Victorian Forts 1

Landguard Fort

Commenced 1872 Armament Completed 1875 Cost £ unknown Fort Only 1876 on site Map Reference TM 283 319 4 x 9-inch RMLs Position Mouth of River Orwell & Stour 1886 on site Keep Type Pentagon with 4 x 12.5-inch 38 ton RMLs Dry 3 x 10-inch 18 ton RMLs Guns 12 2 x 10-inch RMLs Barrack Accom. unknown 1 x 12.5-inch RML Present use Listed building - English Heritage. Ravelin block used for museum History Barracks batteries and submarine mines Disposal Counterscarp Condition Fair galleries Access Parts open for tours in Summer plus museum in Ravelin. Haxo casemates Sources ‘Landguard Fort’ D.A.Wood ‘History of Landguard Fort’ - Major Leslie Moncrieff Pits

History and Description

The present Landguard fort is the last in a long line of defences built on the point protecting the natural harbour of Harwich. The site appears to be first occupied in the 1500s. Another significant fort was constructed on the site in 1588 followed by others in the 1600s. The first true Landguard Fort is considered to be that of 1626-28 consisting of a square bastioned trace with unrevetted ditch. This was improved in 1667 and replaced in 1717. Landguard Fort II consisted of a closed lunette, a sea battery or a brick redoubt, as it has been variously described. It had no bastions but instead employed a and counterscarp galleries. Landguard Fort III of 1744 may have incorporated parts of the previous fort and consisted of a bastioned pentagon with a ditch, covered way and glacis enclosing a large barrack block and Governor’s house. It was heavily criticised and therefore modified. In 1853 General Burgoyne looked at the fort and suggested that it be destroyed. Nothing was done until 1871-72 when radical changes had already begun. The interior was replaced by a semi-circular defensible barracks, the main face and centre were replaced by a casemated front of granite for seven RMLs fronted at ditch level by a caponier. The remaining bastions and walls were rebuilt for RML guns and howitzers. In 1877 a controlled minefield was allocated to the defences. A ravelin block containing a Submarine Mining Establishment was constructed together with a pier and ancillary buildings with magazines and cable ponds. Search lights were then added. The area surrounding the fort was used for a substantial complex of additional sea batteries. The Fort is now open to the public under the control of English Heritage. The Ravelin Block to the rear of the Fort, is now a museum. Darrell’s Battery, and the Left and Right Batteries may be visited by arrangement with the Fort.

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Landguard Fort Victorian Forts Harwich 1a

Landguard Wing (Left) Battery

Commenced 1888 Armament Completed 1891 Cost £ 7,252 (actual 1891) £3,918 (1899) 1891 1 x 6-inch BL HP MkIV (no.2) 1 x 10-inch BL HP (no.1) Map Reference TM 285320 1899 2 x 6-inch BL HP MkIV (no.2 & 3) Position Seaward, East of Landguard Fort 1 x 10-inch BL HP (no.1) 1908 1 x 10-inch BL HP (no.1) Type Coast Defence Battery 1909 none Ditch None 1911 1 x 10-inch (no.1) 1914 none Guns 3 1922 2 x 6-inch H.A. Experimental Barrack Accom. Huts on common Present use Abandoned

History Coast defence to 1913 Caponiers None

Disposal Crown land Counterscarp None Condition 10-inch sealed, 6-inch filled galleries Access site nature reserve, no access to sealed gun pit Haxo casemates None Sources WO plans & 5/3259 5/17 of 1898 WO78 WO 192 Owen report 1904 Moncrieff Pits None

History and Description

Construction Started on Wing Battery in December 1888 and was completed in January 1891.

In February 1898 further work was carried out on No 3 Gun at Wing Battery, and completed in April 1898. An 1897 Survey, shows Wing Battery, at a scale of 30ft. to 1 inch, with three gun positions and an existing HP Gun Emplacement to the rear of the battery. (the Easton and Anderson design of 1891) It shows no Artillery Store. In l903 plans were made for remounting the guns in the Battery, the 10-inch on a barbette carriage and the 6-inch on CP mounts, but nothing was done for lack of money. Around this time the name changed from Wing to Left Battery. Between 1906 and 1914, the two 6-inch Mk IV HP from Left Battery and the 10-inch BLS from both Left and Right Batteries. were removed, the 10-inch HP in 1909, 10-inch LCP in 1911, however a l0-inch was remounted in Left Battery in 1911. Q and R towers were made redundant when the 10-inch BL guns were removed from Landguard they had served as the position finding stations.

In 1922 the position was used to mount two experimental High Angle 6 inch gun mountings, until the Second World War, when the No. 1 position was roofed over and an as an anti aircraft operations room later moved to Q tower. Later it became an ammunition store for the 6-inch Mark 24 guns of Right Battery. Much of the rear of it was bulldozed during the port expansion. The pits for the 6-inch were filled in the 1950s, with only the aprons left visible. The 10-inch is roofed and sealed All form part of the nature reserve but remain crown land under English Heritage.

In 2000 English Heritage removed the earth covering from the gun emplacements, revealing a rare Tressider’s Cartridge Store beneath the left side of the no.2 emplacement, complete with winch and cartridge trolley.

www.victorianforts.co.uk Victorian Forts Harwich 1a

Landguard Wing Left Battery

Landguard Left Wing Battery Victorian Forts Harwich 1b

Landguard Wing Right Battery

Commenced 1898 Armament Completed 1901 Cost £ 13,950 1901 2 x 6-inch BL CP Mk2 1 x 10-inch BL Mk 3 LCP Mk4 Map Reference TM 284317 1911 2 x 6-inch BL Wire Mk 7 Position East of Landguard Fort 1 x 10-inch removed 1914 2 x 6-inch Mk Type Coast Defence Battery 1919 1 x 6-inch Long Range RCD 15522C Ditch None 1 x6-inch Mk7 1939 2 x 6-inch Mk 7 with shields Guns 3 1942 2 x 6-inch Mk7 (nos 1 &2) Barrack Accom. Huts 2 x 6-inch Mk 24 (H1 & H2) Present use Bird Observatory 1944-57 2 x 6-inch Mk24

History Coast Battery to 1956 Caponiers None

Disposal Crown land E.H. lease Counterscarp None Condition Heavily Overgrown galleries Access Via observatory Haxo casemates None Sources WO plans WO78 192 Yorke Moncrieff Pits None

History and Description

Construction of the New Right Flank Battery started in 1898. The being specially designed for Landguard. It was armed in 190l with two BL 6-inch wire Mk7 on CP Mk2 mounts, firing 100 lb. Piercing shell, range 12,000 yards, and one BL 10-inch gun Mk3 on a barbette BL 10-inch Mk 4, LCP. (Low central pivot) firing 500 lb. AP shell, range 11,500 yards. The southern most No 1 Emplacement was armed with one 6 inch, The northern No 2 emplacement held one 6 inch, the northern No 3 one 10 inch. This was later reported as - ‘experimental’, the only one of its type. Yorke - “ a 10-inch on a Mk5 mounting, like an enormous 9.2-inch.” - the Mk5 Mount, introduced 1889. It may have been the prototype for the later standard CP mounted 10-inch, or for the 9.2-inch High Angle designed to replace the 9-inch RML HA guns, installed at and Plymouth and declared obsolete in 1929.

In 1911 the 10 inch was removed and its emplacement in 1912, No 3 Emplacement Right Battery converted to Fire Control, now the bird observatory. The two 6-inch remained the main armament From 1914 to 1942 with some equipment modifications and experiments in between. In 1919 Landguard Right Battery No 1 was changed to 6-inch BL Long Range Gun from RCD 15222 C(1) in place of 5-inch BL MkVII. This is probably the early work on High Angle mountings. The second world war saw overhead protection added and the building of H1 and H2 positions, fitted with 6-inch Mark 24 guns further north along the protective bank and in 1943 they took on the defence role. The 6-inch Mk 7 finally being put to other uses. The plan to put the third gun in No.1 Emplacement Right Battery, the old experimental long range site of 1919, was not carried out.

At the north of the bank between the batteries, where the road now enters the foreshore. Two 3pdr. practise guns existed, positions now covered by the road. Just south of them in front of H2, 6-inch Mk24 shell stores, in the bird sanctuary, - two 6-inch Mk2 on Slide carriages, were emplaced as practise guns. (Ord BL 6-inch gun Mk4 or 6 on carriage garrison barbette BL 6-inch Mk1 or 2, or Vavasseur CP Mk1. introduced in 1885 and 1889. The Mk2 barbette of 1894 being a more compact version of the Vavasseur Mk1 mounting, 24 bolts in a circle.) From 1943 279 Battery manned Landguard 6-inch Battery with 2 x 6-inch Mk24 on Mk5 mountings. Range 24,000 yards. They remained the main armament to 1956 when the coast artillery disbanded. www.victorianforts.co.uk Victorian Forts Harwich 1b

Landguard Wing Right Battery Victorian Forts Harwich 1c

Landguard Minefield/Darrell’s Battery

Commenced 1900 Armament Completed 1901 Cost £ 2,798 1901 2 x 4.7-inch Q.F. Map Reference TM 283319 1940 Nil Position West of Landguard Fort Temporary 2 x 12pdr. Q.F. 1940 2 x twin 6pdr. Q.F. Type Barbette battery 1956 2 x twin 6pdr. Q.F. Ditch None Guns 2 Barrack Accom. Inside Landguard Fort Present use None

History Coast Battery to 1956 Caponiers None

Disposal Crown Land - E.H. lease Counterscarp None Condition Overgrown galleries Access Via gate Haxo casemates None Sources WO plans 5/351, WO192,Yorke Moncrieff Pits None

History and Description

Construction of the New Minefield Battery started in 1900. The fortification being designed for protection of the Estuary entrance. It was armed in 1901 with two Q.F. 4.7-inch guns on central pivot mounts, firing a 45lb. common point Lyddite shell, range 11,800 yards. It occupies the right of the old position of Beauclerk’s Battery.

Provided for anti-torpedo boat defence, manned in 1914 by No. 13 Coy. R.G.A. to cover the minefield, re-laid by the Navy. In or about 1919 dismounted. serviced and greased. Remounted soon after, now in the care of the TA. The second world war saw the manning of the guns again. The plans to re-arm with Twin-six pounders allowing the dismounting of both guns. In early 1940 they were sent with a detachment of 166 () Battery to Norway. The Luftwaffe bombed the transport and sunk it while the detachment was digging gun pits on shore, the guns and all equipment being lost. While the rebuilding was under way, as a temporary measure, two 12 pounder Q.F. were mounted to the north of the battery on the top of the river wall bank. The platform for the northern most can still be seen clearly. The southern platform is thought to be buried between the northern two of the coastal defence searchlights. At the north of the bank between the battery and the searchlight emplacements, the remains of the Victorian minefield narrow gauge railway cutting the bank can be seen.

In 1940 the two Twin-Six’s were built over the position using the old battery as foundations. The Mk I rate of fire was 72 rounds per minute, guns in low angle use only. Just after the war, all 6pdr. twins were converted for dual purpose AA use, with an improved rate of fire of 96 rpm.

Post War they remained part of the main armament to 1956 when the coast artillery disbanded, in the care of 233 Independent Maintenance. Battery. Royal Artillery, and 419th Coast Regiment Royal Artillery (TA). Good photographs exist of them in 1953.

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Landguard Minefield/Darrell’s Battery Victorian Forts Harwich 2

Shotley Point Battery

Commenced 1863 Armament Completed 1865 Cost £ 10,541 1863 Map Reference TM 341251 14 x 68pr. Guns Position Shotley Point 1873 14 x 7-inch R.M.L. 7-tons Type Polygonal harbour defence on dwarf W.I. Carriages Ditch Dry with Carnot wall 1891 Guns 14 x 68prs. (initially) 2 x 10-inch R.M.L. On Barrack Accom. 6 men Long range mountings Present use Within the H.M.S. Ganges complex. Police Training Estab. History Battery until 1901, then Naval Caponiers None Shore Establishment Disposal Sold to private contractor. Counterscarp None Condition Part demolished, derelict, overgrown galleries Access No access for security reasons Haxo casemates None Sources Fortification of East Anglia, Peter Kent. WO78 2776, 4174, Work43 413, 414 Moncrieff Pits None

History and Description

The battery was built to the designs of Col. W.F.D. Jervois cancelling a previous more complex and expensive design. The battery is seven sided with the guns set on the four faces facing the mouth of the Rivers Stow and Orwell. The construction is brick heavily reinforced with earth. There is a dry ditch with a brick Carnot wall 19 feet high. Guns 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, & 14 fire through embrasures but numbers 3, 7, & 12 at the corners of the fortification are en-barbette. The Carnot wall was was extended to close the gorge of the battery and was loopholed.

There were three magazines but only two were bombproof. The original armament was 14 x 68pdr. on traversing carriages but these were were changed in about 1873 to 14 x 7-inch R.M.L. guns of 7 tons on dwarf wrought iron traversing platforms.

In 1891 it was decided to re-arm 4 x 10-inch R.M.L. guns on long range mountings but only two emplacements with magazines were built. These obliterated six of the original emplacements. The guns were last used in 1901. The battery was transferred to the Admiralty in 1904 as a shore establishment, H.M.S. Ganges, for boy entrants to the Navy. The right hand side of the battery was demolished to make way for accommodation blocks. On the closure of H.M.S. Ganges the site was sold to a civilian contractor and the accommodation blocks and the gorge wall have been demolished. The embrasures and emplacements for guns 11 to 14 can be traced and the magazines are accessible but the site is very overgrown.

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Shotley Point Battery

(Peter Kent) 10-inch RML Emplacement