Battery Rocks and the adjacent tidal beach, a favourite local spot, are an integral part of the Pen Sans—Holy Headland—after which Penzance is named, having been the site of the original Medieval Church.

Battery Rocks have been a location for winter swimmers from at least the 1880s as was mentioned in an 1881 edition of The Cornishman newspaper, which described the practice of the annual Boxing Day swim being enjoyed by the ″all-year-round″ bathers.

Four thousand years ago the sea-level was lower and either side of Battery Rocks, on the beaches at Ponsandane (to the east) and Wherrytown (west), evidence of a ′submerged forest′ can be seen at low tide in the form of several partially fossilised tree trunks.

[5] They are also home to a variety of wildlife including a colony of rare purple sandpiper (Calidris maritima) which shows a preference for rocky shores.

Most of the sandpipers wintering in Cornwall are probably from the Canadian arctic and the rejection of the proposed development of Penzance harbour (see below), reduced the threat to the local flock.

[6] In June 1739 war seemed imminent with France, and a Petition for great guns was sent to the Government by the Corporation of Penzance, which was answered on the condition that a battery was built to house them.

[4] In 2009 the rocks came under threat from the "Route Partnership" scheme, which intended to transform this location into a freight yard for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company.