Plymouth Castle Quadrate (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
The Barbican

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: SX48285395
Latitude 50.36589° Longitude -4.13450°

Plymouth Castle Quadrate has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are masonry footings remains.

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

Description

The construction of Plymouth Castle was initiated under patent from Henry IV when a wall with towers and other defences was erected by the inhabitants. In 1416 two towers were erected and in 1519 the defences were further strengthened. It was described by Leland (circa 1540) as 'a castle quadrate, having at each corner a great round tower'. Restoration work was done in 1508-9 but it was probably allowed to fall into decay after the Civil War. In 1807 a townsman named Harris recollects that there were remains of one tower with a diameter of 30ft and that 200ft. to the south were the remains of another with a diameter of only 10ft, finally removed about 1804. The tower Harris describes disappeared in recent years, he also evidently over-looked the remains of the gateway in Lambhay Street (see illustration). These remains representing the right-hand flanking turret of the gatehouse, South Port, are rectangular in plan with a semi-circular end and are rounded rubble stonework walls rising to about 10ft, resting on exposed rock (Worth, 1883). Remains of the gatehouse of the "South Port". Probably C14 or C15. Rubble wall about 3m high, built on bedrock. Short length of very thick wall with central semicircular on plan truncated projection which is the remains of the right-hand flanking turret of the west gatehouse (listing description). (PastScape)

Remains of the gatehouse of the "South Port". Probably C14 or C15. Rubble wall about 3m high, built on bedrock. Short length of very thick wall with central semicircular on plan truncated projection which is the remains of the right-hand flanking turret of the west gatehouse. (Listed Building Report)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1404 Feb 6 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).
A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1439 Nov/Dec.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1003833, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number py217
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1322013
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 437578.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Britannia.com entry
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Plymouth Data
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk and CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
Books
- Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 76
  Pye, Andrew and Woodward, Freddy, 1996, The historic defences of Plymouth (Exeter: Exeter Archaeology Fortress Study Group South West) p. 130
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 64 (slight)
  Mildren, James, 1987, Castles of Devon (Bossiney Books) p. 82-4
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 118
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1975, The history of the King's Works Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) p. 484-5
  Bracken, 1931, History of Plymouth (Plymouth) p. 45-6
  Oman, Charles W.C., 1926, Castles (1978 edn Beetham House: New York) p. 102
  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. 37 online copy
  Worth, R.N., 1890, History of Plymouth online copy
  Lysons, D. and S., 1822, Magna Britannia Vol. 6 Devon p. 398-9 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 46 p. 142-9
  Kenyon, John R., 1988, 'The State of Fortifications in the West Country in 1623' Fort Vol. 16 p. 47-8
  Worth, R.N., 1883, 'The Ancient Castle of Plymouth' Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 39 p. 255-8, plan facing 404 online copy
Guidebooks
- Noble, S., 2000, Plymouth's Barbican and Castle: an historic landscape and its archaeology (Plymouth Archaeology No. 5)
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Plymouth Map of c. 1540 online copy online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1905, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry IV (1401-05) Vol. 2 p. 346, 353 online copy
  B.M. Harleian MS. 1326 (Survey of 1623) British Library collection information
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Holler, Wenceslas, c. 1643, A Trve Mapp and Discription of the Towne of Plymouth online copy
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 110
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 214 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.

*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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