Pengersick Castle

Pengersick Castle is a fortified manor house built around 1510, incorporating earlier remains, with an annex added in 1927–28 and repairs and alterations to the annex carried out in 1968. The house was probably built for William Worth of Worth in Devon, whose initials appear on label stops, and later improved by the Milliton family of Meavey, Devon. The building declined from the second half of the 16th century onwards.

The castle is constructed of snecked granite rubble with granite dressings and quoins, incorporating some re-used volcanic rock. It features a battlemented parapet concealing chimneys, a flat asphalt roof to the tower, a flat lead roof to the turret, and dry slate on the annex.

Historical Development and Plan

Although documentary evidence confirms a house on this site from at least the 13th century, the building to which the surviving remains belonged was almost entirely newly built around 1510. The site occupies the bottom of a small shallow valley, with the entrance on the uphill east side. Originally, there were two approximately rectangular courtyards: a large eastern courtyard (now a garden) containing stabling and ancillary buildings, and a smaller western domestic courtyard (now a farmyard) adjoining and offset so that the north walls were continuous.

The existing tower stands at the external angle between the two courtyards and defended the house from the south-west, towards the shore. Its principal east front was set forward into the east court to confront visitors, forming the dominant and most prestigious element of the house. Abutting it to the right was the hall range, entered through a two-storey porch (the doorway of which was later removed to Pengersick Farmhouse). To the right of the porch stood the open hall, stopping just short of the northern curtain wall. The tower and hall formed the front of the house proper, with the hall block common to both courtyards. Beyond lay the domestic courtyard with a back gate probably at the north end of the west range. The northern boundary appears to have been a curtain wall, and there was a small block, possibly a tower, at the north-west corner (now the barn and adjoining wall at Pengersick Farm), of which much remains. Nothing is known of the rest of the original layout, but the kitchen and service buildings could have formed a far west range with accommodation returning to the south.

Of all this, the only surviving elements are the tower itself and, in the east court, part of the west end of the south range (the outhouse at Pengersick Castle), sections of the west wall of the east range, and fragments of walling from the north side. Of the west court, the base of the north-west block and parts of the north curtain remain.

The Tower: Exterior

The tower has its own external door to the north, making it virtually independent. On plan, there is a single square room at each stage, with a square newel stair turret extruded diagonally from the north-east corner.

The four-storey tower is battered with a plinth, a string course at second-floor level, and a battlemented parapet. The east principal front is of single-bay width. Lapping this and projecting forward of the right corner is a square battered stair turret reaching above roof level. The ground floor has a pair of dumbbell-shaped gun-loops immediately above the plinth, with three matching four-light mullioned windows lighting the floors above, the lowest set at a safe height. These windows are casement-moulded with king-mullions and four-centred heads to the lights. The lowest window is without a hood mould, allowing for enfilading fire from the stair. Above this, the second-floor window has a hood, and the top-floor window has both a hood and labels, each with serif 'W'. There are two granite water spouts. The single-bay stair turret has four matching casement-moulded mullioned windows, two below the string course and two at wider intervals above. The bottom window has a pistol loop just below the sill and off-centre. All leaded lights date from 1928. It is a well-organised elevation, domestic in character but strict, with adequate provision for defence.

To the right of the tower is a two-storey three-bay annex of 1928 with a slate roof and a right gable stack. Early worked stones were re-used indiscriminately. There is an off-centre right kitchen door from 1968 with three equally spaced single-light windows above.

The hall range formerly joined onto the north face of the tower; roof weatherings survive. In front is the two-window annex gable end, and above to the right at third-floor level is a two-light mullioned window without casement mouldings.

The single-bay stair turret projects forward, lapping the left corner, and the plinth, string course, and parapet continue across it. The door is in the turret, approached up two steps (originally one). A tall four-centred outer arch with a fat roll moulding stops on double-offset plinth blocks. Set back within this arch, a second smaller order of roll moulding frames the four-centred doorway itself, with frond spandrels and a blank tympanum. The intrados of the outer arch is cut away for a defensive slot at the crown. To the left is a pistol loop. Above are four matching two-light casement-moulded mullioned windows at unequal spacing, with a small ventilator to the right towards the top.

On the west and south faces, the string course and parapet continue, but the plinth is a simple set-off. The west wall has two dumbbell-shaped gun-loops to the ground floor, a small defensive single-light window to the first floor with a small ventilator far right, a small ventilator at either end on the second floor, and a two-light casement-moulded mullioned window towards the right at the top floor. There are two granite water spouts. The south face again has two dumbbell gun-loops on the ground floor, a very small defensive window far left on the first floor, a blind second floor, and a two-light casement-moulded mullioned window left of the top floor. The plinth returns from the east and the offset returns from the west; where the two meet, the curtain wall of the east courtyard formerly abutted.

The Tower: Interior

This tower is understood as a self-contained refuge, equivalent to a castle keep. The four rooms within progress upwards from a completely defensive basement to a completely domestic third floor. Each floor offsets so that they become larger.

The base of the stair forms a lobby inside the door, which has drawn-bar holes. The lobby retains its original paved floor. This space has several purposes and is carefully thought out, with access to the pistol loop by the door and under the stair, as well as access to the basement gun room. The basement is approached through a four-centred hollow-chamfered arch and down three original steps, passing through a short four-centred vault through the thickness of the wall (a feature repeated on the floors above). The basement floor dates from 1968. The north wall has one and remains of another keeping hole and was otherwise unpierced until access to the annex was created in 1927. The other three walls each have two round-arched embrasures (those to the east must have been reached by a firing step). Some parts of these sills are from 1968, but much is original, with evidence for sill steps allowing elevation of small-calibre guns such as falconets. They are not suited to use with hand guns.

The newel stair is well made. Its windows have relieving arches, curved granite lintels, and sills. Below the first window to the east is a pistol loop. The drum walls retain original pointing, keyed for plaster which was apparently never applied.

The only means of access to the rest of the house is by a small two-doored lobby. Between the doors is a defensive slot accessible from the first-floor room, probably a parlour, and aligned on some vanished ascent up to the tower from the hall. The outer doorhead was mutilated in 1927.

The first-floor room is entered through a four-centred multi-moulded doorway with draw-bar and bolt holes on the inside and an embrasure for the lobby slot in the right reveal. There are two original chamfered beams with complex finial stops; the rest of the ceiling dates from 1968. At the centre of the south wall is a moulded four-centred fireplace, and to its right a very small defensive window in a depressed four-centred reveal. At the centre of the west wall is another small defensive window in a tall four-centred reveal. In the south-west corner is a Tudor arch to a privy in the wall thickness, with a ventilator and keeping hole. The doorway to this privy re-uses moulded stones from the mid-15th-century house. On the stair up, the next window has a drop slot in the sill for defence of the outside door.

The door to the second-floor room is four-centred with a single thick roll moulding and inventively-resolved stops. This room has large areas of blank wall and is probably the site of the painted panelling recorded by Borlase. This panelling commemorated the marriage of William Milliton and Honour Godolphin (approximately 1535) and included a portrait of them, probably over the fireplace, flanked by a schematic view of Godolphin and an accurate view of Pengersick drawn from near the entrance gate with the east court added in false perspective. At the centre of the west wall is a three-centred fireplace with roll and cavetto mouldings undulating at the centre of the lintel over a knob, a motif derived from ogival forms, as seen at Trecarrel, Lezant. To the left is a very small defensive window, and far right is a privy off, similar to the one below but with the doorway set formed slightly due to inadequate wall thickness. There are two original beams with large chamfers and bar stops.

The third-floor room has a smaller three-centred fireplace in the north wall and a window in each wall. Because of the reduced wall thickness, the privy for this floor is a minimal one off the stair, with a ventilator. Access to the roof is from the top of the turret, where an interesting stepped compartment was partially reconstructed in 1968. It has two keeping holes and two windows, so it was probably intended for accommodation of the lookout. The stair roof is an incorrect restoration of 1968. Investigation revealed no evidence for a cross beam, only of stout joists. The roof is now flat but may have been pyramidal originally.

Wide stone parapet walks surround the tower, with ashlar chimney shafts behind the central merlons to the north, south, and west (the slate caps are 20th century). The battlements are clearly defensive, and each sill has a pocket for a hand gun fork. Access to the turret roof was by ladder. Battlements survive to the west, north, and east, but the south was originally open and was infilled, possibly in the later 16th century, with a flat-coped wall when the range of firearms rendered the position vulnerable.

Within the annex loft are plaster marks and stone weatherings. On the first floor is the mutilated connecting door to the tower.

Significance and History

There is no parallel to this building in the south-west, except perhaps putative towers at Trerice. The need for short-term defence on a site so vulnerable from the south coast at a time of constant threat from French and Spanish raids is obvious, but the form that the house took as a consequence is original.

There is a well-recorded history. In 1335, Henry 'Le Fort' Pengersick was excommunicated for wounding a priest. In 1526, John Milliton was implicated in the disappearance of valuables from the wreck of the King of Portugal's ship San Antonio. On the death of William Milliton in 1556, the estate was divided among his seven daughters, and the castle declined into ruin thereafter.

Sources include a drawing of the panelling by William Borlase held at the Cornwall Record Office, a drawing by Buckler in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and various prints including those by Buck (mid-18th century) and Hooper (early 19th century), as well as information from John Schofield.