Kingswear Castle is an artillery fort, built to protect Dartmouth harbour in Devon, England. It was constructed between 1491 and 1502 in response to the threat of French attack and was one of the first purpose-built artillery forts in Britain.
By the end of the 16th century, however, improvements in the range of artillery weapons had reduced the utility of the castle. It took part in the English Civil War and continued to be armed until the early 18th century, but fell into ruin.
Restored as a summer house in 1855, in the 21st century it is managed by the Landmark Trust as a holiday let.
History
15th–16th centuries
Kingswear Castle was built to protect the coastal town of Dartmouth in Devon. In the medieval period, the town’s harbour, located in the estuary of the River Dart, was an important trading and fishing port, able to hold up to 600 vessels. Fears of a French invasion, combined with the hope of retaining a valuable royal subsidy, led the town to develop Dartmouth Castle, on the west side of the estuary, into an artillery fort between 1486 and 1495.
Work on Kingswear began in 1491, with the intention of providing protection to the east side of the estuary, and by the time it was completed in 1502 it formed one of the first purpose-built artillery forts in Britain. It took the form of a three-storeyed, square tower built of shaley rubble from the local coastline, with red sandstone detailing. Its large, rectangular gun-ports with wooden shutters on the ground level matched those at Dartmouth Castle, and looked out close to the water at the entrance to the harbour, covering both the sea and the anchorage itself. It was probably initially equipped with Murderer and Serpentyne cannons, which could easily traverse across the harbour. The first floor would have also held guns and provided accommodation for the garrison.
In the 1570s, a survey recommended that four brass artillery guns be kept at the castle. The range of artillery guns soon increased, however, making it unnecessary to have armed forts on both sides of the river. Dartmouth Castle could operate without Kingswear and, by the end of the 16th century, the castle’s military utility had diminished until it was not normally manned.
17th–18th centuries
At the outbreak of the Civil War between the supporters of Charles I and those of Parliament in 1642, Dartmouth initially sided with Parliament and the town invested money in Kingswear’s castle doors. The following year, Prince Maurice besieged and took the town. An earthwork fort, called Mount Ridley or Kingsworth, may subsequently have been built to protect the vulnerable position behind Kingswear Castle; an alternative supposition is that the fort was first built in 1627 and was simply brought back into use during the conflict. In January 1646, Sir Thomas Fairfax led a Parliamentary army to retake Dartmouth, capturing Kingswear from Sir Henry Cary, the High Sheriff of Devon, who had been left in charge of defending it.
A governor, Sir John Fowell, was appointed to run the local defences, and to prevent smuggling, while Sir Henry was heavily fined by Parliament. By 1661 and the restoration of Charles II to the throne, the guns at Kingswear were mounted on the roof of the tower, as there was insufficient space inside the new, heavier guns. The roof had been accidentally burnt down during the fighting in the war and was replaced with a new lead version. The Sir John retained his role as governor and, although Charles briefly reasserted the rights of the town over the defences, control quickly passed to the Crown. By the 18th century, Kingswear Castle had fallen into ruin, although 12-pounder, 9-pounder and 8-pounder (5.4 kg, 4 kg and 3.6 kg) guns were still installed there in 1717. By the end of the century, the castle had been totally demobilised.
19th–21st centuries
In 1855, the wealthy businessman Charles Seale Hayne restored Kingswear to form a summer house, using the local architect Thomas Lidstone; the ground floor was redesigned, a conical roof added and a detached round tower constructed on the north-west side. Lidstone copied the Tudor stonework carefully, making his additions difficult to distinguish.
After Hayne’s death, the castle was sold to Harold Burton, who lived in it as a home, and then Major L. Wright, who carried out some work on the property. During the Second World War, it was used by the Royal Marines and the site reinforced by a concrete blockhouse with a conning tower. The blockhouse originally contained bunk beds for the soldiers. It was then purchased by Frederic Bennett, the local Member of Parliament, who used it as his constituency residence.
The Landmark Trust acquired the property in 1987 for use as a holiday let, restoring the ground floor of the main building to its original appearance and recreating the earlier flat, lead roof. It is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building.
Staying at the castle
Bibliography
- Davison, Brian K. (2000). Dartmouth Castle, Devon. London, UK: English Heritage. ISBN 1850747598.
- Haslam, Charlotte (2015) [1990] Kingswear Castle (updated ed.). London, UK: The Landmark Trust.
- Keay, Anna; Stanford, Caroline (2015). Landmark: A History of Britain in 50 Buildings. London, UK: The Landmark Trust. ISBN 0711236453.
- O’Neil, B. H. St. John (1936). “Dartmouth Castle and Other Defences of Dartmouth Haven”. Archaeologia. 85: 129–159.
- Saunders, Andrew (1989). Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland. Liphook, UK: Beaufort. ISBN 1855120003.
- Watkin, Hugh Robert (1920). House of Stuart and the Cary Family, James II and Torre Abbey. Exeter, UK: James G. Commin. OCLC 18898862.
Attribution
The text of this page was adapted from “Kingswear Castle” on the English language website Wikipedia, as the version dated 9 August 2018, and accordingly the text of this page is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Principal editors have included Hchc2009, Andymarczak and Saga City, and the contributions of all editors can be found on the history tab of the Wikipedia article.
Photographs on this page are drawn from the Wikimedia and Flickr websites, as of 9 August 2018, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Kingswear Castle, closeup“, author Nilfanion, released under CC BY-SA 3.0; “Dartmouth Castle and Kingswear Castle (10960956826)” (“No known copyright restrictions“); “Kingswear Castle Devon“, author Lizamber, released under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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