Federation of Old Cornwall Societies

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No. 247283 

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The comprehensive gazetteer of the medieval fortifications and castles of Cornwall

With thanks to Philip Davis

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List of Fortifications and Castles

Park

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Parkwalls

In the civil parish of Advent.
In the historic county of Cornwall (Modern Authority of Cornwall, 1974 county of Cornwall).

Possible castle mentioned by Leland. Park is at SX031709. "One of the Botreaux manors was held jointly by Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, and the late Lord Hungerford. This is six miles south of Boscastle at Park, where there is a manor house or small castle." "Six miles south of Boscastle Lord Huntingdon has a house called Parkwalls, where Lord Botreaux had a fine manor house or castle." This is identifed by King as Park near Egloshayle but this is considerable more than six miles from Boscastle. Parkwalls is a placename in Advent CP which is six miles south of Boscastle and I see no reason to doubt this location although nothing remains that is identifiable with Leland's castle.

This site has been described as a Fortified Manor House / Masonry Castle.

Fortified Manor HouseA high status fortified residence not capable of withstanding an army but able to resist an armed band. They are generally moated and have a gatehouse with loops and crenellations. They tend to be sited with much less consideration for tactical and strategic defence and with domestic considerations, such as ease of access, to the fore. The difference between a small castles and a fortified manor house is a subjective one and may well be an artificial division in that for contemporary medieval citizens it may not have existed. David King did not use this term and preferred the term Strong House, since not all fortified high status houses were manorial, but use of his term Strong House has not been widely adopted possible because it is widely used as a synonym for bastle. Such buildings did not require a licence to crenellate and having a licence to crenellate does not mean a building was certainly fortified. However, I have recorded all buildings issued a licence to crenellate under this group since they clearly were at least intended to be [re]constructed in a fortified style 

Masonry Castles include castles designed from the outset to have masonry defences and timber castles where the fortifications or significant building have been replaced in Stone. This includes all the classic castle types such as Shell Keep, Great Tower and bailey, Enclosure, Concentric castles etc. These are the buildings which are what are generally thought of as castles and are well described in many books, web sites etc. Masonry is stonework bounded with mortar. A few castles have dry-stone walls, these are listed under earthwork castles, since the dry-stone walling basically requires a similar level of expense and skill as earthwork defences.

The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.

Nothing visible remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SX1283

 

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

• Books

  • Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern) p47 [slight]
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p77
    

• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)

  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p63, 88
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol1 p302