" Harbour at Fowey Cornwall July 1832 & RESTORMAL CASTLE CORNWALL & St Winnow Cornwall "
Fowey is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local church first established some time in the 7th century; the estuary of the River Fowey forms a natural harbour which enabled the town to become an important trading centre. Privateers also made use of the sheltered harbourage. The Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway brought China clay here for export. At the 2021 census the population of the parish was 2,244 and the population of the built up area was 2,069.
The Domesday Book survey at the end of the 11th century records manors at Penventinue and Trenant, and a priory was soon established nearby at Tywardreath. c. 1300 the prior granted a charter to people living in Fowey itself. This medieval town ran from a north gate near Boddinick Passage to a south gate at what is now Lostwithiel Street; the town extended a little way up the hillside and was bounded on the other side by the river where merchants had their houses backing onto the waterfront. The natural harbour allowed trade to develop with continental Europe and local ship owners often hired their vessels to the king to support various wars, although the town also developed a reputation for piracy, as did many others at this time. A group of privateers known as the 'Fowey Gallants' were given licence to seize enemy vessels during the Hundred Years' War. In the 14th century the harbour was defended by 160 archers; after these were withdrawn, two blockhouses were built, one on each side of the harbour entrance. Despite these defences the town was attacked by Breton pirates in 1457. Place House, by the church, was successfully defended against the French but subsequently strengthened. This building still exists, but much remodelled. A small castle was built on St Catherine's Point, the western side of the harbour entrance, around 1540. The defences proved their worth when a Dutch attack was beaten off in 1667.
The people of Fowey generally sided with the Royalists during the English Civil War, but in 1644 the Earl of Essex brought a Parliamentarian army to Lostwithiel and occupied the peninsula around Fowey. In August, a Royalist army surrounded Essex's troops and King Charles I himself viewed Fowey from Hall Walk above Polruan, where he came close to being killed by a musket shot. On 31 August, the Parliamentarian cavalry forced their way through the Royalist lines and retreated towards Saltash, leaving the foot soldiers to be evacuated by sea from Fowey. Essex and some officers did indeed escape, but the majority of the force surrendered a few days later near Golant and were then marched to Poole, but most died before reaching there.
There was a Barbary raid on Fowey in 1645, with 240 men, women, and children captured as slaves.
Later history
The fortunes of the harbour became much reduced, with trade going to Plymouth and elsewhere instead. Fishing became more important, but local merchants were often appointed as privateers and did some smuggling on the side. Tin, copper and iron mines, along with quarries and china clay pits became important industries in the area, which led to improvements at rival harbours. West Polmear beach was dug out to become Charlestown harbour circa 1800, as was Pentewan in 1826. Joseph Austen shipped copper from Caffa Mill Pill above Fowey for a while before starting work on the new Par harbour in 1829. Fowey had to wait another forty years before it saw equivalent development, but its natural deep-water anchorage and a rail link soon gave it an advantage over the shallow artificial harbours nearer to the mines and china clay works. Meanwhile, a beacon tower was erected on the Gribben Head by Trinity House to improve navigation into Fowey and around Par bay.
The Fowey Harbour Commissioners were established by an Act of Parliament in 1869, to develop and improve the harbour. On 1 June in that year, the 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway was opened to new jetties situated above Carne Point, and in 1873, the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Cornwall Minerals Railway (CMR) opened a line from Newquay and Par to further jetties between Caffa Mill Pill and Carne Point. Both of these railways initially carried just goods, but on 20 June 1876, a passenger station was opened on the CMR on land reclaimed from Caffa Mill Pill. The Lostwithiel line closed at the end of 1879 but was reopened by the CMR as a standard gauge line in 1895, and the short gap between the two lines at Carne Point was eliminated. Passenger trains from Par were withdrawn after 1934 and from Lostwithiel in 1965. The Par line was subsequently converted to a dedicated roadway for lorries bringing china clay from Par after which all trains had to run via Lostwithiel.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution established Fowey Lifeboat Station near the Town Quay in 1922 to replace an earlier station at Polkerris. This was replaced in 1997, by a new facility in Passage Street. Two lifeboats are stationed at Fowey: Maurice and Joyce Hardy, a Trent Class all weather boat that is kept afloat opposite the lifeboat station, and Olive Two, an IB1 inshore lifeboat kept inside the station and launched by davit.
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Fowey was the main port for loading ammunition for the US 29th Division that landed on Omaha Beach on D Day during the Second World War. There was a munitions siding at Woodgate Pill just north of Fowey, originally built for the Great War conflict.
St Winnow's Church, St Winnow is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in St Winnow, Cornwall.
The church is probably built on the site of the 7th century oratory of St Winnoc. A stone church was built in the 12th century, probably cruciform in plan, and there are traces of the Norman stonework on the north side. The transept arch was reconstructed in the 13th century. About 1465 the south wall was demolished and the south aisle, arcade and roofs built.
The chancel was restored by John Dando Sedding between 1873 and 1874. A new Polyphant Stone window was put in the chancel end, with a stained glass window featuring the crucifixion and bearing the inscription Absit ut glorier nisi in cruce (May I glory in nothing but the cross). Two new Polyphant Stone windows were inserted in the nave. The chancel was roofed with oak, and stalls were fitted. It was laid with encaustic and glazed tiles. The nave was reseated in pitch-pine. The rood screen was restored and fixed on the south side of the chancel. It was reopened for worship by the Lord Bishop of Exeter Rt. Revd. Frederick Temple on 11 April 1874.
Restormel Castle lies by the River Fowey near Lostwithiel in Cornwall, England, UK. It is one of the four chief Norman castles of Cornwall, the others being Launceston, Tintagel and Trematon. The castle is notable for its perfectly circular design. Once a luxurious residence of the Earl of Cornwall, the castle was all but ruined by the 16th century. It was briefly reoccupied and fought over during the English Civil War, but was subsequently abandoned. It is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.
Architecture
Located on a spur overlooking the River Fowey, Restormel Castle is an unusually well-preserved example of a circular shell keep, a rare type of fortification built during a short period in the 12th and early 13th centuries. 71 examples are known in England and Wales, of which Restormel Castle is the most intact. Such castles were built by converting a wooden motte-and-bailey castle, the external palisade replaced by a stone wall and the internal bailey filled with domestic stone buildings. These were clustered around the inside of the wall to provide a defence. The buildings are curved to fit into the shell keep, in an extreme example of the 13th-century trend.
The wall measures 38 metres (125 ft) in diameter and is up to 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) thick. It still stands to its full height with a wall walk 7.6 metres (25 ft) above the ground, and the battlemented parapet is also reasonably intact. The wall is surrounded in turn by a ditch 15 metres (49 ft) by 4 metres (13 ft) deep. Both the wall and the internal buildings were constructed from slate, which appears to have been quarried from the scarp face north-east of the castle.
The domestic buildings within the wall included a kitchen, hall, solar, guest chambers, and an ante-chapel. Water from a spring was piped under pressure into the castle buildings. A square gate tower, largely ruined, guards the entrance to the inner castle, and may have been the first part of the castle to have been partially constructed in stone. On the opposite side, a square tower projecting from the wall contains the chapel; it is thought to have been a 13th-century addition. It appears to have been converted into a gun emplacement during the English Civil War. An external bailey wall, apparently constructed of timber with earthwork defences, has since been destroyed, leaving no trace. There are also historical references to a dungeon, also now vanished.
The castle appears to stand upon a motte; its massive walls were, unusually for the period, sunk deep into the original motte. The effect is heightened by a surrounding ringwork, subsequently filled in on the inner side so as to appear to heap against the castle wall.This may have been done to provide a garden walk around the ruin in a later period.
History
Restormel was part of the fiefdom of the Norman magnate Robert, Count of Mortain, located within the manor of Bodardle in the parish of Lanlivery. Restormel Castle was probably built after the Norman Conquest of England as a motte and bailey castle around 1100 by Baldwin Fitz Turstin, the local sheriff.Baldwin's descendants continued to hold the manor as vassals and tenants of the Earls of Cornwall for nearly 200 years.
Constructed in the middle of a large deer park, the castle overlooked the primary crossing point over the River Fowey, a key tactical location;. It may have been originally used as a hunting lodge as well as a fortification.
Robert de Cardinham, lord of the manor between 1192 and 1225, built up the inner curtain walls and converted the gatehouse completely to stone, giving the castle its current design. The town of Lostwithiel was established close to the castle at around the same time. The castle belonged to the Cardinhams for several years, who used it in preference to their older castle at Old Cardinham. Andrew de Cardinham's daughter, Isolda de Cardinham, married Thomas de Tracey, who owned the castle until 1264.
The castle was seized in 1264 without fighting by Simon de Montfort during the civil conflicts in the reign of Henry III, and was seized back in turn by the former High Sheriff of Cornwall, Sir Ralph Arundell, in 1265. After some persuasion, Isolda de Cardinham granted the castle to Henry III's brother, Richard of Cornwall in 1270. Richard died in 1271, and his son Edmund took over Restormel as his main administrative base, building the inner chambers to the castle during his residence there and titling it his "duchy palace". The castle in this period resembled a "miniature palace", with luxurious quarters and piped water. It was home to stannary administration and oversaw the profitable tin-mines in the town.
Crown ownership and fall into ruin
After Edmund's death in 1299 the castle reverted to the Crown, and from 1337 onwards the castle was one of the 17 antiqua maneria of the Duchy of Cornwall. It was rarely used as a residence, although Edward the Black Prince stayed at the castle in 1354 and 1365. The prince used these occasions to gather his feudal subjects at the castle to pay him homage. After the loss of Gascony, one of the key possessions of the Duchy, the contents of the castle were removed to other residences. With an absent lord, the stewardship of the castle became much sought after, and the castle and its estate became known for its efficient administration.
The castle is recorded as having fallen into disrepair in a 1337 survey of the possessions of the Duchy of Cornwall. It was extensively repaired by order of the Black Prince, but declined again following his death in 1376. When the antiquary John Leland saw it in the 16th century, it had fallen into ruin and had been extensively robbed for its stonework; as he put it, "the timber rooted up, the conduit pipes taken away, the roofe made sale of, the planchings rotten, the wals fallen down, and the hewed stones of the windowes, dournes, and clavels, pluct out to serve private buildings; onely there remayneth an utter defacement, to complayne upon this unregarded distresse."
Henry VIII converted the castle's parkland to ordinary countryside. With the castle out of use, a manor house was established during the 16th century a short distance away on lower-lying land adjoining the river. It is said to have been built on the site of a chapel dedicated to the Trinity that was destroyed during the English Reformation. Restormel Manor, now a grade II listed building, is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and is subdivided into luxury apartments with holiday accommodation in the outbuildings. During Christmas in 2009, the then Kate Middleton stayed there and won a landmark victory over a paparazzo who photographed her there.
Restormel has seen action only once during its long history, when a Parliamentary garrison occupied the ruins and made some basic repairs during the Civil War. It was invested by an opposing force loyal to Charles I, led by Sir Richard Grenville, a local member of the gentry who had been the member of parliament for Fowey before the war. Grenville stormed the castle on 21 August 1644, whilst manoeuvring to encircle Parliamentary forces. It is not clear whether it was subsequently slighted but in a Parliamentary survey of 1649, it was recorded to be utterly ruined, with only the outer walls still standing, and was deemed to be too badly ruined to repair and too worthless to demolish.
By the 19th century it had become a popular attraction. The French writer Henri-François-Alphonse Esquiros, who visited the castle in 1865, described the ruins as forming "what the English call a romantic scene." He noted that the ivy-covered ruins attracted visitors for "for picnics and parties of pleasure". In 1846 the British royal family visited the castle; arriving on their yacht, Victoria and Albert, up the River Fowey
Richard Suter was born in Greenwich, Kent on 30th March 1798, to William Suter and his wife Sarah Knights. On 7th January 1825 he married Anne Ruth Burn.
English architect. As Surveyor to The Fishmongers' Company he designed the severe Presbyterian churches for Ballykelly (1825–7) and Banagher (1825) on the Company's Estate in County Londonderry, drawings of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1827. He was also responsible for the Model Farm (1823–4), the Lancasterian Schools (1828–30), the Company Agent's House (1830–2—now a hotel, much altered), a range of houses on the south side of the main road (1823–4), the lodge in the Presbyterian churchyard (1828), and the Dispensary (1829), all at Ballykelly, and all Classical. As Surveyor to Trinity House Corporation, he designed houses that were erected by Thomas Cubitt in 1821–3 on a site adjoining Trinity House. For The Fishmongers' Company he designed St Peter's Almshouses, Wandsworth, London (1849–51), and The Old School-House, Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk(1859), in an Elizabethan style.
On the 1841 Census Richard, an architect and lawyer, can be found living in London with his wife Ann (listed as Ruth) and their two children, Richard George and Andrew Burn. Living with them is Edward D Suter. 1851 finds the family living in Tottenham Court in London, by this time Andrew had left the home, but I am unable to trace him on the 1851 Census. In 1860 Andrew marries Amelia Damaris Harrison. Both Richard George and Andrew were to become ordained ministers, with Andrew later becoming a Bishop and emigrating to New Zealand. Sadly in 1854 Anne Ruth was to pass away. In 1861, widowed Richard, Justice of the Peace for Maidenhead, is living at Castle Hill, Maidenhead, Berkshire. In 1862 he married Elizabeth Anne Pocock. In 1871 and 1881 Richard and Elizabeth are still living in Castle Hill. Richard was to pass away on 1st March1883.
Richard Suter & Annesley Voysey, architects, had their office at number 35 Fenchurch Street, but they did not have it all to themselves as they shared the premises with W.C. Franks, a tea broker, who will get a separate post some other time. The earliest mention I found of Richard Suter in Fenchurch Street is in 1832 when he is listed at that address in a list of contributing members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. It says that he had been a member since 1829, but that does not mean he was already at 35 Fenchurch Street in that year.(1) In fact, that seems unlikely as the Sun Fire Office records give Messrs. Short and Co., merchants, as paying the insurance premium on the premises in May 1830. The Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 give the year 1827, but I do not know on what evidence. When Suter and Voysey became partners is also uncertain, but they had known each other since at least 1825 as Suter is named as one of the executors of Voysey’s will which was dated 22 July, 1825. The address given for Suter in the will is Suffolk Street, Southwark. Voysey then lives at Conway Street, Fitzroy Square.