The North Gatehouse Of Launceston Castle And Attached Walls

LAUNCESTON

SX3284 CASTLE STREET 660-1/4/31 The North Gatehouse of Launceston Castle and attached walls

GV I

Gatehouse of castle and attached walls. Mid/late C13, for Richard of Cornwall, partly demolished 1764. Slatestone rubble with lcoal greenstone and volanic stone dressings. Square gateway with rectangular building on its right (south). The outer face of the gateway has been cut back; the inner (east) face is a 2-centred arch of 3 chamfered orders; just inside the opening is the slot for an inner portcullis; the ribed vault has 2 complete bays and part of a third; there are weathered buttresses on either side. The gateway is reduced to the level of the apex of the relieving arch, (above this used to be a room for the constable). Building adjoining to south has small window opening looking into the bailey; there is evidence of 2 more openings and a pointed-arched doorway from within the passage with an old oak gate. INTERIOR: wall cupboards to party wall; stone-lined pit to south end of room, probably the base of a former C12 stone tower, which has the springing stones of a later vault. HISTORY: this room and its pit was later used as a prison, most notably for the containment of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, when committed in 1656 for distributing a religious paper near Land's End. (Saunders AD: Launceston Castle: London: 1984-; Kelly's Directories: Cornwall: 1902-: P.170).

Listing NGR: SX3304484656