(Above) A rare swivel gun goes home on loan. L to R: Peter Prideaux-Brune, Captain George Hogg, Sarah Lloyd-Durrant (Curator of Later Human History at the Royal Cornwall Museum) and Tim Parr.
A rare fifteenth century swivel gun has gone home on loan to Padstow where, for several hundred years, it had lain on the seabed.
Originally recovered from Doom Bar in the Camel Estuary in 1920 the gun was presented to the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro by Colonel Prideaux-Brune, great-grandfather of the present owner of Prideaux Place in Padstow, Peter Prideaux-Brune.
Now, after many years on display in the museum’s main gallery, it has been lent back to the Prideaux-Brune family for inclusion in their own public exhibition of famously rare guns.
Swivel guns could fire a variety of ammunition and were generally used to close in defence. They were highly portable and could be moved from one side of a ship to the other quite easily.
Captain George Hogg (left) and Tim Parr (right) with the rare swivel gun
The gun is mounted on a specially made replica of a bulwark rail that was designed by Captain George Hogg, a trustee of the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.
“I’m delighted that this fine example of an early swivel gun is being displayed at Prideaux Place,” said Hilary Bracegirdle, Director of the Royal Cornwall Museum.
“The house overlooks the town’s harbour and was built by the Prideaux family in the sixteenth century. It is a wonderful place to visit and, since the gun was found in the estuary and presented to the museum by Colonel Prideaux-Brune, it provides the perfect backdrop for a weapon of this kind.”
For more information about Prideaux Place and its opening times, visit www.prideauxplace.co.uk.
