Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Mount Batten: 17th century artillery tower, Civil War breastwork, and World War II remains

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1017599
Date first listed:: 08-Oct-1981

User submitted image — Uploaded by Alan Murray-Rust This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1017599
Date first listed:: 08-Oct-1981
Date of most recent amendment:: 08-Dec-1997

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: City of Plymouth (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SX 48587 53222

Reasons for Designation

Plymouth's position on the south coast and at the western approaches to the English Channel has made it vulnerable to military attack over a period extending back to the 15th century and the limestone headland of Mount Batten has played a role in the defence of Plymouth from the 16th century. Its strategic position in relation to Plymouth Sound was recognised during the threat of Spanish invasion during the 1580s. Later, during the Civil War, an earthwork was constructed on the headland by the Parliamentarian forces resisting the siege of Plymouth by Royalist forces. Following the victory of Parliament the Mount Batten artillery tower was constructed to overlook Cattewater and the Sound, perhaps in readiness for the war with the Dutch. The tower survives well and illustrates the strategic importance of Mount Batten, a point further illustrated three centuries later by the number of World War II emplacements located on the headland as defence against attack from both air and sea. The part Mount Batten played in the defence of Plymouth is well documented, and identifies the importance of the site over five centuries as one of the nation's most important naval ports and dockyards.

Details

The monument, which corresponds to the surviving limestone plateau of Mount Batten, includes a 17th century artillery tower, and a Civil War breastwork as well as sundry World War II remains. The headland of Mount Batten projects into the upper eastern reaches of Plymouth Sound and the Cattewater opposite the harbour and has provided a natural location for the seaward defences of the city of Plymouth over the preceeding centuries. The 17th century artillery tower of three storeys was built on the headland perhaps between 1645-60 as part of the defences of Plymouth Sound and is named after Captain Batten, the Parliamentarian naval commander at Plymouth during the Civil War. It is a circular tower 9.1m high, 14m in diameter, and with walls approximately 1m thick; it has a castellated parapet with embrasures for ten guns. It is entered by a modern external stair and has original internal stairs leading to the roof and basement. A Civil War earthwork was noted close to the tower in 1882; this earthwork is thought to date from the siege of Plymouth from 1643-45 and may be part of a Parliamentarian retreat-work shown on a contemporary Royalist map. It survives as a slight bank and ditch on the south western side of the seaward slope of the headland. During World War II the need for effective air and coastal defence saw the area of Mount Batten given over to both air and sea defence structures. These structures include the remains of two Light Anti-Aircraft gun emplacements and a signal identification panel on the area of the plateau south west of the artillery tower, and two L-shaped anti-submarine searchlight batteries of brick and shuttered concrete construction which survive intact minus their searchlights; they lie just above the high water mark of medium tides on the south west rock bench of the headland. Excluded from the scheduling are all Department of Environment and post World War II signposts, the modern external flight of stairs on the artillery tower, all post-World War II walls, fencing, tarmac, concrete surfaces, make- up for modern surfaces, railings, and modern steps, although the ground beneath all of these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 29630
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Pye, A, Woodward, F, The Historic Defences of Plymouth, (1996), 136-7
Pye, A, Woodward, F, The Historic Defences of Plymouth, (1996), 138
Pye, A, Woodward, F, The Historic Defences of Plymouth, (1996), 136
Gray, T, Stoyle, M, 'History Today' in A Cavalier Cartographer, , Vol. 44(3), (1994)
Other
Report No 96.27, Dyer, M and Rance, C, Mount Batten Headland Public Open Space - Arch Assessment, (1996)
Title: Map of Defences of Plymouth Source Date: 1716 Author: Publisher: Surveyor: Kings Mss 45 f34
Title: Plan of Citadel and Defences Source Date: 1668 Author: Publisher: Surveyor: Mss 16731D

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.