Harding's Battery | |
---|---|
Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar | |
Gibraltar | |
Coordinates | 36°06′35″N5°20′47″W / 36.109605°N 5.34626°W |
Type | Artillery Battery |
Site information | |
Owner | Government of Gibraltar |
Open to the public | yes |
Condition | Refurbished |
Site history | |
Built | 1859 |
Built by | Government of the United Kingdom |
Materials | Concrete and brick |
Harding's Battery is a restored artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located at Europa Point and includes the Europa Sunken Magazine that is now used as a visitor centre.
This battery is on Europa Point at the southern end of Gibraltar. Europa had been the site of earlier Spanish and Moorish fortifications as well as those constructed by the British which included walls, scarping and the batteries. Europa Advance Batteries, Europa Pass Batteries, Europa Batteries, Eliott's Battery, Europa Advance Battery, Half Way Battery, Lighthouse Battery, Lady Louisa's Battery and Woodford's Battery were supported by a local barracks. [1]
Harding's battery was built on the remains of the 7th Europa Battery in 1859. The battery was named after Sir George Harding, who was Chief Engineer in 1844 and had been involved with Sir Charles Holloway in the 1810 destruction of the Spanish fortifications including Fort St. Felipe and Fort St. Barbara. [2] At that time Europa Point was known as Harding's Point. For a few years the battery had two 18-pounder guns but these were replaced in 1863 with two 32-pounders. [3]
Five years later Harding's was given a Rifled Muzzle Loading gun as part of the recommendations put forward by Colonel William Jervois who was inspecting and advised on the defences of British colonies including Gibraltar and the Andaman Islands from 1865. [4] Jervois's 1868 recommendations took time and the approval was not given until 1876 by which time the 9 inch gun had become a larger 12.5 inch 38 ton RML gun which could fire 800 pound projectiles. This gun was commissioned in 1878 although it was feared that the gun may be difficult to defend in its exposed position. [3] In 1904, a plan was put forward to move a 9.2-inch Mk 1 coastal defence gun from Inchkeith in Scotland to Harding's Battery, but it was never implemented. The large RML was eventually removed and from the start of World War II this battery was the location of a Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. [5]
Harding's battery had been abandoned and buried under a mound of sand for years but it was unearthed and refurbished as part of a makeover of the whole of the Europa point area to include leisure facilities starting in March 2010. Harding's Battery was found to be in a condition where it could be restored and the magazine below was converted into a visitor centre with displays providing information on local history. The £4.4 million work on Europa Point was officially re-opened in October 2011 by the then Chief Minister of Gibraltar Peter Caruana. [6]
In 2013 the restoration was made complete when a 12.5 inch 38 ton RML gun (actually weighing 45 tonnes (50 tons)) found half buried at the southern entrance to Gibdock dating from the 1870s and identical to the battery's original gun, was installed on a replica carriage at Harding's Battery. This was made possible due to the Gibraltar Heritage Trust who had organised and partly funded the construction of a replacement gun carriage. [7]
New Tavern Fort is an historic artillery fort in Gravesend, Kent. Dating mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, it is an unusually well-preserved example of an 18th-century fortification and remained in use for defensive purposes until the Second World War. It was built during the American War of Independence to guard the Thames against French and Spanish raiders operating in support of the newly formed United States of America. It was redesigned and rebuilt in the mid-19th century to defend against a new generation of iron-clad French warships.
Lieutenant General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois was a British military engineer and diplomat. After joining the British Army in 1839, he saw service, as a second captain, in South Africa. In 1858, as a major, he was appointed Secretary of a Royal Commission set up to examine the state and efficiency of British land-based fortifications against naval attack; and this led to further work in Canada and South Australia. From 1875 to 1888 he was, consecutively, Governor of the Straits Settlements, Governor of South Australia and Governor of New Zealand.
Europa Point, is the southernmost point of Gibraltar. At the end of the Rock of Gibraltar, the area is flat and occupied by such features as a playing field and a few buildings. On a clear day, views of North Africa can be seen across the Strait of Gibraltar including Ceuta and the Rif Mountains of Morocco; as well as the Bay of Gibraltar and the Spanish towns along its shores. It is reached from the old town by Europa Road.
The 100-ton gun was a 17.72 inches (450 mm) rifled muzzle-loading (RML) gun made by Elswick Ordnance Company, the armaments division of the British manufacturing company Armstrong Whitworth, owned by William Armstrong. The 15 guns Armstrong made were used to arm two Italian battleships and, to counter these, British fortifications at Malta and Gibraltar.
Fort Glanville Conservation Park is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia located in Semaphore Park, a seaside suburb of Adelaide consisting of a functional 19th century fort listed on the South Australian Heritage Register and some adjoining land used as a caravan park. The fort was built after more than 40 years of indecision over the defence of South Australia. It was the first colonial fortification in the state and is the best preserved and most functional in Australia. Fort Glanville was designed by Governor Major General Sir William Jervois and Lieutenant Colonel Peter Scratchley, both important figures in early Australian colonial defence. When built it was designed to defend both Semaphore's anchorage and shipping entering the Port River from naval attack.
The RML 12.5-inch guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns designed for British battleships and were also employed for coast defence.
Parson's Lodge Battery is a coastal battery and fort in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.
Levant Battery is an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located on Windmill Hill, at the southern end of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, below observation post Fire Control South. It was named after the Levanter cloud, below which it perched, giving it an unobstructed view. Construction started in 1901 and, by 1903, a 9.2-inch Mark X breech-loading gun had been mounted. The battery was decommissioned in the 1970s and the gun was later removed, to rest in a scrap yard. A community group has been formed to garner support for the gun's recovery and restoration.
King's Bastion is a coastal bastion on the western front of the fortifications of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, protruding from the Line Wall Curtain. It is located between Line Wall Road and Queensway and overlooks the Bay of Gibraltar. It played a crucial role in defending The Rock during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. In more recent history the bastion was converted into a generating station which powered Gibraltar's electricity needs. Today it continues to serve the community as Gibraltar's leisure centre.
Wellington Front is a fortification in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It was built in 1840 on a site established by the Spanish in 1618.
Farringdon's Battery is an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Named after Sir Anthony Farrington, 1st Baronet, it is located above the north face of the Rock of Gibraltar within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.
The Europa Batteries are a group of artillery batteries in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Facing the North African coast, they are the most southerly batteries in Gibraltar and were built to cover ships approaching from the Mediterranean Sea. They run along the fortified clifftops of Europa Point from Camp Bay on the west side of the Rock of Gibraltar to the Europa Advance Batteries on the east side.
Spy Glass Battery or Spyglass Battery was originally a high angle artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The battery is mounted high on the rock to give extra range and protection. The battery was still in use during the Second World War as a listening post and site for a Bofors Gun.
Victoria Battery was an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It was notable for being one of the two batteries in Gibraltar to mount a 100-ton gun.
Zoca Flank Battery is an artillery battery on the west side of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.
Alexandra Battery is a coastal artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It was constructed at the neck of the South Mole to enfilade the coastal fortifications of Gibraltar. The battery stood on the site of several previous fortifications; it was built over the New Mole Battery, which was itself constructed on the site of an old Spanish fort in front of the Tuerto Tower.
The Gibraltar peninsula, located at the far southern end of Iberia, has great strategic importance as a result of its position by the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. It has repeatedly been contested between European and North African powers and has endured fourteen sieges since it was first settled in the 11th century. The peninsula's occupants – Moors, Spanish, and British – have built successive layers of fortifications and defences including walls, bastions, casemates, gun batteries, magazines, tunnels and galleries. At their peak in 1865, the fortifications housed around 681 guns mounted in 110 batteries and positions, guarding all land and sea approaches to Gibraltar. The fortifications continued to be in military use until as late as the 1970s and by the time tunnelling ceased in the late 1960s, over 34 miles (55 km) of galleries had been dug in an area of only 2.6 square miles (6.7 km2).
Victoria Battery was an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It was built in the 1840s on top of the earlier Princess of Wales Batteries following a report by Major-General Sir John Thomas Jones on Gibraltar's defences. The battery was located on the west side of Gibraltar and was one of a number of "retired" batteries in the territory, constructed to improve the coastal defences between Europa Point and the town.
The University of Gibraltar is a degree-awarding higher education institution established by the Government of Gibraltar through the University of Gibraltar Act 2015. The founding of the university was described by Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo as "a coming-of-age" for the British Overseas Territory.
The RML 64-pounder 58 cwt guns (converted) were British rifled muzzle-loading guns converted from obsolete smoothbore 32-pounder 58 cwt guns.