Description

SX 44 NW MAKER-WITH-RAME

8/75 Polhawn Fort
19.11.86

GV II*

Fort, used as hotel in early C20, now house. 1865, with very few later alterations.
Limestone rockfaced coursed rubble with granite dressings and quoins, brick
dressings.
Plan: splayed front with 3 bays to right and 4 to left, single storey ravelin to rear
centre, stair tower to each end. Single storey with basement for stores and
magazine.
Front has 7 embrasures for guns, all with segmental heads, stepped and splayed
reveals, bull-nose moulding over as string course with parapet and chamfered
overhanging blocking course. Basement level to right has 3 narrower splayed
embrasures, with triplet casements of 4 panes each, with one similar embrasure to
left.
Right end has bull-nose moulding returned from front. Left end also has moulding
returned, with wide segmental-headed opening at ground level (to basement) with
splayed side walls. Rear has central single storey ravelin with small embrasure to
left and right, and blocking course. To left and right of ravelin, 3 segmental brick
arches of 5 courses of brickwork, each arch is over a pair of casements of 12 panes
each light with granite surrounds. The bull-nose moulding is continued around rear,
with parapet and coping, parapet ramped up to left, with brick stacks rising from
parapet. Greenhouses on roof behind front parapet, and half-glazed door in porch on
roof to rear right,, giving access to stair. The rear right of the roof is approached
by a drawbridge over the rear ditch with pulley chains remaining.
Interior: The stair towers to left and right rear each have cantilevered granite
newel stair. The ground floor has vaulted bays with partition walls, some of the
embrasures still have the semicircular metal track in the floor for pivoting the gun
carriages. Segmental-arched doorways between the vaulted chambers. At basement
level, to rear there is a shell-chute, and the door to the magazine is 4-panelled
with strap hinges and has printed lettering: MAGAZINE. The magazine is to the left,
front right has store rooms/barrack accommodation, each lit by one of the triplet
windows. The interior is very little altered.
In 1859, a Commission was formed "to consider the Defences of the United Kingdom",
after the pressure of public opinion following the news that the French navy were
building iron-clad warships. This was set up by Palmerston. The design of the forts
was in the hands of the royal Engineers, in the person of Colonel, later Lt. General,
Sir W.F. Drummond Jarvis RE. Polhawn Fort was intended to command the approach to
the eastward side of Whitsand Bay and cost £8850. (Sources: Rawlings, K.J.: Defence
Works Plymouth Area 130o-19B3, 1984)

Listing NGR: SX4205449224

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Polhawn Fort official website
• Wikidata Q15124999

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings