2017

SX4350 : Cawsands Battery

taken 7 years ago, near to Cawsand, Cornwall, Great Britain

This is 1 of 5 images, with title Cawsands Battery in this square
Cawsands Battery
Cawsands Battery
Grade II listed. LinkExternal link
Kingsand and Cawsand

Kingsand and Cawsand are twin coastal villages in southeast Cornwall. The two villages are effectively one, as they merge together with no obvious demarcation. However, for a while Kingsand was in Devon, while Cawsand remained in Cornwall. This old boundary can be found on the house "Devon-Corn" (see SX4350 : Devon Corn). The boundary between the two counties was redrawn along the Tamar in 1844, when Kingsand returned to Cornwall.
Kingsand-Cawsand has several pubs: In Cawsand, The Cawsand Bay Hotel and The Cross Keys remain while The Criterion and The Ship (almost opposite each other in Garrett Street) have both closed. The former has been converted into a house, while the latter is in a sorry state awaiting renovation. In Kingsand there is The Halfway House, The Devonport and The Rising Sun, while the former Boatel has now closed and become a private dwelling.
Cawsand has just one shop, "The Shop in the Square" but Kingsand has several mostly clustered around The Cleave and up along Fore Street.
In summer there is a regular passenger ferry from Cawsand Beach across Cawsand Bay, past the breakwater and Plymouth Sound to the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth. This excellent little ferry (a former lifeboat from the Canberra, I believe) can be quite an eventful and exciting crossing in choppy seas, though if the weather becomes too fearsome it doesn't run. The ferry is used both by villagers travelling to Plymouth, and by residents of Plymouth visiting this very attractive part of Cornwall - to use the beach or to walk to nearby Mount Edgcumbe.
Kingsand-Cawsand is situated on the Rame peninsula and is surrounded by varied and dramatic countryside, with cliffs, bays, sandy beaches, undulating farmland and many woods and streams as well as numerous historic relics, most particularly the post-Napoleonic forts built by Palmerston in the mid C19th to deter the French. Many of these forts and batteries are now ruinous, but several such as Cawsand and Picklecombe Forts have been converted into exclusive apartments, while the largest of all, at Tregantle is still used by the Army and has an accompanying Danger Area (when red flags are flying) which extends down to Long Sands on Whitsand Bay.

Listed Buildings and Structures

Listed buildings and structures are officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance. There are over half a million listed structures in the United Kingdom, covered by around 375,000 listings.
Listed status is more commonly associated with buildings or groups of buildings, however it can cover many other structures, including bridges, headstones, steps, ponds, monuments, walls, phone boxes, wrecks, parks, and heritage sites, and in more recent times a road crossing (Abbey Road) and graffiti art (Banksy 'Spy-booth') have been included.

In England and Wales there are three main listing designations;
Grade I (2.5%) - exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important.
Grade II* (5.5%) - particularly important buildings of more than special interest.
Grade II (92%) - nationally important and of special interest.

There are also locally listed structures (at the discretion of local authorities) using A, B and C designations.

In Scotland three classifications are also used but the criteria are different. There are around 47,500 Listed buildings.
Category A (8%)- generally equivalent to Grade I and II* in England and Wales
Category B (51%)- this appears generally to cover the ground of Grade II, recognising national importance.
Category C (41%)- buildings of local importance, probably with some overlap with English Grade II.

In Northern Ireland the criteria are similar to Scotland, but the classifications are:
Grade A (2.3%)
Grade B+ (4.7%)
Grade B (93%)

Read more at Wikipedia LinkExternal link

Cawsands Battery

Cawsand Battery, also known as Cawsand Bay Battery or Cawsand Fort, is a former coastal fortification. The Grade II listed LinkExternal link fort lies between the villages of Kingsand and Cawsand southwest of Plymouth on the Rame Peninsula.
The battery was part of a fortification built in 1860 on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom around Plymouth and on the Rame peninsula to protect Plymouth and the Devonport naval base from enemy attacks. The Cawsand Battery should prevent together with the northern Fort Fort Picklecombe the entry of enemy ships into the Cawsand Bay.
During the test firing of the guns allegedly so many windowpanes shattered in the villages below the fort, that the guns were never fired afterwards again. The guns also quickly became obsolete after the completion of the fort, but were not replaced by more modern ones. In 1903 they were finally dismantled, then the fort was used until 1926 military. Subsequently, the plant decayed until it was converted from 1974 to private apartments. The former fort is privately inhabited today and cannot be visited.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright N Chadwick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Battery [7] Title Clusters: · Cawsands Battery [5] ·
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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Grid Square
SX4350, 285 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
N Chadwick   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Thursday, 1 June, 2017   (more nearby)
Submitted
Monday, 20 November, 2017
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SX 4334 5033 [10m precision]
WGS84: 50:19.9210N 4:12.1514W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SX 4379 5027
View Direction
WEST (about 270 degrees)
Clickable map
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SW S SE
Image Type (about): geograph 
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