Reasons for Designation
The term battery refers to any place where artillery is positioned to allow guns to cover a particular area such as a line of communication or the approaches to a defended location. Batteries not contained within forts or castles were either open, with some approaches left undefended or enclosed often with a loopholed wall, ditch and/or fence designed to repel small scale attacks. Battery design evolved over time with developments in artillery. The guns and gunners were typically protected by a raised parapet with guns firing through embrasures. The gun carriages were supported on timber or stone platforms known as barbettes. In the 18th century, traversing guns using carriages mounted on pivots were increasingly employed. By the late 19th century guns were mounted in increasingly sophisticated emplacements, often with integrated magazines. The Royal Commission fortifications are a group of related sites established in response to the 1859 Royal Commission report on the defence of the United Kingdom following an invasion scare caused by the strengthening of the French Navy. These fortifications represented the largest maritime defence programme since the initiative of Henry VIII in 1539-40. The programme built upon the defensive works already begun at Plymouth and elsewhere and recommended the improvement of existing fortifications as well as the construction of new ones. There were eventually some 70 forts and batteries in England which were due wholly or in part to the Royal Commission. These constitute a well-defined group with common design characteristics, armament and defensive provisions. Whether reused or not during the 20th century, they are the most visible core of Britain's coastal defence systems and are known colloquially as `Palmerston's follies'. The Battery and Royal Commission fortification called Grenville Battery was a much re-used and strategically important coastal defence which will retain a great deal of archaeological and architectural information regarding the developments in coastal defence through time.
Details
The monument includes a battery and Royal Commission fortification, situated on the strategically-important Rame peninsula, overlooking Cawsand Bay. The battery survives as a roughly triangular stone and brick-built structure with an outer protective gorge and includes a gatehouse, barracks, stone paved ramparts, gun emplacements, magazines, musket gallery and ancillary buildings.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
CO 831
Legacy System:
RSM - OCN
End of official list entry
