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Landguard Fort is a fort at the mouth of the River Orwell outside Felixstowe, Suffolk, designed to guard the mouth of the river. It is now managed by the charity English Heritage and is open to the public.
Originally known as Langer Fort, [1] the first fortifications from 1540 were a few earthworks and blockhouse, but it was King James I who ordered, from 1621, the construction of a square fort with bulwarks at each corner. [2]
In 1667, the Dutch, under Michiel de Ruyter, landed a force of 2,000 men on Felixstowe beach in front of (what is now called) Undercliff Road East and advanced on to the fort, but were repulsed by Nathaniel Darrel and his garrison of 400 musketeers of the Duke of York & Albany's Maritime Regiment (the first Royal Marines) and 100 artillerymen with 54 cannon. [3]
The fort was considered part of Essex in the 18th and 19th centuries; births and deaths within the garrison were recorded as 'Landguard Fort, Essex'.
A new Fort battery was built in 1717, and a complete new fort on an adjoining site was started in 1745 to a pentagonal bastioned trace. New batteries were built in the 1750s and 1780s. The biggest change occurred in the 1870s when the interior barracks were rebuilt to a keep-like design and the river frontage was rebuilt with a new casemated battery covered by a very unusual caponier with a quarter-sphere bombproof nose. Several open bastions were enclosed, and a mock ravelin block was constructed to house a submarine mining contingent.
Two landscapes were commissioned, c.1755, from Thomas Gainsborough - then still little-known and living at Ipswich (1750-9) - for the Governor's Quarters at Landguard by his friend Philip Thicknesse, Lt. Governor of Landguard Fort. These were later destroyed by the damp conditions at the Fort, but an engraving of one of them survives.
In the Napoleonic Wars, the strength and combat readiness of the Fort caused the Army repeated concern. In 1801, General Lord Cornwallis, Eastern District commander-in-chief visited Landguard Fort. After 1804 steps were taken to extend and strengthen the Fort with the supply and ammunition stores moved across to Harwich for safety. The badly-disciplined garrison had drunk gin found on a captured smugglers' boat leading to the death of four soldiers, probably from alcohol poisoning.
During the Second World War, Landguard Fort was used as one of the launch sites of Operation Outward. This was a project to attack Germany by means of free-flying hydrogen balloons that carried incendiary devices or trailing steel wires (intended to damage power lines.) Between 1942 and 1944, many thousands of balloons were launched.
The main uses of the Fort and nearby structures were:
Observers on top of Landguard Fort witnessed and plotted many air raids, German minelaying actions, shipwrecks and air crashes. In 1944, in a probable false alarm, the Landguard guns opened up on supposed German midget-sub raiders in the harbour entrance. Later that year, Allied landing ships loaded at the former RAF piers just to the north.
The 10-inch gun pit in Left Battery was converted into an Anti-aircraft Operations Room for Harwich in 1939.
The Army left the Fort in 1957.
The fort has been structurally consolidated. It is now under the guardianship of English Heritage and is open to the public.
The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England from Ipswich to Felixstowe. Above Ipswich, the river is known as the River Gipping, but its name changes to the Orwell at Stoke Bridge, where the river becomes tidal. It broadens into an estuary at Ipswich, where the Ipswich dock has operated since the 7th century, and then flows into the North Sea at Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port, after joining the River Stour at Shotley forming Harwich harbour.
Felixstowe is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 72 miles (116 km) northeast of London.
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Walton is a settlement and former civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the rivers Orwell and Deben. It is now part of Felixstowe parish. In 1911 the parish had a population of 4226.
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The Harwich Harbour Ferry is a foot and bicycle ferry for 58 passengers that runs from April until end of October between Ha'penny Pier near Harwich to Landguard Fort near Felixstowe and Shotley marina. As well as for local traffic, this ferry can be used as a short cut on the Suffolk Coast Path; it takes bicycles, prams, e-bikes and is used by National Cycle Route NCR 51 and the North Sea Cycle Route.
The ferries in Suffolk are a series of local ferry services in the county of Suffolk in Eastern England. Most cross rivers within the county, and one connects Suffolk with Essex to the south.
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The Fortress Study Group is a charity registered in the UK with an international membership. Its purpose is advancing the study of post-medieval artillery fortifications throughout the World.
The Governor of Landguard Fort was a British military officer who commanded the fortifications at Landguard Fort, protecting the port of Harwich. Landguard successfully held off a Dutch raid in 1667 and continued to be used for military purposes through the 1950s. The office of Governor was abolished in 1833, and of Lieutenant-Governor in 1854.
The Shotley Peninsula is a rural area east of the A137 Ipswich-Colchester road located between the rivers Stour and Orwell in Suffolk, England. The peninsula is named after the settlements of Shotley and Shotley Gate which are situated near its south-eastern tip. Other villages on the peninsula include Chelmondiston, Erwarton (Arwarton), Freston, Harkstead, Holbrook, Stutton, Tattingstone, Wherstead and Woolverstone.
The Battle of Landguard Fort or the Attack on Landguard Fort was a battle towards the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War on 2 July 1667 where a Dutch force attacked Landguard Fort near Felixstowe. It was intended to clear the way for an attack on the English Royal Naval anchorage at Harwich. After repeated attempts the Dutch attack planned by Michiel de Ruyter was repelled and as a result the planned attack on Harwich was abandoned. It was one of the last battles of the war in Europe before the Treaty of Breda was signed.
29th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of Britain's Territorial Army (TA) before and during the Second World War. It defended East Anglian airfields and ports during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz. It was reformed in the postwar TA.
The Essex (Fortress) Royal Engineers was a volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers formed to defend the Essex coast. It served in this role in World War I and then converted to a searchlight regiment for air defence in World War II. The unit ended the war as a garrison infantry battalion. Its descendants continued to serve in the Territorial Army until 1955.
Apart from a Roman Fort, there were very few fortifications in Alderney until the mid 19th century. These were then modified and updated in the mid 20th Century by Germans during the occupation period. Alderney at 8 km2 is now one of the most fortified places in the world.
The 1st Suffolk & Harwich Volunteer Artillery, later the Essex & Suffolk Royal Garrison Artillery was an auxiliary coastal artillery unit of the British Army first raised in 1899. It defended the ports and naval bases around the estuaries of the Rivers Orwell and Stour. Although the unit saw no active service, it supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I. It was greatly expanded in World War II to defend the invasion-threatened East Anglian Coast from Harwich to Great Yarmouth. Postwar it continued in the coast and air defence roles until it disappeared in a series of amalgamations from the 1950s.
