Spanish Battery
Spanish Battery
HER Number
136
District
N Tyneside
Site Name
Spanish Battery
Place
Tynemouth
Map Sheet
NZ36NE
Class
Defence
Site Type: Broad
Coastal Defence Site
Site Type: Specific
Coastal Battery
General Period
POST MEDIEVAL
Specific Period
Tudor 1485 to 1603
Form of Evidence
Earthwork
Description
This title includes all post-Dissolution defences outside Tynemouth Castle. In Period 1, 1545, it comprised an outwork in front of the gate-house, a battery on the low promontory to the south of the castle, and walls connecting the new battery with the priory". In Period 2, 1643, the fortifications were repaired -"low stone walls, which formed the Spanish battery, were raised by the addition of a brick superstructure furnishing casemates for guns". In 1705-7 it is recorded that in fromt of the castle lay a regular hornwork with a 12 feet wide ditch, an old decayed fort (Spanish Battery) and nearby Spanish batteries to the east and west. In Period 3, in the 18th century, the plan of the fort appears to have been changed. It had been mostly destroyed by the mid-19th century, however. Later it was refortified with a modern coastal battery, but cleared again in the 1960s.
Easting
437300
Northing
569100
Grid Reference
NZ437300569100
Sources
<< HER 136 >> John Rook, 1827, Plan of North Shields and Tynemouth, 657/1- Northumberland Records Office
H.A. Adamson, 1896, Tynemouth Castle after the Dissolution of the Monastery, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XVIII, pp. 62, 78-9, and opp. p. 76
H.E. Savage, 1898, Abbess Hilda's First Religious House, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XIX, opp. p. 68
H.H.E. Craster, 1907, Northumberland County History, VIII, opp. p. 148, 157-8, 184
Photo, North Shields Library Local Studies, 1939 Spanish Battery 5.2.25 (1939); 12.3.25, 30-39 (1962)
G. Jobey, 1967, A Note on the Spanish Battery, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XLV, pp. 96-99
Clifford's Fort, Vol. 1, Historical Information -Historic Environment Record
H.M. Colvin, et al. 1982, The History of the King's Works Vol. IV (1485-1660) Part II, pp. 682-88
E. Mackenzie, 1825, Northumberland 94209, II, between pp. 436 and 437, dated 1886
Aerial Photograph, N. McCord, 1963, Tynemouth: Spanish Battery, vii.1959; G.014558.26-28 Museum of Antiquities University of Newcastle Collection
Aerial Photograph, N. McCord, 1963, Tynemouth: Spanish Battery, 3.ix or 25.x.1963; G.029455.20 -Museum of Antiquities University of Newcastle Collection
D.H. Clarke & A. Rudd, 1989, The Defences of Tyneside Spanish Battery, Tynemouth, Fortress Study Group Conference
D. Clarke & A. Rudd, 1989,Tyneside in the Breech Loading Era Fortress, No. 3, pp 33-42; English Heritage, 2008, Hadrian's Wall National Mapping Programme, 1399146; Aerial Photographs RAF 58/C/3/5122 14-APR-1949; ASUD, 2010, Land near 6 Old Coastguard Cottages, Spanish Battery, Tynemouth - archaeological assessment
H.A. Adamson, 1896, Tynemouth Castle after the Dissolution of the Monastery, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XVIII, pp. 62, 78-9, and opp. p. 76
H.E. Savage, 1898, Abbess Hilda's First Religious House, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XIX, opp. p. 68
H.H.E. Craster, 1907, Northumberland County History, VIII, opp. p. 148, 157-8, 184
Photo, North Shields Library Local Studies, 1939 Spanish Battery 5.2.25 (1939); 12.3.25, 30-39 (1962)
G. Jobey, 1967, A Note on the Spanish Battery, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XLV, pp. 96-99
Clifford's Fort, Vol. 1, Historical Information -Historic Environment Record
H.M. Colvin, et al. 1982, The History of the King's Works Vol. IV (1485-1660) Part II, pp. 682-88
E. Mackenzie, 1825, Northumberland 94209, II, between pp. 436 and 437, dated 1886
Aerial Photograph, N. McCord, 1963, Tynemouth: Spanish Battery, vii.1959; G.014558.26-28 Museum of Antiquities University of Newcastle Collection
Aerial Photograph, N. McCord, 1963, Tynemouth: Spanish Battery, 3.ix or 25.x.1963; G.029455.20 -Museum of Antiquities University of Newcastle Collection
D.H. Clarke & A. Rudd, 1989, The Defences of Tyneside Spanish Battery, Tynemouth, Fortress Study Group Conference
D. Clarke & A. Rudd, 1989,Tyneside in the Breech Loading Era Fortress, No. 3, pp 33-42; English Heritage, 2008, Hadrian's Wall National Mapping Programme, 1399146; Aerial Photographs RAF 58/C/3/5122 14-APR-1949; ASUD, 2010, Land near 6 Old Coastguard Cottages, Spanish Battery, Tynemouth - archaeological assessment