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Stonehouse Town Defences
Also known as, or recorded in historical
documents as; Stone Manor, East Stonehouse; Estonehouse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 Devon (Modern Authority of Plymouth; City of, 1974 county of Devon).
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 smal 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.
This site has been described as a;
Urban Defence
Fortified Manor House
Artillery Fort.
The confidence
that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.
A Royal licence
to crenellate was
granted in 1515 June 30.
This site is a scheduled
monument protected by law.
The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SX463542
PastScape number;
437593
Books
- 2000, Plymouth archaeology occasional publications Vol5 p52-62
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) p136-43
Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern) p87 [slight]
Pye, Andrew and Woodward, Freddy, 1996, The historic defences of Plymouth (Exeter: Exeter Archaeology Fortress Study Group South West) p151
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p121 [as possible castle]
1979, Devon Archaeological Society and Devon Committee Rescue Archaeological Publications Vol5 p32
Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1952, Buildings of England: Devon p240
Journal Articles
- Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol46 p142-9
Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' Archaeological Journal Vol138 p219
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents
- This section is far from complete and the secondary
sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII Vol2 pt1 p172 no642
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