Mount Edgcumbe Blockhouse

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Blockhouse at Garden Battery; Wilderness Point; Barnpool

In the civil parish of Maker With Rame.
In the historic county of Cornwall (Modern Authority of Cornwall, 1974 county of Cornwall).

Coastal defence block house. Circa 1540. Slatestone rubble. Square on plan. Single storey with roof platform with remains of battlements. Doorways on two sides, of which one is a later alteration. Main doorway to landward side, plain square-headed one with squint and drawbar holes. Gun ports on 3 sides. Tablet of 1980 with the history of the building. Severely plain interior. A part of a private scheme of defences of Plymouth Sound by Sir Peter Edgecombe which included Stonehouse (qv).

This site has been described as a;
Artillery Fort.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Major remains.

This site is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 61866)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SX45605317

Modern Map from

Good for landscape form and features

Modern Map from

Good for general location

Air Photo from

1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 437545

Books

Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern) p25
Saunders, Andrew, 1997, Channel Defences (London; Batsford/English Heritage) p69, 117
Pye, Andrew and Woodward, Freddy, 1996, The historic defences of Plymouth (Exeter: Exeter Archaeology Fortress Study Group South West) p35-6
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p73

Journal Articles

Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' Archaeological Journal Vol138 p218-19
1974, Cornish Archaeology Cornwall Archaeological Society Vol13 p69
Girouard, 1960, Country Life, Vol127 p1598, 1601
Beckerlegge J J, 1939, Devonshire Association reports and transactions Vol71 p178-9

Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)

Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p110

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

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations.

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.

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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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This record last updated on Friday, April 6, 2007

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