At the end of the last ice age, the melting  glacial waters flooded into a yawning valley  

on the south coast of what is now Cornwall.  The result was the Carrick Roads, a deep  

meandering estuary which local claim is the  third largest natural harbour in the world.  

For centuries, the Carrick Roads have been a  gateway between England and the rest of the world.  

But in times of war that meant  they needed to be closely guarded.

Standing sentinel on a  penninsular overlooking the water  

is a majestic circular fortress  ringed with stone ramparts.  

Pendennis Castle was Henry VIII's answer to  escalating tensions with France and Spain  

and from its imposing battlements you can see  for miles across the breathtaking Cornish coast.

Pendennis Castle was built by Henry VIII  between 1540 and 1545 and it's part of this  

huge undertaking to defend the English coast that  was known at the time as 'the device by the king.'  

Paired with St Mawes Castle over the water,  it defended the Carrick Roads, this remarkable  

deep water estuary. Pendennis is a  sophisticated structure designed to give  

a 360-degree field of fire. It's really all  about firepower; cannon. And the technology  

of war was something that Henry VIII was  fascinated with throughout his life. At the  

time that Pendennis was constructed, Cornwall  had a very clear sense of its own identity,  

very much as it does today, the Cornish language  being spoken and local gentry had a great deal of  

influence. The economy was based around fishing  and tin mining was thriving. It might have been  

a long way from London but this was a really  important place strategically and that's because  

the dangers associated with crossing the channel  at its shortest point, closest to France, meant  

that ships would often journey down the coast and  moor here in the Carrick Roads before setting out  

on longer journeys. Pendennis didn't just protect  the Carrick Roads; it protected the fleet.

Pendennis might look like it has stood unchanged  for centuries, a symbol of a bygone era, but in  

fact it's a dynamic place which has seen constant  use and change. It has been added to repeatedly  

and had played an important role in most of  England's major conflicts of the past 500 years.

Pendennis has been part of the military  infrastructure of Britian for centuries.  

Whilst built in the 1540s the site was in use  right up to 1956 and many of the buildings on the  

site actually come from these later periods. This  means it's been used during the civil wars of the  

17th century, in fact it was besieged in 1646, the  American war, the Napoleonic wars as well as both  

World Wars. During the Penninsular War in  the early 19th century Pendennis was used as  

a supply base. From here ships would have left  with supplies for troops in Spain and Portugal  

and in fact troops themselves would also have left  from here. In the past, when you said goodbye to  

somebody before a long journey there was a real  possibility that you might never see them again  

and certainly this would be the  case if you were heading off to war.  

Pendennis could have been the last part of Britain  that some troops would ever see and people are  

people and even in the past the emotions felt  would be every bit as recognisable to us today.

Thousands of farewells have taken  place at Pendennis over the centuries  

and in keeping with this long history we've  selected a lament of two lovers separated by  

war. If Pendennis Castle is a symbol  of nationhood and military power,  

this song turns instead to the ordinary  people caught up in those conflicts.  

Just like the many soldiers who would have parted  ways with their loved ones at Pendennis without  

knowing what the future held, this song contains  a promise to return which is far from certain.  

The poignant lyrics of High Germany, sung for us  here by Jon Boden, really capture that sense of  

longing for a future reunion which is held  suspended by the fates just out of reach.