St Mawes Castle - Falmouth, Cornwall (EH)
St Mawes and its larger sister castle, Pendennis, belong to a chain built by Henry VIII along the south coast of England between 1539 and 1545.
St Mawes was built on the eastern side of the mouth of the River Fal to protect the inland expanse of water known as the Carrick Roads. It consists of a central tower with lower bastions attached on three sides in a clover leaf pattern, providing a wide area for gun placements to protect this side of the estuary. It is by far the most decorated of Henry VIII's castle forts, as the stonework is embellished by string courses, gargoyles and detailed windows. The decoration survived partly because of St. Mawes prompt surrender to the Parliamentarian army of Lord Fairfax in 1646. Above the entrance is a carved Royal Coat of Arms and there are carved inscriptions inside and out proclaiming loyalty to the Crown . However, the gun loops on either side of the door seem positioned more for decorative effect than true defensive use; they provide a very restricted field of fire and inadequate sighting. Always the poorer sister of Pendennis, this castle was not well enough equipped to sustain a siege.
The central tower has four floors, two above and two below the entrance over the bridge. Inside, the decoration continues, with some surviving wooden carvings of a cherub, a monk and Tudor roses and fleur-de-lis. As at Pendennis, the gun decks are well designed, with the upper gun deck inside the tower having ventilation shafts above the placements to help disperse the smoke. The garrison probably slept with the guns during times of alert.
In the basement is the kitchen, lit by windows at ground level in the side bastions. There would have been a well here, which was superseded by a pump in the nineteenth century. Several guns are displayed in the forward gun room and as at Pendennis, you can see the sockets for the beams which held the shutters closed and supported the gun tackle for maneuverability.
The grounds at St Mawes are now a pretty garden, but the fortification continues and there is a large nineteenth century magazine as well as a tiny shoreline fort to complement that of Little Dennis across the sea at Pendennis.