Tresco is the second-biggest island of the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall, England. It is 297 hectares (1.15 sq mi) in size, measuring about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) by 1.75 kilometres (1.09 mi).
St Mary's is the largest and most populous island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwest coast of Cornwall in England.
A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It usually refers to an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery, air force and cruise missiles. A fortification intended to resist these weapons is more likely to qualify as a fortress or a redoubt, or in modern times, be an underground bunker. However, a blockhouse may also refer to a room within a larger fortification, usually a battery or redoubt.
Bryher is one of the smaller of the inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly.
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.
Bayard's Cove Fort, also known historically as Berescove or Bearscore Castle, is an English 16th-century artillery blockhouse, built to defend the harbour entrance at Dartmouth in Devon. Constructed in the early part of the century, it had eleven gunports for heavy artillery and was intended to engage enemy vessels that broke past the external defences of the Dartmouth and Kingswear castles. It remained armed during the English Civil War, but was neglected in the 18th century and used for storage. The fort was restored in the late 19th century and is now managed by English Heritage and open to visitors.
King Charles's Castle is a ruined artillery fort overlooking New Grimsby harbour on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. Built between 1548 and 1551 to protect the islands from French attack, it would have held a battery of guns and an accompanying garrison, designed to prevent enemy vessels from entering the harbour. The castle is polygonal in design, constructed from granite stone, with the gun battery at the front, and a dining room, kitchen and living accommodation at the rear. An additional defensive earthwork was constructed around it during the 17th century. The design of the castle is unusual for the period, and is only seen elsewhere in blockhouses along the River Thames.
Tresco Abbey Gardens are located on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom. The 17 acre gardens were established by the nineteenth-century proprietor of the islands, Augustus Smith, originally as a private garden within the grounds of the home he designed and built. The gardens are designated at Grade I in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
St Helen's is one of the fifty or so uninhabited islands in the archipelago of the Isles of Scilly and has an approximate area of 0.1885 square kilometres. On the south side of the island is one of the earliest Christian sites in Scilly, an early medieval religious complex, which is thought to be the remains of St Elidius Hermitage, an 8th-century chapel lived in by Saint Lide,. There are also the remains of an isolation hospital used to quarantine sailors with plague. The island is the major part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest and some features have been given the designation of scheduled ancient monument. Access to the island is through chartered or private boat, although there are some season trips throughout the summer. St Helen's is currently managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.
The Isles of Scilly is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over 4 miles (6.4 km) further south than the most southerly point of the British mainland at Lizard Point.
RNAS Tresco was a Royal Naval Air Service base on Tresco, the second largest island in the Isles of Scilly. From February 1917 to May 1919 aircraft patrolled the Western Approaches and provided an escort for convoys. A total of thirteen U-boats were sighted and nine attacked.
Old Grimsby is a coastal settlement on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, England. It is located on the east side of the island and there is a quay. At the southern end of the harbour bay is the Blockhouse, a 16th-century fort built to defend the harbour from attack.
Peninnis Head is the southernmost point of St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. The headland is within the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and part of the Heritage Coast. It is also a Geological Conservation Review site for its Quaternary geomorphology and was first designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1971 for both its biological and geological interests. On the tip of the headland is a squat lighthouse built in 1911 by Trinity House as a replacement for the 17th century lighthouse on St Agnes.
Castle Down is a windswept plateau of maritime heath in the northern part of the island of Tresco, Isles of Scilly. The area has a number of designations including Castle Down (Tresco) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI); is part of the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty; part of the Isles of Scilly Heritage Coast; and part of Plantlife's Isles of Scilly Important Plant Area. There are a number of Schedule Ancient Monument's ranging in age from Bronze Age cairns to castles built in the 16th and 17th centuries to protect the anchorage of New Grimsby harbour.
The Old Blockhouse, also known as the Dover Fort, is a 16th-century fortification on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. It was built between 1548 and 1551 by the government of Edward VI to protect the islands against French attack.
Oliver's Battery is a ruined artillery battery on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly off of Cornwall, England. It was built by the Parliamentarian admiral, Sir Robert Blake, after he invaded Tresco in April 1651 during the years of the interregnum. It was used to bombard the neighbouring island of St Mary's, which was still held by an opposing Royalist army, and forced its surrender several weeks later. The battery comprised a triangle of ramparts, constructed using earth and rubble, which, combined with the natural stone features on the site, produced a substantial, if crude, fortification. It is now ruined, and owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.
Tresco is a civil parish in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, England. The parish contains 16 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, two are listed at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The largest island in the parish is Tresco, and the parish also includes Round Island with its listed lighthouse. The oldest listed building consists of the ruins of a Benedictine priory dating from about 1300. The island had a strategic importance and this is reflected in its three listed fortifications. In the 19th century a country house, Tresco Abbey, was built close to the ruins of the priory, and its grounds have been transformed into Tresco Abbey Gardens. Listed buildings in addition to those mentioned above include houses, farm outbuildings, a church, a monument, and the wall of a former kelp pit.
Harry's Walls are the remains of an unfinished artillery fort, started in 1551 by the government of Edward VI to defend the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. Constructed to defend the harbour of Hugh Town from possible French attack, the fortification incorporated Italianate-style bastions with protective orillons and would have been the most advanced design in the kingdom at the time. It was not completed, probably due to a shortage of funds and the passing of the invasion threat, and only the south-west side remains. In the 21st century, Harry's Walls are managed by English Heritage and open to visitors.
This is a list of scheduled monuments in Cornwall, United Kingdom. Monuments are listed by Historic England as part of the National Heritage List for England. For the scope of this list, the Isles of Sicily are included and the ceremonial county boundaries are used.
Dr Allan Brodie is a British historian and architectural historian. His expertise includes medieval ecclesiastical architecture and the history of tourism in Britain. He studied for his MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London in 1982, the subject of his dissertation being the chronology of the East End of Rochester Cathedral. Photographs contributed by Allan Brodie to the Courtauld's Conway Library archive are currently being digitised as part of the Courtauld Connects project. In 2021 he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Westminster on The Urban Character of the Early English Seaside Resort 1700-1847. The award was based on a new commentary, seven published papers and two books.
