Paterchurch Tower

Description

The De Paterchurch family is first mentioned in 1289. The medieval tower may have served as a lookout post. The rooms have fireplaces, and a connecting spiral staircase. By C17, additional domestic and farm buildings stood close by. The tower now lies behind the Dockyard wall, whose builders in 1844 unearthed numerous skeletons --- the isolated settlement had its own cemetery, whose last recorded burial is that of Roger Adams, in 1731. Paterchurch Tower was the centre of an estate said to stretch from Pennar Point to Cosheston. This changed hands in 1422 when Elen de Paterchurch married John Adams. (Hull)

A possible 14thC tower, all that survives of Paterchurch in Pembroke Dockyard. The tower would have stood on the N side of the church. The burial ground was found about 1844, near the tower, while work on the new dockyard wall was being carried out. Medieval tower associated with a medieval mansion, ruinous by C19. Of uncertain function. Rubble stone 3-storey embattled tower with castellated parapet. Vaulted chamber to each floor, plastered vaults to upper two storeys. (Source CADW listed buildings database) (Coflein)

Situated just within Dockyard wall, some 130m E of Fort Road entry to Royal Naval area. History: Medieval tower associated with medieval mansion, ruinous by early C19 and the remains otherwise demolished by mid C19. In C15 occupied by David de Patrickchurch, and in 1422 passed by marriage to the Adames family of Buckpool, who held it until 1731. The evidence for this being a domestic building is problematic, but there is no evidence of a church on the site. The tower was freestanding to NE of a large block of buildings on the 1820 dockyard map. It stood outside the dockyard walls until they were realigned 1844, subsequently Admiralty workshops were built around. In 1844 bones were found around the tower. Exterior: Rubble stone 3-storey embattled tower with castellated parapet and taller rounded NE stair tower. S front has blocked chamfered pointed entry with heavy corbelling over, blocked first-floor (later) camber-headed opening and plain second-floor window. Loop under parapet. W side has loop to ground and first floor, blocked square second-floor opening with voussoirs and two drainage gutters above. E side has loop, plain window to first and second floor and two drainage gutters. NE tower has N and E stepped buttressing, rounded masonry between and two small lights. W of N buttress is short wall section with pointed arched doorway in line with main pointed N doorway, and between (to left) is E door into tower stair. N side has one plain first-floor window with traces of gable above and loop above second floor. Interior: Vaulted chamber each floor, ground floor with square section ribs, four from corners and four to ridges, meeting at octagonal boss. Segmental arch to blocked S doorway. Plastered vaults to two upper floors, rounded to first floor, pointed on second floor, the crown of the vault rising behind parapets of tower top. First floor has narrow corner SW flue. (Listed Building Report)

Comments

A medieval crenellated tower surviving to full height but missed by all the usual castle authors such as D.J.C. King. Presumably the position, within a naval dockyard, made access to the site difficult although descriptions had been published. It does also seem that the site is sometimes described as altered chapel and this could have lead King to dismiss it as a fortified building.
Almost certainly always had attached timber buildings and would have functioned as a solar tower for the De Paterchurch's.