Summary
Former military headquarters and stores, designed by Frederick William Porter in 1859 to 1861 for the Cornwall Rangers Militia. Altered in around 1881 and later for the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, who were resident until 1962. Now a museum.
Reasons for Designation
The former militia headquarters and stores known as The Keep, Bodmin, Cornwall, designed by FW Porter in 1859 and altered in 1881, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a good example of the work of FW Porter FRIBA, who also designed new penal buildings in Cornwall in the mid-C19;
* as a confident expression of the French Renaissance style, unusual for this building type;
* the construction of the building in local stone and granite helped achieve confidence and pride in the defence of Britain;
* the building is strikingly symmetrical in its design and plan, and the plain interior survives well.
Historic interest:
* as an architectural response to the threat of French invasion and the resulting Militia Acts of 1852 and 1853;
* as part of the sole Localisation depot in the county which resulted from the Cardwell and Childers Reforms;
* for its place in British and Cornwall’s military history, and particularly as the headquarters of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry from 1881 to 1962.
Group value:
* with the perimeter wall and former stables which are listed Grade II, the DCLI War Memorial which is listed Grade II*, and the later-C19 buildings which made up Victoria Barracks and are listed Grade II.
History
Between 1847 and 1869 Britain was living with a fear of French invasion and of the country’s inability to defend itself. The 1852 Militia Act was a direct result of the ‘second panic’, through which British volunteer forces regained their statutory existence for the first time in 20 years, and the lord lieutenants of each county were encouraged to raise 80,000 volunteers over the following two years. A further Act in 1853 ordered the county lieutenants to find or construct a storehouse for the militia’s armaments, kit and other materials; barracks for a sergeant major and a minimum of six NCOs to form a permanent guard; and a parade ground for mustering and drilling the troops, and where arms, clothing and equipment could be issued or collected. In many cases, these requirements created a new building type: the combined barracks-armoury.
In Cornwall, buildings were rented out in Launceston and Bodmin as small militia stores, but these were not deemed to meet the Government’s requirements. The nearest suitable buildings were in the Plymouth area. Through the Cornwall Courts of Quarter Sessions, efforts were made by a County Militia Stores Committee to find alternative premises to adapt and rent, including at Pendennis Castle and Maker Heights, but in consultation with the War Office none could be found. It was decided in April 1859 to plan for and fund a new storehouse which fully met the requirements of the Act. On 20 August 1859 the British Secretary of State for war purchased two parcels of agricultural land from the Borough of Bodmin at Plas Newyd, to the south of Bodmin town centre, for the construction of a new storehouse. The architect of the building was Frederick William Porter FRIBA (1821-1901), who was asked to prepare plans following his employment as architect of the new Bodmin Gaol from 1856. The Quarter Sessions reveal that despite delays, the militia stores were completed in August 1861. The final cost was £4,500.
The militia stores, known as The Keep since the late C19, provided stores and offices for the Cornwall Rangers Militia, with the remaining land used as a parade ground. The Keep was constructed from local stone and granite, the former perhaps from a quarry on Castle Canyke Road, the latter brought in from Bodmin Moor, with roofing slate from Delabole. An 1859 conveyancing plan shows the footprint of The Keep, two buildings to the north thought to be stables, and a perimeter wall around the buildings and parade ground (separately listed at Grade II). It is thought that two large rooms on the ground floor originally housed an orderly room for regimental business and a briefing room, with the smaller spaces being private offices and meeting rooms; the entire first floor was the main armament and kit stores; on the second floor were clerical rooms, including for the Commanding Officer and their adjutant; and the attics were probably used for storage. The Quarter Sessions documents also note that provision for the accommodation of six staff sergeants was available when the building first opened, and as required by the 1853 Militia Act.
Under Edward Cardwell’s Military Localisation Bill of 1872, regular and militia battalions were brought together to create territorial regiments based at existing depots, with the aim of forming bonds between the units and making army service more attractive. As such, in 1874 the Bodmin site came to house the 32nd Regiment of Foot (Cornwall Light Infantry) and 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot, alongside the Cornwall Rangers Militia, and the county’s ownership of the militia stores was taken over by the Government.
On 1 July 1881, under the Childers Reforms, a continuation of the Cardwell Reforms, the two Regiments of Foot and the Cornwall Rangers Militia were amalgamated to form the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI). Further land to the south-east of The Keep was purchased from the Borough, and barracks for the soldiers and officers (1874-1878) and married quarters and a hospital (1881) were built to standard War Office designs. The completed site became a localisation depot and was named Victoria Barracks. These later-C19 buildings are individually listed at Grade II.
During the 1870s restructuring, The Keep became a gatehouse, armoury, and the accommodation for the quartermaster’s department. The 1881 Ordnance Survey (OS) Town Plan shows a central passageway and two small blocks, or porches, on the north-east and south-west extensions. These were replaced with a pair of symmetrical external staircase blocks in the late C19, augmenting access and ventilation beyond the sole central internal staircase, including the formation of entrances at first-floor level from window openings. A row of lean-to buildings, likely to have been stores, along the south-east boundary wall to the parade ground is also marked on the OS map; arches in the wall through to the parade ground were added in the late C19 and the stores relocated to the inside of the south-west boundary wall. The new staircases and archways improved the circulatory and processional routes for the infantrymen around the site: it is thought that the entrance from the parade ground to the Keep utilised the south-west staircase and archway, with the exit being on the south-east side. A hoist added next to the south-west staircase suggests that armaments and heavy kit were brought into the building here, at first-floor level. Other alterations from this phase include the introduction of windows on the ground and first floors at the south end of the south-east elevation; three massive galvanised water tanks above the staircase on the third floor (although it is unknown if they were ever operational); and internal cast-iron columns on the ground and first floors to supplement earlier chamfered timber posts. The columns allowed for increased loading as technological advancements in weaponry and the number of infantrymen using the building increased. The attics may have been converted to temporary sleeping quarters at this time.
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the barracks became a training base and home to around 2,000 soldiers; many were sent straight to the Western Front. These soldiers initially trained with the DCLI, although many were transferred to other regiments upon leaving the barracks. The Keep remained in use as the depot’s headquarters. A war memorial designed by LS Merrifield was erected outside The Keep in 1924 (listed Grade II*) to commemorate the 4,282 DCLI men lost during the conflict. At around this time, a carved stone DCLI badge and ‘CLI’ monogram were added to the keystones above the north and south archways of The Keep’s central passageway. The DCLI significantly increased in size following the outbreak of the Second World War and two new camps were established at Walker Lines and Coldharbour. In preparation for D-Day in late 1942 the entire site and Walker Lines was handed over to the US Army and became home to a large number of GIs, including several infantry regiments. The Depot and barracks were returned to the DCLI in 1949. During the war and in the immediate post-war years minimal alterations were made to The Keep, including the provision of a WC on the north-west side of the ground floor, created from a small mid-C19 cellar, for the commanding officers.
The DCLI merged with Somerset Light Infantry in 1959, becoming the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry (SCLI). They moved out from the site in April 1962. Much of the surrounding land was purchased and sold by Bodmin Council over the following years, although The Keep and Coldharbour area remained in MOD ownership.
The Keep had welcomed visitors by appointment from the 1920s, but in around 1985 the building became fully established as Cornwall’s Regimental Museum, telling the story of Cornwall’s militia, volunteers and the DCLI. The slate roof covering (probably from Delabole) was replaced with fibre-cement slates in 1986; it was reverted to natural, albeit Argentinian, slate in 2012. An external fire escape was added above the north-east staircase tower in around 1989.
Details
Former military headquarters and stores, designed by Frederick William Porter in 1859 to 1861 for the Cornwall Rangers Militia. Altered in around 1881 and later for the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, who were resident until 1962. Now a museum.
MATERIALS: constructed of coursed and squared local killas stone with local granite dressings. Roof covered in C21 Argentinian ‘Riverstone’ slates and grey clay ridge tiles, with six red-brick chimney stacks with yellow terracotta pots.
PLAN: The Keep is located south-west to north-east across the south-east end of a triangular site. The building is rectangular in plan with identical staircase towers on the north-east and south-west elevations, and a central north-west to south-east passageway. There is a powerfully-defined symmetry throughout the building.
EXTERIOR: The Keep is designed in a French Renaissance style over three storeys plus attics, with 2:3:2 symmetrical north-west (principal) and south-east elevations and a segmental-arch central passageway. The roof is steep and hipped with projecting eaves on cast-iron brackets. On each roof slope is a central dormer window with a steep pyramidal roof with timber brackets, a timber finial, and paired 12-pane timber sash windows. Axial ridge chimneystacks are rectangular with broad faces to the south-west and north-east; corner stacks are L-shaped. A granite drainage channel runs around the perimeter of the building.
All of the elevations have granite quoins, chamfered granite lintels with stone soldier-coursed relieving arches to the ground and first floor windows, and slate cills. The central archway has granite dressings, including a carved DCLI badge and ‘CLI’ monogram to the keystones on each arch, and late-C19 arched boarded-timber double-doors with a wicket gate to each opening; those to the north-west have glazed openings at the top. The central passageway has a central timber ceiling hatch, and roughly halfway along the passage are late-C19 timber double-doors to the south-west, and C20 timber double doors to the north-east, both with granite thresholds. The floor surface through the passageway is C20 asphalt and tactile paving, and the walls are rendered and painted.
The south-west and north-east elevations each have two openings to each storey, and a roughly-central two-storey unroofed staircase tower with a moulded granite parapet. The staircase towers have granite plinths and are entered on the south-east side through dressed-granite openings. Each tower has internal granite steps which wind around a bull-nosed wall. Doors into The Keep at ground-floor level are blocked, but both retain granite thresholds. Within each tower is a late-C19 wall-mounted wrought-iron lamp bracket, and on the south-west elevation next to that tower there is a late-C19 wall-mounted cast-iron pulley hoist. From the north-east tower, a C20 steel fire-escape staircase leads up to the second floor, with the windows at each level converted to a doorway. Next to each ground-floor opening is a boarded timber door to a small understairs room, lit by a six-pane sash window with internal late-C19 flat steel shutters.
Windows are 12-pane timber sashes throughout, reducing in size from the ground to second floor. Some sash windows are hornless and date to the 1859 construction of the building. Others are later C19, and some have been repaired. Ground-floor windows have external C20 steel security bars. Rainwater goods are largely cast iron.
INTERIOR: the interior of The Keep is symmetrically planned around a north-west / south-east axis, with the sole vertical access being a granite-slab dog-leg cantilevered staircase with tooled herringbone treads, on the north-west side of the building, within the south-west wing. The staircase from the second floor to the attics is C19 softwood with a timber balustrade.
On the ground floor, the south-west wing is accessed through a small lobby, with a WC to the right at a lower level (containing a C19 timber boarded door with vent holes), and an archive room to the left, which has a fireplace recess with a redundant C20 stove. A large room at the end of the wing is in use as a library. This has a roughly-central late-C19 cast-iron column supporting a timber cross-beam, a fireplace with cast-iron surround in the west corner, and a mid-C20 partition with borrowed lights to the south-east. This space is further partitioned as offices; the southern fireplace is blocked. The north-east wing is also accessed through a small lobby, with a C20 kitchen to the left and further archive room to the right. The room at the north-east end of the wing is used for museum activities, and has a central chamfered timber column, flanked by two additional late-C19 cast iron columns, supporting a timber cross beam. Fireplaces in the north and east corners are blocked. The walls in this part of the building are faced with C20 plastic dado panelling with mid-C20 pegboard above, and C20 timber skirtings and covings.
The first floor comprises three large rooms each with a mid-C19 central chamfered timber column, flanked by two additional late-C19 cast iron columns, supporting a timber cross beam. The two spaces to the north-east of the stairs are used for the permanent exhibition, so doors have been removed and windows have been covered. The trapdoor to the passageway hatch is visible in the floor of the central space, with pulley fixings on the ceiling above, and some early roll-moulded skirtings survive.
The second floor again comprises three large rooms, but these are subdivided. Due to modern finishes it is not possible to determine the exact date or detail of the partitions, although some may be late-C19 as they align with the additional cast-iron columns in the rooms below; some may possibly date from the 1859 construction, and some are C20. All of the spaces on this floor are used for permanent exhibitions, so again doors have been removed and windows covered. The room in the north corner has exposed timber floorboards and a fireplace with a cast-iron surround and stone hearth; on the south-west wall is a small timber hatch with a sliding door, historically used for communication between the Commanding Officer and their adjutant. There is a small hatch in the southernmost room (historically for use by the Chief Clerk), where there is also a mid-C20 tiled fireplace and an early-C20 safe against the external wall. A later partition to the north-west may have been used as a lobby from a, now blocked, external entrance on the south-west elevation. The staircase wall to the south-east is a mid-C20 timber and glass partition, covered on the staircase face.
The attic (or third floor) is open to the roof structure, ceiled and insulated in 2012, with some partitions of various dates, but retaining the three-cell plan. The roof structure is of simple sawn softwood beams, comprising trusses, rafters, purlins and a ridge plate, alongside support posts and mansard rafters. The doorway between the middle and north-east room has a segmental lintel and a slim timber architrave, probably mid-C19 in date. In the north-east room is a lead hearth, its cast-iron stove now disconnected and relocated in the room, but with a retained late-C19 ‘Fire Bucket’ sign on the wall. In the south-west room late-C19 painted lettering survives on the intermediate purlins, possibly indicating sleeping or storage bays, and there is a fireplace recess with a cast-iron stove on the north-east wall. In the space opposite the staircase there is a late-C19 matchboard partition with glazed window, and a high-level timber hatch, possibly related to the three late-C19 large riveted galvanised water tanks which are mounted on cast-iron girders at the head of the staircase.
The internal walls dividing the three-cell plan are of mid-C19 stone construction with rounded corners to openings, and plain timber skirting. Unless stated, walls are plastered and painted; floors are generally carpeted or have modern coverings on suspended timber floorboards; and ceilings have been lined with fibreboard and painted. A variety of timber four-panel doors survive from the 1859 construction and late-C19, some of which have been repurposed, with C20 additions. Doors off the main staircase are much larger and heavier, with some War Department-issue door furniture. One door retains a hand-painted sign to the ‘Lieutenancy Office’ on the second floor, west, and others survive under layers of paint.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14 October 2024 to add a source
