page_title: St Catherine's Castle
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: St Catherine's Castle / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Battery at St Catherine' s Castle
context_page_description: St Catherine's Castle is a Henrician castle in Cornwall, built by Thomas Treffry between approximately 1538 and 1540, in response to fears of an invasion of England by France and the Holy Roman Empire. The D-shaped, stone fortification, equipped with five gun-ports for cannon, overlooked the mouth of the River Fowey in Cornwall. It was protected by a curtain wall and the surrounding cliffs. The castle remained in use for many years until it was closed at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Brought back into service in 1855 during the Crimean War, it was fitted with two new artillery positions, but it soon became obsolete and was abandoned. During the Second World War the castle was refortified and used to house a battery of naval guns, protecting the coast against the threat of German attack. At the end of the conflict the castle was restored to its previous condition and is now managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction.
context_section_description: The 16th century blockhouse is a two-storey, D-shaped design, 5 by 4.4 metres (16 by 14 ft) internally, with walls of slate rubble up to 1.35 metres (4 ft 5 in) thick resting on a platform cut out of the bedrock. The ground floor originally had three semi-circular gun-ports overlooking the sea and the estuary, although one has since been blocked up. On the first floor were two more gun-ports—one now filled in—and smaller windows that could have been used for smaller gunpowder weapons. The building had a fireplace and chimney, with a small guard chamber by the entrance, and was topped by a parapet walk.
  The blockhouse overlooks the sea and the estuary from its position on a rocky outcrop. It is surrounded by cliffs and a curtain wall, enclosing a semi-circular area around 500 square metres (5,400 sq ft) in size, incorporating slits for firing muskets. A rectangular bastion, 5.7 by 3.2 metres (19 by 10 ft) internally with 0.75 metres (2 ft 6 in) thick walls, protects the rear of the blockhouse. The original pathway to the blockhouse was blocked by later work, and the current steps up to the building are of 19th century origin.
  A flat-roofed magazine was cut out of the rock just below the blockhouse in the 19th century, and a gun platform with two circular recesses for gun carriage rails was constructed, protected by a granite parapet. The curtain wall was reworked in this period and marked by plaques labelled  "WD 1855". The recesses and marks from the additional defences in the Second War can still be seen in places along the gun platform.
caption: 19th-century gun platforms
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 6", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 10.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2016:09:04 09:04:57", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "236", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[50, 19, 2099/50]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[4, 38, 998/25]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "7313/411", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[13, 51, 1903/100]", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "0", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "36967/130", "GPS GPSDestBearingRef": "T", "GPS GPSDestBearing": "36967/130", "GPS GPSDate": "2016:08:14", "Image GPSInfo": "760", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1146", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8574", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1199", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "32", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:08:14 14:51:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:08:14 14:51:19", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "3549/347", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7983/3509", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "11741/1204", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "166", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "166", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5111", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2834", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "6", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "29", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[83/20, 83/20, 11/5, 11/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 6 back camera 4.15mm f/2.2"}