Brixham Blockhouse

In the civil parish of Brixham. In the historic county of Devon (Modern Authority of Devon, 1974 county of Devon).

A blockhouse is recorded as under construction here in 1522. Possibly sited at Berry Head (SX9456) and lost under the later artillery fort, or in quarrying. Berry Head was a Iron Age promontory fortress formed by a great rampart 18 ft. high constructed across the narrow neck of land, approximately where the outer wall of the Napoleonic Fort now stands. However, Donn's map of 1765 (before the later fort of 1803) has "Ruins of a Danish Castle" marked just south of Shorstone Point (now called Shoalstone Point), a kilometer west of Berry Head and this may represent an alternative site of the Tudor blockhouse. Given the relatively short range of Tudor artillery the Shoalstone Point site seems more likely for a harbour defensive blockhouse.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SX937567

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

• Web site links
  • http://www.devon.gov.uk/etched?url=etched/ixbin/hixclient.exe&_IXP_=1&_IXR=100459
• Journal Articles
  • Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' Archaeological Journal Vol138 p219
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • Letters and Papers of Henry VIII (1519-23) p997 no2355