Cromwells Castle

TRESCO

SVB1NE Cromwell's Castle 1358-0/1/114

II*

Gun tower. 1651-2 with gun platform added c1740 by Abraham Tovey, Master Gunner. Randomly coursed granite rubble; granite platform roofs; stone stacks. Circular-plan tower with rectangular C18 gun platform addition on seaward side with external staircase. Tower has original entrance high up on south side, which had platform on stone corbels (still remaining) outside it; rectangular gunports, that to east in raised ovolo-moulded surround. Granite steps to chamfered arched doorway and winder stairs to C18 platform, which has 6 gun embrasures with segmental arches and inserted entrance to tower flanked by lean-tos consisting of a guardroom with fireplace and a latrine. Interior: tower built with unlighted basement below two accommodation floors, now with holes for missing floor joists and vaulted roof with ribs to upper room, which has chamfered surround to fireplace with chamfered segmental-arched relieving arch and simply moulded bases and capitals to piers dividing window embrasures. Spiral staircase and rebated doorways to platform. Shouldered chamfered segmental-arched entrance to winder stair rising through chamfered arched doorway to tower platform. Built following a threat to the islands by the Dutch, replacing the poorly sited King Charles Castle (q.v.). Scheduled as an Ancient Monument. (P Laws: The Buildings of Scilly: Redruth: 1980-: 8; B.H. St.J.O'Neil: Isles of Scilly: London (HMSO): 1950-: 18-19; Buildings of England: Pevsner, N and Ratcliffe, E: Cornwall: London: 1951-1970: 211; Saunders A: Fortress Britain: Liphook: 1989-: 28-30).

Listing NGR: SV8818115968