Blackpool’s Defences Dart History


nature on the other. England has spent much of its history anticipating invasion from the various tribes of mainland Europe. The Romans were successful in the first century AD, and the Normans again in the eleventh. Since then the English have stood firm and repulsed various attacks on their island from the French, the Spanish and the Germans. The south coast of England is inevitably the area most vulnerable to an invasion from Europe, and various kings, queens and governments have taken steps over the years to defend their southern beaches. Henry VIII prepared an ambitious plan to build castles all along England’s Channel coast, and a sixteenth century map shows the proposed locations. One was to be built at Blackpool. Perhaps the scheme was too ambitious because most of the castles, including Blackpool’s, never progressed beyond the planning stage. During Queen Mary’s reign in the 1550s, the little sheltered bay at Blackpool, only two miles from the important port of Dartmouth, was seen as an ideal landing place for enemies wishing to attack the town from the rear. This fact was noted by Sir Peter Carew. The Carew family were lords of Stoke Fleming and had built a manor house for themselves within the walls of the first Dartmouth Castle at the mouth of the river. But Sir Peter, along with a number of associates, was alarmed at the proposed marriage of the Queen to Prince Philip of Spain and the possible consequences for England. The malcontents began to plan an uprising to depose the Queen, but suspicions


O


ver the centuries Blackpool has been confronted by two very different threats. Military attack on the one hand – and


During Queen Mary’s


reign in the 1550s, the little sheltered bay at Blackpool was seen as an ideal landing place for enemies wishing to attack the town from the rear.


were soon aroused. The loyal Sir John St. Leger wrote urgently to the Lords of the Council reporting that he had heard Carew boasting that if he were the Queen’s enemy he could storm Dartmouth castle and “... burne the Towne with fewer than a hundred persons and lett ynto the haven suche as pleased hym”. Sir John continued “I, also, am creadeably informed the way howe he should be able to do so. That within a myle, or les, of the said Towne, there is a very good open place called Black poole, for the queene’s enemyes to lande, and invade, and from thense may come to the saide Towne from the back side”. Sir Peter was promptly summoned to London to account for himself, but he opted instead to make a rapid departure to France, sailing in a small boat from Weymouth. The bay of Blackpool remained undisturbed.


But perhaps this event prompted the Crown to take the defence of Blackpool more seriously. Although Henry VIII’s planned castle never materialised, a more modest defensive structure was erected in about 1554. Referred to in contemporary documents as the Bulwark of Blackpool, it was probably a series of earthworks topped by look-out towers which would have contained some form of artillery. During the second half of the sixteenth century England was constantly under threat of attack from Spain, and men from the local parishes were given orders directly from Queen Elizabeth I to man the Bulwark whenever there was an invasion scare. The Armada was eventually defeated by Drake in 1588, but the threat of invasion from Spain only remained dormant for a few years. By 1596 very specific orders were again being issued in England to defend the south coast from possible attack. An instruction dated 25th


June 1596 states The Sea Wall in ruins after the great storm of 1929


that “Mr. Seymour’s colonelship reacheth from Plymouth to Dartmouth ... Long Sands (Slapton) and Black pool to be defended by Mr. Ameredith and Mr. Roope.” The document goes on to detail the names of the officers and the numbers


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