Kingswear Castle coastal artillery heavy cannon Devon England Dartmouth Castle fort Dart Estuary
Kingswear Castle was built between 1491 and 1502 as a coastal artillery tower for use with heavy cannon. It is located in Devon, England. Owing to the limited range of cannon at the time, the fort at Kingswear was designed to work alongside Dartmouth Castle on the opposite bank, so that between them they could provide complete cover of the narrow entrance through the Dart estuary into Dartmouth Harbour. As gun technology improved and the range of the weapons increased, new gun emplacements were added to Dartmouth Castle, aiming further out towards the estuary mouth. This led to a decline in the defensive role of Kingswear Castle. Unlike Dartmouth Castle, Kingswear Castle is owned by the Landmark Trust, and is not generally accessible to the public. Dartmouth Castle is one of a pair of forts, the other being Kingswear Castle, that guard the mouth of the Dart Estuary in Devon, England (grid reference SX885503). A small fortalice (coastal fort) was built in 1388 under the direction of John Hawley (rumoured to be the basis for the Shipman in Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'). The present Guntower building is the earliest surviving English coastal fortress specifically built to carry guns. It was built by the corporation of Dartmouth between 1481 and 1495 and additions, including open-air gun platforms, were made during the 16th century by Henry VIII and again in the 17th century in order to accommodate new military technology. During the Civil War it was besieged for one month and then taken by the Royalists, who then constructed an earthwork fort above the Castle at Gallant's Bower to protect its landward side. After being held by them for 3 years it was attacked and taken by Sir Thomas Fairfax for the Parliamentarians in 1646. The castle continued in use as a working fort until the nineteenth century, when it housed no less than five huge 64-pdr cannons on traversing carriages.
Size: 3884px × 2776px
Photo credit: © SOTK2011 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 1800, 1895, 19th, 2d, academic, age, aged, ancient, antiquarian, antique, antiquity, art, artillery, artistic, attraction, bathing, bay, beach, black, book, britain, british, bw, bygone, castle, century, classical, coast, coastal, coastline, copy, cut, cut-, dartmouth, dot, dots, drawing, embossed, empire, england, expression, figure, fishing, formal, front, graphic, gravel, great, gulf, halftone, hand, heritage, historic, historical, history, holiday, holidays, illustrated, illustration, image, ireland, isle, isles, kingdom, kingswear, landmark, master, monotone, national, nineteenth, notable, obscure, obsolete, ocean, olden, original, paper, pebbles, period, photo, photograph, pictorial, picture, portrait, pre, press, print, printed, printing, publication, publicity, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, relief, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, reprographic, resort, retro, rock, romantic, sand, scotland, screen, sea, seashore, shingle, shore, shoreline, social, standard, steel, studio, style, teach, technique, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tourism, tourist, tourists, town, tract, uk, united, unusual, victoria, victorian, village, vintage, wales, white
