Qualla: St Catherine's Castle https://qualla.com/st-catherine-s-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/w/st-catherine-s-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: St Catherine's Castle https://qualla.com/st-catherine-s-castle St Catherine's Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/st-catherine-s-castle/ Photo credit Martin Bodman, CC BY-SA 2.0. Henry VIII annulled his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and Cornwall got a fort. The chain of causation is more direct than it sounds. Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and Charles took the annulment as a personal insult. France and the Empire declared an alliance against England in 1538, with the Pope encouraging an invasion. Henry, who had previously left coastal defense to local lords, started writing checks. Up and down the south coast, masons began stacking stone for the device forts that would bristle with cannon if the imperial fleet appeared. At Fowey, a Cornish gentleman named Thomas Treffry agreed to build one half at the King's expense and half at his own.

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Image: Martin Bodman | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/w/st-catherine-s-castle-wp/gbuw-st-catherines-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full St Catherine's Castle: Half-Made by 1540 https://qualla.com/st-catherine-s-castle/ Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. Work on St Catherine's Castle began at some point between 1538 and 1540 on a rocky outcrop overlooking the mouth of the River Fowey. The design was modest: a two-storey D-shaped blockhouse 8 metres by 5 internally, walls of slate rubble up to 1.35 metres thick resting on bedrock ...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/w/st-catherine-s-castle-wp/gbuw-st-catherines-castle-half-made-by-1540.mp3 0:06 2 full St Catherine's Castle: The Long Working Life https://qualla.com/st-catherine-s-castle/ Photo credit Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 4.0. St Catherine's Castle outlived the diplomatic crisis that built it. The imperial invasion of England never came. The blockhouse remained in service through the Tudor and Stuart periods, holding for the Royalists during the Civil War of the 1640s under Charles I. By 1684 the local...

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Image: Hchc2009 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/w/st-catherine-s-castle-wp/gbuw-st-catherines-castle-the-long-working-life.mp3 0:06 3 full St Catherine's Castle: The Last Garrison https://qualla.com/st-catherine-s-castle/ Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. The final military use came in living memory. In June 1940, with France falling and a German invasion of Britain expected, St Catherine's Castle was refitted as a coast battery and observation post. Concrete defenses were laid around the position, the old gun platforms were retas...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/w/st-catherine-s-castle-wp/gbuw-st-catherines-castle-the-last-garrison.mp3 0:06 4 full St Catherine's Castle: Reading the Layers https://qualla.com/st-catherine-s-castle/ Photo credit Sam Styles, CC BY-SA 2.0. Today the blockhouse sits in the care of English Heritage, free to visit, easy to walk to from the village along a footpath that climbs through holm oaks and gorse. The architecture rewards close attention. One of the original three sea-facing gun-ports has been blocked up, one o...

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Image: Sam Styles | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/w/st-catherine-s-castle-wp/gbuw-st-catherines-castle-reading-the-layers.mp3 0:06 5 full