The Maunsell Forts are towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were operated as army and navy forts, and named for their designer, Guy Maunsell.[1] The forts were decommissioned during the late 1950s and later used for other activities including pirate radio broadcasting. One of the forts is managed by the unrecognised Principality of Sealand;[2] boats visit the remaining forts occasionally, and a consortium named Project Redsands is planning to conserve the fort situated at Red Sands. The aesthetic attraction of the Maunsell forts has been considered to be associated with the aesthetics of decay, transience and nostalgia.[3]
During the summers of 2007 and 2008 Red Sands Radio, a station commemorating the pirate radio stations of the 1960s, operated from the Red Sands fort on 28-day Restricted Service Licences. The fort was subsequently declared unsafe, and Red Sands Radio has moved its operations ashore to Whitstable.
Forts had been built in river mouths and similar locations to defend against ships, such as the Grain Tower Battery at the mouth of the Medway dating from 1855, Plymouth Breakwater Fort, completed 1865, the four Spithead Forts: Horse Sand Fort, No Mans Land and St Helens Forts which were built 1865–1880 and Spitbank Fort, built during the 1880s, the Humber Forts on Bull & Haile Sands, completed in late 1919, and the Nab Tower, intended as part of a World War I anti-submarine defense but only set in place in 1920.
Maunsell naval forts
The locations of the seven Maunsell Forts off the east coast of England.
The Maunsell naval forts were built in the Thames estuary and operated by the Royal Navy, to deter and report German air raids following the Thames as a landmark, and prevent attempts to lay mines by aircraft in this important shipping channel. There were four naval forts:
This artificial naval installation is similar in some respects to early "fixed" offshore oil platforms. It consisted of a rectangular 168-by-88-foot (51 by 27m) reinforced concrete pontoon base with a support superstructure of two 60-foot (18m) tall, 24-foot (7.3m) diameter hollow reinforced concrete towers, walls roughly 3.5 inches (9cm) thick; overall weight is estimated to have been approximately 4,500 tons.[4] The twin concrete supporting towers were divided into seven floors, four for crew quarters;[4] the remainder provided dining, operational, and storage areas for several generators, and for fresh water tanks and antiaircraft munitions. There was a steel framework at one end supporting a landing jetty and crane which was used to hoist supplies aboard; the wooden landing stage itself became known as a "dolphin".[4]
The stages involved in anchoring a naval fort.
The towers were joined above the eventual waterline by a steel platform deck upon which other structures could be added; this became a gun deck, on which an upper deck and a central tower unit were constructed.[4]QF 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns were positioned at each end of this main deck, with a further two Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and the central tower radar installations atop a central living area that contained a galley, medical, and officers quarters.
The design of these concrete structures is equal to a military grade bunker, due to the ends of the stilts (under water), that are locked into the ground. Many species of fish live near the forts because the forts create cover. They have provided landmark references for shipping. They were laid down in dry dock and assembled as complete units. They were then fitted out—the crews going aboard at the same time for familiarization—before being towed out and sunk onto their sand bank positions in 1942.
The naval fort design was the latest of several that Maunsell had devised in response to Admiralty inquiries. Early ideas had considered forts in the English Channel able to combat enemy vessels.
During World War II, the Thames estuary Navy forts destroyed one German E-Boat.[5]
Rough Sands fort was built to protect the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich and the town of Ipswich from aerial and sea attack. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately 11 kilometres (6nmi) from the coast of Suffolk and 13 kilometres (7nmi) from the coast of Essex. Fort Roughs or the "Rough Towers" was "the first of originally four naval forts designed by G. Maunsell to protect the Thames Estuary". The artificial sea fort was constructed in dry dock at Red Lion Wharf, Gravesend,[4] and was commissioned "H.M. Fort Roughs" on 8 February 1942.[6] After an eventful journey its grounding was supervised by Maunsell at 16:45 on 11 February 1942.[7] With "almost 100 men" having earlier embarked at Tilbury docks, the fort began service immediately.[8]
In 1966 Paddy Roy Bates, who operated Radio Essex, and Ronan O'Rahilly, who operated Radio Caroline, landed on Fort Roughs and occupied it. However, after disagreements, Roy Bates seized the tower as his own. O'Rahilly attempted to storm the fort in 1967, but Roy Bates defended the fort with guns and petrol bombs and continued to occupy it. The British Royal Marines were alerted and the British authorities ordered Roy Bates to surrender. He and his son were arrested and charged, but the court dismissed the case as it did not have jurisdiction over international affairs: Roughs Tower lay beyond the territorial waters of Britain. Bates took this as de facto recognition of his country and seven years later issued a constitution, flag, and national anthem, among other things, for the Principality of Sealand (founded on 2 September 1967).[9]
Sunk Head fort was situated approximately 18 kilometres (10nmi) from the coast off Essex and was grounded on 1 June 1942. The fort was decommissioned on 14 June 1945 though maintained until 1956 when it was abandoned. Unlike some of the other forts, Sunk Head was clearly well outside territorial waters, and when the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 came into effect in August 1967 the Government was anxious to ensure that it would not be taken over again by an offshore broadcaster. On 18 August 1967 Sunk Head was boarded by a contingent of the 24th Field Squadron of Royal Engineers from Maidstone from the tug Collie, commanded by Major David Ives. The Fort was weakened by acetylene cutting torches and 3,200 pounds of explosives were set. On 21 August 1967 Sunk Head was blown, leaving 20 feet of the leg stumps remaining.[10]
Tongue Sands Fort (U3)
Tongue Sands Fort was situated approximately 10.2 kilometres (6nmi) from the coast off Margate, Kent and was grounded on 27 June 1942. On the night of 22/23 January 1945, fifteen German E-boats were seen on radar, with five close by. The S.119 or S.199 operating out of IJmuiden, Holland was just over 4 miles away and came under heavy fire from Tongue Sands Fort's 3.7-inch guns. The German E-Boat's captain was unsure of where the attack was coming from and manoeuvred to avoid being hit, ramming another E-Boat in the process. The captain scuttled his badly damaged vessel.[11]
The Tongue Sands Fort was decommissioned on 14 February 1945 and reduced to care and maintenance until 1949 when it was abandoned.[12] The fort had settled badly when it was grounded and as a result became unstable. On 5 December 1947 the Fort shook violently and sections began falling into the sea. The caretaker crew sent a distress call and were rescued by HMS Uplifter. Divers later established that the foundations were solid, but in a later storm the fort took on a 15 degree list.[12] During the mid-1960s under-scouring had further distorted the fort: large holes had appeared in east leg, sea water had flooded the lower levels and the platform had become detached with huge gaps between the deck. Tongue Sands Fort finally collapsed into the under-scouring hole during storms on 21/22 February 1996, leaving only a single 18 foot stump of the south leg remaining visible above sea level.[12]
Knock John Fort (U4)
Knock John Fort.
Knock John fort is situated approximately 16.1 kilometres (9nmi) from the coast off Essex and was grounded on 1 August 1942. It was decommissioned on 14 June 1945 and evacuated on 25 June 1945. The platform was maintained until May 1956 when it was abandoned.[13] In 2009, it was observed that there was a slight distortion of the legs when viewing the tower from west to east. It is thought that underscouring is the cause of this.[14]
Maunsell army forts
Army fort in active service.
Maunsell also designed forts for anti-aircraft defence. These were larger installations comprising seven connected steel platforms. Four towers arranged in a semicircle ahead of the control centre and accommodation each carried a QF 3.7-inch gun, a tower to the rear of the control centre mounted Bofors 40 mm guns, while the seventh tower, set to one side of the gun towers and further out, was the searchlight tower.
The Mersey forts were constructed at Bromborough Dock and the Thames forts at Gravesend.[17][18] Proposals to construct forts off the Humber, Portsmouth & Rosyth, Belfast & Londonderry came to nothing.[11] During World War II, the Thames estuary forts shot down 22 aircraft and about 30 flying bombs; they were decommissioned by the Ministry of Defence during the late 1950s.[citation needed]
Nore Fort (U5)
The remains of Nore Army Fort.
Nore fort was the only one built in British territorial waters at the time it was established.[citation needed] Other forts were in international waters until the three-mile limit was extended to 12nmi (14mi; 22km). The fort was damaged badly in 1953 during a storm,[19] then later in the year a Norwegian ship, Baalbek, collided with it, destroying two of the towers, killing four civilians and destroying guns, radar equipment and supplies. The ruins were considered a hazard to shipping and dismantled in 1959–1960. Parts of the bases were towed ashore by the Cliffe fort at Alpha wharf near the village of Cliffe, Kent, where they were still visible at low tide.[20]
Red Sands Fort (U6)
Red Sands, 2013.
There are seven towers in the Red Sands group at the mouth of the Thames Estuary. The towers had been connected by metal grate walk-ways. In 1959 consideration was given to refloating the Red Sands Fort and bringing the towers ashore but the costs were prohibitive.[21]
During the early 21st century, in response to proposals to demolish the fort, a group named Project Redsands was formed to try to preserve it. It was the only fort that could be visited safely from a platform in between the legs of one of the towers.[22] The fort was inspected by the structural engineering company Structural Repairs in 2021. They found that 6 of the towers had severe structural defects, with elements already lost to the sea, the 7th tower also had the same defects, with elements due to imminently fall into the sea. The fort could not be accessed safely in its present condition.[23]
This group was built near the Thames estuary for anti-aircraft defence and made up of several towers north of Herne Bay 9.2mi (8.0nmi; 14.8km) from the nearest land. One of the seven towers collapsed in 1963 when fog caused the ship Ribersborg to stray off course and collide with one of the towers.[24] In 1964, the Port of London Authority placed wind and tide monitoring equipment on the Shivering Sands searchlight tower, which was isolated from the rest of the fort by the demolished tower. This relayed data to the mainland via a radio link. In August and September 2005, artist Stephen Turner spent six weeks living alone in the searchlight tower of the Shivering Sands Fort in what he described as "an artistic exploration of isolation, investigating how one's experience of time changes in isolation, and what creative contemplation means in a 21st-century context".[25]
The Liverpool sea forts were constructed in the same way the forts in the Thames estuary were; they were designed to defend Liverpool and the industrial heartland of Liverpool from an aerial attack from the west. Originally 38 towers were intended to be built but only 21 towers were built (three forts). The forts were built from October 1941. No fort engaged in enemy action during WWII. Demolition of the structures started during the 1950s with these forts considered a priority over the Thames estuary ports due to being a hazard to shipping. Demolition was delayed in 1954 when the salvage ship working at Queens Fort was diverted to assist with the urgent demolition of The Nore Fort in the Thames Estuary, which had been damaged due to a collision with a Norwegian ship, leaving remains considered hazardous to shipping in the area. Demolition of the three forts was completed in 1955.[26]
Illicit radio stations
Various forts were re-occupied for pirate radio during the mid-1960s.
Radio Sutch at Shivering Sands.
In 1964, a few months after Radios Caroline and Atlanta began broadcasting, Screaming Lord Sutch installed Radio Sutch in one of the towers at Shivering Sands. Sutch soon became bored with the project and sold the station to Reginald Calvert who had assisted in establishing the station and who renamed the station Radio City and expanded operations into all of the five towers that remained connected. Calvert's killing in a dispute concerning the station's ownership (found to be self-defence rather than murder) contributed to the Government passing legislation against the offshore stations in 1967.
During the illicit radio era the Port of London Authority frequently complained that its monitoring radio link was being disrupted by the nearby Radio City transmitter.
Red Sands was likewise occupied by Radio Invicta, which was renamed KING Radio and then Radio 390,[27] after its wavelength of approximately 390 metres. The station's managing director was ex-spy and thriller writer Ted Allbeury.[28]
The size of the Army forts made them ideal antenna platforms, since a large antenna could be based on the central tower and guyed from the surrounding towers.
A small group of radio enthusiasts established Radio Tower on Sunk Head Naval fort, but the station had a small budget, had poor coverage and lasted only a few months. Claims by the group that they also intended to provide television service from the fort were never credible. In order to prevent further illicit broadcasting, a team of Royal Engineers laid 2,200 lbs of explosive charges on Sunk Head, commencing on 18 August 1967. At 4:18 PM on 21 August the charges were detonated, destroying the entire superstructure and most of the concrete legs above the waterline.[29]
Paddy Roy Bates occupied the Knock John Fort in 1965 and established Radio Essex, later renamed BBMS—Britain's Better Music Station, but was better known for his post-pirate activities. After the termination of BBMS in late 1966 he moved the station's equipment to Roughs Tower, further from the coast, but did not recommence broadcasting. He, or a representative, has lived in Roughs Tower since 1967, self-styling the tower as the Principality of Sealand.[30]
Cultural references
The 1966 television series Danger Man episode "Not-so-Jolly Roger" was filmed partly at Redsands Army Sea Fort and includes an acknowledgement to Radio 390 in its closing credits. Redsands Fort was also used for the 1968 Doctor Who serial Fury from the Deep, in which the complex stood in for a North Seagas refinery besieged by an intelligent seaweed creature.[31] In the 2020 film Artemis Fowl, the Redsands towers, seen from the air, appear as the exterior of a secret MI6 interrogation centre. In the 2013 movie The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, as the characters travel in a train along the coast, two Sea Forts can be seen in the water.
The Red Sands Fort and Radio City feature in the Glam Rock band, Slade's movie, Slade in Flame. The newly formed band, Flame, are interviewed by the pirate radio station, just as an attack is begun on the forts.
The Shivering Sands Forts, filmed from a North Sea ferry, appeared in the 1984 music video for the song "A Sort of Homecoming", by the Irish popular music band U2.[32]
The 2002 video game Reign of Fire features the forts during the dragon campaign, where remnants of British Armed Forces make a last stand during a dragon apocalypse.
The 2015 video game Stranded Deep includes abandoned Sea Forts that have the appearance of Maunsell Army Forts. These are difficult-to-find Easter Eggs built into the game for players to explore.
The setting of the 2023 science fiction film Last Sentinel is based on a structure modelled after a single tower of the Maunsell army forts.[33][34]
The Red Sands Forts are seen in Episode 1 of Whitstable Pearl, mentioned as a drop-off and pick-up point for illicit drugs, as part of the story.
The Principality of Sealand is a micronation on HM Fort Roughs, an offshore platform in the North Sea. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately 11 kilometres (6 nmi) from the coast of Suffolk and 13 kilometres (7 nmi) from the coast of Essex. Roughs Tower is a Maunsell Sea Fort that was built by the British in international waters during World War II. Since 1967, the decommissioned Roughs Tower has been occupied and claimed as a sovereign state by the family and associates of Paddy Roy Bates. Bates seized Roughs Tower from a group of pirate radio broadcasters in 1967 with the intention of setting up his own station there. Bates and his associates have repelled incursions from vessels from rival pirate radio stations and the UK's Royal Navy using firearms and petrol bombs. In 1987, the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, which places the platform in British territory. As of August 2024, Sealand has only one permanent resident.
The Downs is a roadstead in the southern North Sea near the English Channel, off the east Kent coast in southern England, between the North and the South Foreland, near the town of Deal. From the Elizabethan era onward the presence of the Downs helped to make Deal one of the premier ports in England, and in the 19th century it was equipped with its own telegraph and timeball tower to enable ships to set their marine chronometers.
Salcombe is a resort town in the South Hams district of Devon, south west England. The town is close to the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, mostly built on the steep west side of the estuary. It lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The town's extensive waterfront and the naturally sheltered harbour formed by the estuary gave rise to its success as a boat and shipbuilding and sailing port and, in modern times, tourism especially in the form of pleasure boats and yachting. The town is also home to a traditional shellfish fishing industry. The town is part of the electoral ward of Salcombe and Malborough, for which the 2011 census recorded a total population of 3,353.
Isle of Grain is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. No longer an island and now forming part of the peninsula, the area is almost all marshland and is a major habitat for diverse wetland birds. The village constitutes a civil parish, which at the 2011 census had a population of 1,648, a net decrease of 83 people in 10 years.
The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain.
Guy Anson Maunsell was the British civil engineer responsible for the design of the Maunsell Forts used by the United Kingdom for the defence of the Thames and Mersey estuaries during World War II.
HM Fort Roughs is one of several World War II installations that were designed by Guy Maunsell and known collectively as His Majesty's Forts or as Maunsell Sea Forts; the purpose of which was to guard the port of Harwich, Essex, and more broadly, the Thames estuary. This 4,500 ton artificial naval installation is similar in some respects to "fixed" offshore oil platforms. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately 11 kilometres (6 nmi) from the coast of Suffolk and 13 kilometres (7 nmi) from the coast of Essex. Today it is the location and de-facto capital of the unrecognised, self-proclaimed state of Sealand.
Radio City was a British pirate radio station broadcasting from Shivering Sands Army Fort, one of the abandoned Second World War Maunsell Sea Forts in the Thames Estuary.
Radio 390 (1965–1967) was a pirate radio station on Red Sands Fort,, a former Maunsell Fort on the Red Sands sandbar.
The Nore is a long bank of sand and silt running along the south-centre of the final narrowing of the Thames Estuary, England. Its south-west is the very narrow Nore Sand. Just short of the Nore's easternmost point where it fades into the channels it has a notable point once marked by a lightship on the line where the estuary of the Thames nominally becomes the North Sea. A lit buoy today stands on this often map-marked divisor: between Havengore Creek in east Essex and Warden Point on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
MV Ross Revenge is a radio ship, the home of Radio Caroline, as well as having supported Radio Monique and various religious broadcasters. Funded by the Icelandic government, she was constructed in Bremerhaven in 1960 and served as an Icelandic commercial trawler until 1963 when she was sold to the Ross Group fleet, notably taking part in the Cod Wars of the 1970s. Following her decommissioning, she was purchased by Radio Caroline and outfitted as a radio ship, complete with 300-foot (91 m) antenna mast and 50 kW transmitter. Her broadcasts began on 20 August 1983; her final pirate broadcast took place in November 1990. She ran aground on the Goodwin Sands in November 1991, bringing the era of offshore pirate radio in Europe to an end. She was, however, salvaged, and is now maintained by the Caroline Support Group, a group of supporters and enthusiasts.
The Palmerston Forts are a group of forts and associated structures around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Shivering Sands Army Fort [U7] was a Maunsell army fort built near the Thames estuary for anti-aircraft defence. It is made up of several once-interconnected towers north of Herne Bay and is 14.8 km from the nearest land. They can be viewed from Shoeburyness East Beach on clear days. The Shivering Sands fort was the last of the Thames estuary forts to be constructed, and was grounded between 18 September and 13 December 1943.
The Black Deep is in the outer Thames Estuary. It is the greatest of three mainly natural shipping channels linking the Tideway to central zones of the North Sea without shoals, the others being the Barrow Deep and Princes Channel. Between these, a few others, and the shores of Kent, Suffolk and Essex are many long shoals in the North Sea, broadly shallow enough to wreck vessels of substantial draft at low tide.
Michael Roy Bates, self-styled as Prince Michael of Sealand, is an English businessman and self-published author. He operates a self-proclaimed and unrecognized micronation called the Principality of Sealand, which he inherited from his parents Paddy Roy Bates and Joan Bates. He has claimed the title "Prince of Sealand" since the death of his father in 2012.
Patrick Roy Bates, self-styled as Prince Roy of Sealand, was a British pirate radio broadcaster and micronationalist, who founded the self-proclaimed Principality of Sealand.
Thames Hub Airport was a proposed platform-based hub airport located on the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary in Kent, whose development has been led by the architect Lord Foster. The idea for the airport was originally included within the Thames Hub integrated infrastructure vision, and the idea of some kind of airport in the Thames Estuary has been discussed since the 1970s.
The Shoeburyness Boom refers to two successive defensive barriers across most of the Thames Estuary in the mid-20th century. As to the part perpendicular to the north shore most of the latter incarnation remains, and its nearest concrete mooring/patrol point 600 metres south. A 2 km stretch, this is designated a scheduled monument and marks the western edge of MoD Shoeburyness firing range, a restricted area. The rest was taken up in the 1960s.
Tankerton Slopes is a 2.3-hectare (5.7-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Whitstable in Kent. It is part of the Tankerton Slopes and Swalecliffe Special Area of Conservation
The Swin is a passage in the Thames estuary between Maplin Sands, Foulness Sand and Gunfleet Sand northwest and the Barrow and Sunk sand ridges (shoals), southeast. The Swin was used by barges and leisure craft from the Essex rivers, and coasters and colliers from Hull, Great Grimsby, North East England, Edinburgh and other similar sets of trading ports.
↑ at Chapter 3.5 in Moss, Joanne "Critical perspectives: North Sea offshore wind farms.: Oral histories, aesthetics and selected legal frameworks relating to the North Sea." (2021) https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1611092/FULLTEXT01.pdf Retrieved 2 October 2023
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