Stonehouse Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Stone Manor, East Stonehouse; Estonehouse

In the civil parish of Plymouth.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Plymouth; City of.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SX46125420
Latitude 50.36754° Longitude -4.16506°

Stonehouse Town Defences has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a certain Artillery Fort, and also as a certain Urban Defence.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Stonehouse town wall is located on a limestone ridge overlooking Stonehouse Pool to the south, and defended the town of Stonehouse to the north. It was erroneously identified by Worth as the wall to Stonehouse Manor. It existed in 1540 and was demolished between 1725, when it was extant, and 1779. It extended from a blockhouse on Stonehouse Pool in the west, and in the east joined an earlier park boundary just to the west of Millbay, at or near the junction of Emma Place Ope and Barrack Place. It seems to have formed part of a defensive scheme emplaced by Sir Piers Edgecumbe in the late C15/early C16. Henry VIII granted a licence to crenellate in 1515. The wall was crenellated and included a bastion and main gate as well as the blockhouse. A 110m length of wall survives although the western blockhouse has been demolished, as has the gatehouse which was at the junction of Durnford Street and Emma Place. There are remnants of the bastion to the west of the gate and a small late medieval gunport just to its west. The wall is built of roughly coursed rubble limestone and survives to near its original height in the central section where it retains a parapet and sentry walk. The wall has recently been surveyed and small-scale excavations have been undertaken, 1994-5. (PastScape)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1515 June 30 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1003850, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number py180
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 437593.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Gardiner, J. (ed), 2000, Resurgam! Archaeology at Stonehouse, Mount Batten and Mount Wise Regeneration Areas, Plymouth (Plymouth archaeology occasional publications 5) p. 52-62
  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. 87 (slight)
  Pye, Andrew and Woodward, Freddy, 1996, The historic defences of Plymouth (Exeter: Exeter Archaeology Fortress Study Group South West) p. 151
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 121 (as possible castle)
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1952, Buildings of England: Devon p. 240
Periodical Articles
- Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 46 p. 142-9
  Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 138 p. 219
  1979, Devon Committee for Rescue Archaeology Publications Vol. 5 p. 32
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Brewer, J.S. (ed), 1864, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII Vol. 2.1 p. 172 No. 642 online copy
  Plymouth Map of c. 1540 online copy online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk South West Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 183 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk South West Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 184 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 194 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 185 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 196 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 180 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 176 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 179 online 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		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