Bearscove Castle

Bearscove Castle, Bayards Cove

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1208168
Date first listed:: 14-Sep-1949
List Entry Name:: Bearscove Castle
Statutory Address:: Bearscove Castle, Bayards Cove

User submitted image — Uploaded by Paul Adams This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2001-09-04
Reference:: IOE01/05408/27
Rights:: © Mr Brian Head. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1208168
Date first listed:: 14-Sep-1949
Date of most recent amendment:: 23-Feb-1994
List Entry Name:: Bearscove Castle
Statutory Address 1:: Bearscove Castle, Bayards Cove

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Bearscove Castle, Bayards Cove

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Devon
District:: South Hams (District Authority)
Parish:: Dartmouth
National Grid Reference:: SX 87865 50965

Details

SX8750 673-1/6/38

DARTMOUTH BAYARDS COVE(West side) Bearscove Castle

(Formerly Listed as: BAYARDS COVE Bearscove Castle (or Bayard's Cove Castle)

14/09/49

GV I Small artillery castle, built to protect the town quay. Possibly 1509-10 on documentary evidence, it was certainly in existence by 1537. Local limestone rubble.

PLAN: A platform cut into the rock enclosed by a thick curving wall projecting into the estuary.

EXTERIOR: Thick rubble wall with a regular series of putlog holes. Doorway on northern side onto the quay (although, according to Freeman, the quay did not extend this far until 1839). It is a plain doorway with an irregular two-centred arch head under a hoodmould. Eleven splayed gunports externally rebated for shutters; they are designed for guns mounted on flat beds. Parapet mostly collapsed but the bottom courses remain, projecting slightly on a row of small corbels.

INTERIOR:Unroofed. Remains of stone steps to wallwalk. Sockets for timbers in cliff to rear from old lean-to structures - the place was apparently used for storage in times of peace.

Bearscove Castle is sited at the end of a fine and picturesque row of listed buildings on the old town quay.

Listing NGR: SX8786550965

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 387168
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Freeman, R, Dartmouth and its Neighbours, (1990), 54
Saunders, A D, Dartmouth Castle Devon, (1986)
'Archaeologia' in Archaeologia , (1935), 129-157

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.