the ESE (see Corn. 74 NW 55) (Field Investigators Comments–F1 JHP 29-SEP-60). Norden refers to Castle Horneck as an ancient ruined castle standing on a mount near Penzance. (Norden's survey of Cornwall took place c.1584.) (Lake). (PastScape)

From the situation, which is much like Restormel, traces of a medieval castle might be expected here, but none are known. (VCH)

Comments

This site is about 400m west of Castle Horneck and it is possible that this is the site of the C12 castle reported and that the place name has been utilised by a later building on a nearby but different site. Clearly there is some uncertain history of a medieval castle and this earthwork is of a form that has led to several interpretations. It would benefit from further archaeological investigation but its current overgrown state make this unlikely.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004400, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number co536
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 423945.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 31698.

Books
- Hogg, A.H.A., 1979, British hillforts: an index (British Archaeological Reports British Series 62) p. 214
  Cornish, J.B., 1906, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Cornwall Vol. 1 p. 461 online copy
  Lake, W., 1870, History of Cornwall Vol. 3 p. 221-2
  Edmonds, R., 1862, The Land's End District p. 39
  Hitchins, Fortescue, 1824, A History of Cornwall (Samuel Drew) Vol. 2 p. 437 online copy
  Polwhele, R., 1803, History of Cornwall (London) p. 112 (mention) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Edmonds, R., 1849, 'On the Hill-Castle, Cliff-Castles, and other supposed British Dwelling-places, near Penzance' Transactions of Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society Vol. 1 p. 343 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Nick Cahill with Stef Russell, September 2003, Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey: Penzance (Cornwall County Council) Download copy

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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio