Summary

From 1859 to the end of the century, groups of Cornishmen volunteered to train in the use of artillery so that the County could better defend itself from the threat of invasion.

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The story of Cornwall's Volunteer artillerymen is little known to most of its inhabitants, and there is insufficient space to relate it here in detail, but from 1859 to the end of the century, groups of Cornishmen volunteered to train in the use of artillery so that the County could better defend itself from the threat of invasion. By the following year there were already nine Volunteer Groups. Training took place at Pendennis and Plymouth, where the men were made conversant in the handling and firing of ordnance, drill halls were built, and elderly but serviceable cannon supplied for practice. Most of the batteries - Padstow, Looe, Gowey, Charlestown, Par, Polruan, Hayle, St Ives, Marazion and Falmouth were sited at ports whose sea defences would otherwise have been almost totally deficient. The remainder; St Just, Fowey Consols and West Fowey Consols were established where there were sufficient miners to form the gun crew, or, as in the case of St Buryan, had originated as the Brigade headquaters. In 1862, permission was given for an outlying detachment of the St Burian (sic) Battery of the 1st Cornwall (Duke of Cornwall's) Artillery Volunteers to become No 13 Battery (St Just). It achieved full battery status in 1867, in which year the St Just men formed part of the guard of honour to the Prince and Princess of Wales on the occasion of their visit to Botalack Mine. In May 1880 it was renumbered No 10 Battery, in 1881, its antiquated 24lb smooth bore gun was replaced by a 64lb Rifled Muzzle Loader - a distinctly more effective and long range weapon. In 1883, the battery was again renumbered - this time No. 9. The history of the battery after 1884 is unknown, but it may have been disbanded not long after through lack of suitable men to make up the gun crew following the decline of mining in the area. The gun shed at the battery was, however, still roofed in 1908. The battery drill hall in St Just is now the Town Hall in Chapel Street. This still has the distinctive circular ceramic plaque set on its front wall - three cannon surmounted by a crown and the number 13 flanked by olive branches, marking it out as the headquaters of the battery. The battery itself was on the clifftop at Carn Gloose (SW35403128) where it could cover Porthnanven and parts of Whitesand Bay (another battery being sited at Carn Olva above Sennen). Like some of the other free-standing batteries in Cornwall, the site was an elongated hexagon in shape, bordered by a low stone parapet, and having two rectangular hardstandings for gun positions behind its south-western facing wall. On the inner face of the rear wall are the foundations of a small shed - possibly used for storing gun tackle (shown as roofed on both the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 1:2500 map), whilst just a little to the north-west, a brick-built feature with a cemented recess was probably the ready magazine (SW35383130). The gun(s) and carriage(s) would not have been stored here, but would have been kept in the drill hall when firing was not taking place. Firing practice certainly took place here, as is indicated by the relatively frequent finds of the tubular copper friction tubes and associated copper pins with lanyard loops used to ignite the main charge. Presumably there are cannon balls under the sea off Pothnanven, or out towards Gribba Point. Although some local people suggest that the Brisons were regularly bombarded, it would have been almost impossible to train the guns in this direction, given the orientation of the battery.

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