ENGLISH HERITAGE TEACHERS KIT

HISTORY

Pendennis Castle
Cornwalls greatest fortress from Tudors and Stuarts to Victorians and WWII Spectacular views of the coast and town and the opportunity to study landforms Fully equipped education rooms with Discovery Chests of artefacts Discovery Visits - workshops for Key Stages 1-3 (charge applies)

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Crab Quay

Blockhouse (Little Dennis)

Battery Observation Post

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Tunnel to Half Moon Battery

Half Moon Battery

Discovery Centre Tudor Gun Tower Ramparts

Barrack Block and Education Zones

Gatehouse and Guardhouse

Entrance

BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

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HISTORY

Pendennis Castle
Tour: The Tudor Gun Tower

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The stone bridge at the entrance would originally have been a wooden drawbridge. There is a fine carving of the Tudor royal coat-of-arms above the door. Below this is an empty recess, probably for the governor at the time to display his coat-of-arms. If you turn left just inside the door you enter a guardroom. There is an eighteenth century cast-iron grate displaying the three cannons of the Board of Ordnance (the body in charge of forts and cannon and responsible for appointing the governor). In the basement is a kitchen. This contains a cooking hearth and ovens. This area would have originally been divided into a kitchen, cel nd larder. At one time there would also have been a well here to provide fres in times of siege. There is also a latrine. Back on the ground floor, there is an octagonal gun room. It has gunports (embrasures) on seven of its sides. Originally the windows would have been circular to allow the canon to poke through but they have since been adapted. It is likely that this gun room would have been used only if the threatened invasion by Spain and France in the early 1540s had happened before construction of the tower was completed. The room served as a mess room and barracks for the garrison. The gunners would have slept in hammocks or on the floor, and eaten their meals here. Upstairs is the Upper Gun Room and you can now see a reconstruction of how it would have been in Tudor times. Ropes and pulleys ena ed the guns to be pulled back into the firing position once they had recoiled on being fired. The Tudor builders did try to ventilate each gun port, but even so, the conditions in this room when the canon were fired must have been similar to th n board a warship of the time: cramped, noisy, dark and choking. The gunpowder gave off a thick smoke that would have lingered in the room. Up on the roof is where the most important gun platform would have been. The lookout turret is thought to have been the location from which the great Spanish Armada of 1588 was first spotted from the mainland. From here you can enjoy the best views across to St Mawes Castle on the other side of the Fal Estuary and westwards towards the Lizard. Going down the steps through the parapet to the north and climbing down the wider spiral stairs in the turret takes you to the Governors Lodging.

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BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

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HISTORY

Pendennis Castle
Tour: Inside the Fortress

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The large expanse of open ground in the interior of the castle was not always like this. From the early days of the fortress there was a succession of houses, barrack block, stores and general buildings inside the ramparts to serve the garrison. Many were temporary structures, made of wood, which have di appeared without a trace. During the Civil War, the area was occupied by a windmill, houses and gardens, during the First World War there was a hutted camp and during the Second the area was covered with prefabricated corrugated iron Nissan huts. The Gatehouse and Guardhouse There would originally have been a wooden drawbridge over the earthen ramparts at the entrance. The present gatehouse and guardrooms are late 17th century and possibly the earliest purpose-built barracks in Britain. The rooms have now been restored as they would have appeared in the First World War. Army rules were strict and petty offences such as drunkenness or neglect of duties could result in soldiers spending time locked up in here. The Discovery Centre The Discovery Centre contains displays with a military a number of periods, which will enable pupils to compare one phase of history at Pendennis with another. The displays are themed to follow three main stages of defence. Enemy Sighted is about seeking out and identifying all potential enemies at sea or in the air. The display shows how sixteenth century lookouts had to rely on their eyes, but advances in surveillance were made with the invent on of the telescope in the seventeenth century and binoculars in the nineteenth century. Finally, the display shows how Radar was one of the greatest breakthroughs of coast defence At first it could detect aircraft approaching by radio waves, but could not identify friend or foe. By 1941, this problem was solved and at Pendennis radar was used to locate and track enemy hips and submarines. Enemy vessels could be spotted by day or night at a far greater distance than even the best binoculars.

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Inside the Guardhouse

Once the enemy is sighted, defence forces must be alerted quickly. Signal Sent looks at communicating information about the enemy to the gun crews. Throughout its history, Pendennis was part of a wider local and national defence network. This panel provides an explanation of the different forms of communication at Pendennis through the ages ranging from fire beacons, flags, semaphore, heliographs, telegraph, lamp signals, telephone and radio. Interior view of a cell
BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

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HISTORY

Pendennis Castle

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Command Fire considers the most effective means to destroy the enemy. The section covers the history of the guns at Pendennis and the rapid advances in technology. The displays are designed to allow a hands-on approach using replica models, which give pupils the opportunity of handling jects relevant to the particular period of history.

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The Battery
Observation Post This is set up as it would have appeared in World War Two. It was designed to be an observation area from which they could observe and monitor shipping movements in the English Channel. This information was then used to control the settings on the guns in Half Moon Battery. The room is painted dark blue to minimise glare. The Ramparts Henry VIIIs forts had been designed to counter attack from the sea but were vulnerable to a land siege. Their weakness lay in the dead ground created in front of a round tower where a defender could not see an attacker. In the late sixteenth century, the castle was surrounded by ramparts (earthen-backed walls) and bastions (projecting angular obstacles). Half Moon Battery From One Gun Battery, you can walk through the tunnel in the ramparts to the Half Moon Battery. The battery has this name because of its semicircular shape. It was created, together with its twin at St Anthonys Head, to turn fire power away from the estuary channel and out to the wider sea. It became Falmouths principal line of defence in World War Two. You can visit the underground ammunition store (magazine ) and war shelter with a guide. The guns here had a range of about 12 miles. The concrete canopies were built over the gun positions in 1940 to protect them from aerial attack. Camouflage netting would have further hidden them. On the wall are hooks for the regulation gas masks, helmets and capes that the gunners had to h th them. The gun commander received information from the Battery Observ on Post.

BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

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HISTORY

Pendennis Castle

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They made corrections for speed, wind direction and the tide. The greatest threat came at night, when detection and accurate firing were more difficult. Searchlights on Pendennis Point were therefore coordinated to illuminate possible targets for the guns. In 1944, it took 99 people to staff Half Moon Battery every 24 hours. Of these, only 36 were gunners and the rest were searchlight operators and staff involved in position finding and communication tasks.

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Crab Quay Battery and the Blockhouse (Little Dennis) Crab Quay Battery is the best landing place on the headland. The Blockhouse (Little Dennis) is the earliest Tudor fortification on the Pendennis Headland. It was almost certainly built in 1538 as a stop-gap measure to put cannon on until the main castle could be completed.

View of Little Dennis

BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

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HISTORY

Pendennis Castle
Timeline

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BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

ENGLISH HERITAGE TEACHERS KIT

HISTORY

Pendennis Castle
Historical Background

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Pendennis Castle is a mixture of fortifications spanni over four hundred years. Within the Elizabethan ramparts is one of Henry VIIIs castles, part of an internationally important chain of defences built in the 1540s along the south coast in response to the threat of invasion. By 1538 Henry VIIIs simultaneous divorce of Catherine of Aragon and break with the Pope had placed him in a perilous position. England faced the threat of invasion from both France and Spain. Protection for the Channel ports became an urgent necessity. The resulting chain of forts and blockhouse ected the power and efficiency of new types of heavy gun, made possible by better casting techniques perfected in the Kings own foundries. Although the pl ns of individual buildings varied, all were low and massive, with several levels of guns mounted in emplacements designed to enable them to command a wide field of fire. Pendennis Castle was begun in 1540, together with a smaller fort near the waters edge called Little Dennis. At first the castle consisted of a round, keep-like gun tower with a basement kitchen, but a surrounding earth-filled platform for more guns was added almost immediately and an entrance block containing a residence for the governor a few years later. Fifty-six years later, fear of a second Armada led Queen Elizabeth I to provide a huge outer line of defe astle, with projecting bastions and stone-faced ramparts designed to absorb cannon shot. These fortifications were still effective when the castle was besieged by Parliamentary forces during the Civil War fifty years later. By March 1646 the Royalists had lost the war and the King was a prisoner ands of the Scots, but John Jack-for-the-King Arundell held out at Pendennis until starvation forced him to surrender five months later. Unlike many castles, Pendennis was too important to be slighted after its capture.

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Reconstruction of 17 August 1646The Honourable surrender of Royalist troops BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926

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HISTORY

Pendennis Castle

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The Barrack Block, part of which houses the Education Z ones today During the next three centuries, Pendennis defences were periodically up-graded, including the installation of new and powerful guns in 1894. In the early twentieth century a large barrack block was built to house a permanently stationed Regiment of Royal Garrison Artillery, and as late as the Second World War, Pendennis powerful coast artillery guns protected convoys and wa ips assembling or seeking shelter in the quiet waters of the estuary. After this, new fighting technology made Pendennis and all coastal artillery obsolete, and the army finally left in 1956.

The interior of the reconstructed war shelter. The order stand to has interrupted a meal!
BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION W www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking E bookeducation@english-heritage.org.uk The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EH T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 414926