Salcombe Cannon Site Conservation Statement and Management Plan
Authors: Cousins, T.
Publisher: Historic England
Abstract:The Salcombe Cannon Site is the remains of a 17th Century shipwreck of unknown, possibly Dutch, origins which had possible trade links with North Africa. The ship was wrecked between Prawle Point and the Salcombe Estuary. Within the protected area of seabed several Bronze Age artefacts have been discovered, these will be taken into account with the adjacent Bronze Age site of Moor Sand and covered in the Management Plan for that site.
The wreck was discovered in the early 1990’s by the Henley BSAC branch who informed Neville Oldham, who in his capacity as Chairman of the South West Branch of the Nautical Archaeology Society, was mapping all of the cannon sites in the area. From 1992 intermittent work was conducted on the site by the South West Maritime Archaeology Group (SWMAG), locating and surveying the cannons and recovering a few items. On the 30th April 1995 SWMAG were working on the site in very cold and poor conditions when one of them, Ron Howell, located a small gold ingot and a number of gold coins. Finds recovered from the site included more than 400 gold coins, gold ingots, pieces of gold jewellery, pottery fragments, lead weights and other archaeological material.
Work continued on the site with the knowledge of the relevant archaeological authorities until autumn of 1997 when news of the discovery finally broke. As a result of this the site was designated as an historic wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 on 24th October 1997 under Statutory Instrument 1997/2536. The current designation extends for a radius of 250m from the position of 50° 12.732’N 03° 44.748'W (WGS 84).
The Bronze Age artefacts found nearby to the cannon site are covered in the Conservation Statement and Management Plan for the overlapping protected wreck of Moor Sand.
This Conservation Statement and Management Plan has therefore been produced to enable local and regional stakeholder involvement in our aspirations for the conservation management of the Salcombe Cannon Site, to balance conservation with economic and social needs. The principle aim of this plan is to identify a shared vision of how the values and features of the Salcombe Cannon Site can be conserved, maintained and enhanced.
Source: Manual