Reasons for Designation
The Isles of Scilly, the westernmost of the granite masses of south west
England, contain a remarkable abundance and variety of archaeological remains
from over 4000 years of human activity. The remote physical setting of the
islands, over 40km beyond the mainland in the approaches to the English
Channel, has lent a distinctive character to those remains, producing many
unusual features important for our broader understanding of the social
development of early communities.
Throughout the human occupation there has been a gradual submergence of the
islands' land area, providing a stimulus to change in the environment and its
exploitation. This process has produced evidence for responses to such change
against an independent time-scale, promoting integrated studies of
archaeological, environmental and linguistic aspects of the islands'
settlement.
The islands' archaeological remains demonstrate clearly the gradually
expanding size and range of contacts of their communities. By the post-
medieval period (from AD 1540), the islands occupied a nationally strategic
location, resulting in an important concentration of defensive works
reflecting the development of fortification methods and technology from the
mid 16th to the 20th centuries. An important and unusual range of post-
medieval monuments also reflects the islands' position as a formidable hazard
for the nation's shipping in the western approaches.
The exceptional preservation of the archaeological remains on the islands has
long been recognised, producing an unusually full and detailed body of
documentation, including several recent surveys.
Civil War fieldworks are earthworks which were raised during military
operations between 1642 and 1651 to provide temporary protection for infantry
or to act as gun emplacements. The earthworks, which may have been reinforced
with revetting or palisades, consist of earth and rubble platforms or banks
and ditches.
The Civil War fieldworks of the Isles of Scilly form a major part of the 150
surviving examples of fieldworks recorded nationally. They present an
unusually complete system of fortifications from this period, both in the
surviving range of fieldwork types represented and in the surviving pattern of
their strategic disposition.
Three main types of Civil War fieldwork have been recognised on the Isles of
Scilly: breastworks, batteries and platforms; these could be deployed
separately or in combination to form a defensive complex.
Breastworks, which on the Isles of Scilly run beside the coastal cliff edge,
consist of an earth and rubble bank, up to 4m wide and nearly 2m high but
generally much smaller, usually accompanied by a ditch on the landward side.
Sixteen surviving examples are recorded on the island.
Batteries are levelled areas or platforms, generally up to 20m across,
situated on a hilltop or terraced into a slope to serve as gun emplacements.
They vary considerably in size and shape and are usually partially or wholly
enclosed by a bank, occasionally incorporating one or two outer ditches.
Twenty batteries survive on the Isles of Scilly, several connected by
breastworks. Adjacent to some batteries are examples of the third fieldwork
type, platforms. These are partly terraced into, and partly out from, sloping
ground and represent sites of lookouts and temporary buildings. Eight such
platforms, measuring up to 12m by 8m in size, are known to survive on the
islands. These fieldworks and fieldwork complexes were occasionally associated
with other classes of defensive monument on the islands, including earthen
artillery forts and blockhouses.
The fieldworks were designed to defend the deep water approaches to the
islands, especially St Mary's where most examples are found. Fieldworks are
also known from Tresco, Bryher, Samson, St Agnes and Gugh. The circumstances
of their construction are recorded in contemporary historical documents which
indicate most were built by the Royalist forces which controlled the islands
for the entire Civil War period except during 1646-8.
This Civil War battery at the Kettle and Pans rocks has survived well. Its
situation and the survival of documentation giving the historical context in
which this battery was built demonstrates clearly the strategic methods
employed by the Civil War military forces and the function of batteries within
them. This is also illustrated by the survival nearby of a second Civil War
battery covering the complementary field of fire from the western flank of
Peninnis Head. The documentary confirmation of this battery's refortification
during the early 18th century is unusual.
Details
The monument includes a gun battery dating to the English Civil War situated
near the southern tip of Peninnis Head, the southern extremity of St Mary's in
the Isles of Scilly.
The battery is located adjacent to a group of large natural granite outcrops
called the Kettle and Pans. It survives with a levelled sub-rectangular
internal area, measuring up to 10.5m NE-SW by 8m NW-SE, contained in a hollow
between the major outcrop of the Kettle and Pans to the north west and a much
smaller outcrop to the south east. The other sides of the battery are defined
by a bank, predominantly of earth and turves, measuring up to 4m wide and
rising up to 0.75m above the battery's interior. The bank forms straight sides
along the south west and SSE of the battery and a curving side from the east
to north east. The external height of the bank varies considerably due to the
contorted local topography and ranges from 0.6m high at the northern side to
1.75m at the south west side. The bank has two gaps, neither considered to be
an original feature. One gap, 1.25m wide, is located in the angle where the
south west and SSE sides meet; the other, 1.5m wide, is in the north east
curve of the battery and retains traces of the bank's outer scarp in its base.
Immediately north of the battery's bank is a triangular turf-covered area
considered to be the original levelled entry platform for artillery into the
battery. This area is defined to its east by a straight scarp-edge, 4m long,
running NNW from the eastern edge of the battery's bank to a group of surface
outcrops extending ENE from the upstanding outcrops of the Kettle and Pans;
the surface outcrops themselves form the north west limit of the triangular
area. The massive upstanding granite outcrops beside the battery provided
cover, and restricted the battery's field of fire, to the west and south east.
This battery at the Kettle and Pans rocks commanded the southern approach to
St Mary's Sound between the islands of St Mary's and Gugh. This forms the
approach from the south to the principal populated island of St Mary's, the
military and administrative focus of the Isles of Scilly during the Civil War.
Subsequent to its role in the English Civil War, a documentary reference
attests the refortification of this battery during the reign of Queen Anne
(1702-1714), a period dominated by threats from France and Spain in the War of
the Spanish Succession (1702-1713).
The outcrops adjacent to this battery prevented it from covering the
north east flank of St Mary's Sound itself and the strategically important
garrison at the south western tip of St Mary's. That field of fire was served
by a second Civil War battery located 110m to the west of this monument on the
south west flank of Peninnis Head.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
