Qualla: Oliver's Battery, Tresco

Oliver's Battery, Tresco: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0. The work took fifteen days. Between 19 April and 4 May 1651, Sir Robert Blake's men piled earth and rubble into a rough triangle on the southern tip of Tresco, possibly reusing a Bronze Age burial cairn that already stood on the high ground at Carn Near. They were in a hurry. Two kilometres across the water lay St Mary's, where a Royalist garrison still flew Charles Stuart's colours nearly two years after his father had lost his head. Blake meant to end that. On 4 May the battery began firing. One of its three guns exploded almost immediately, killing two men. The bombardment recommenced anyway, and on 23 May St Mary's surrendered.

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Image: Andrew Abbott | CC BY-SA 2.0

Oliver's Battery, Tresco: How a Quiet Island Became a Pirate Base

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 3.0. Scilly had picked the wrong side in a war that no longer existed. The islands had stood for Charles I from 1642 until 1646, switched to Parliament after his defeat, then revolted again in 1648 in his name. By 1651 Charles I had been dead for two years. His son was in exile on the...

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Image: Hchc2009 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Oliver's Battery, Tresco: Blake's Methodical Conquest

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 3.0. Blake was a Somerset merchant's son who had become one of the finest admirals England would ever produce. He arrived off Tresco in April 1651 and made his amphibious landing at Old Grimsby harbour on 18 April. The northern fortress of King Charles's Castle he simply bypassed; the...

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Image: Hchc2009 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Oliver's Battery, Tresco: The Antiquarian's Mistake

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 3.0. A century later, in 1752, the Cornish antiquarian William Borlase visited the ruins and got the name wrong, but not the spirit. He assumed the works were named for Oliver Cromwell, the Parliamentary leader, and he was probably right about that. He also assumed the construction wa...

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Image: Hchc2009 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Oliver's Battery, Tresco: The Battery Today

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 3.0. What survives is a triangle on the headland: ramparts roughly 25 by 30 by 30 metres, entered from the north-western side, with the foundation of a small building in the north-east corner that probably stored powder or held the magazine. The Duchy of Cornwall owns it. It is protec...

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Image: Hchc2009 | CC BY-SA 3.0