The Stokes Bay Lines were part of the great Victorian fortification of Portsmouth Harbour under Lord Palmerston. In 1857 Major Jervois had proposed a complex system of moats (ditches), ramparts and batteries to close off the gap between the new fort at Fort Gomer, and the earlier fort at Fort Gilkicker, and Fort Monckton. This defensive moat was to become the ‘Stokes Bay Lines’. [1]
The Stokes Bay Lines were constructed to protect the southern approaches to Gosport from a beach landing at Stokes Bay. The Lines consisted of a ditch with a protecting rampart that ran from the Browndown Batteries in the west to the glacis of Fort Monckton in the east. Four batteries were constructed to protect the various branches of the ditch. No.1 Battery also protected the road to Browndown. No2 Battery held the main sea-facing armament for protecting the deep water anchorage at Browndown Point and also had a casemated battery of guns to fire eastwards along the main branch of the ditch towards Alverbank. No.3 Battery, at the end of Jellicoe Avenue (then Village Road) held a battery of guns to fire westwards towards No.2 Battery. No.4 Battery was an isolated work behind the redan that protected the railway to Stokes Bay Pier. No.5 Battery was the easternmost one consisting of a D-shaped rampart with associated expense magazines and gun emplacements. In 1878 the Royal Engineers diverted the River Alver into the Stokes Bay moat at No.2 Battery. This was to ensure that there was always sufficient water within the defensive ditch. The level of water within the ditch was controlled by a large sluice adjacent to Number 2 battery whilst penstocks at various points along the ditch allowed precise control of the water levels. [2] When the Stokes Bay Lines were completed by 1870 the peninsula of Gosport was effectively secured against attack from the west thereby protecting Portsmouth with its harbour and dockyard. The cost of constructing these lines was calculated in a report of 1869 to be £75,120. [3]
Nothing remains of the rampart and moat that protected the rear of the Browndown Battery, west of No.2 Battery. Half of No.1 Battery was demolished in the 1930s when the Browndown Road was widened. A portion of it remains to the south of the road with much of the concrete revetments and parapets still visible in the gardens of the chalets. The tunnel connecting No.1 Battery to No.2 Battery still exists in the gardens of the chalets. The expense magazines and gun emplacements have been demolished.
No.2 Battery is a grade II listed building and it is the best preserved of the Stokes Bay Batteries. Gosport Borough Council purchased the Battery in 1932 from the Home Office for £1,500. In 1933 the parade of the site became a caravan park and in 1939 the Council moved their records from the town hall to the Battery for safe storage. During World War Two the military used the battery. In 1947 it was being used by the Special Armament Development Establishment (S.A.D.E.) based in Fort Gomer. In 1950 the Battery was in use by the 7th Royal Tank Regiment Amphibious Wing. The Military agreed the release of the battery in November 1951. The moat around it was filled in 1956 leaving the channel connecting the River Alver to the sea intact.
In 1982 Gosport Council converted the casemates and magazines of no.2 battery into a nuclear bunker (Civil Defence Command Post) at a cost of £30,000. When this idea was abandoned the battery was left vacant until a local volunteer group opened the east facing casemates in 1994 as a Summer Exhibition Centre. The centre gun embrasure was converted to a doorway. The west casemates have had their wooden partitions removed allowing them to be used for storage and parking for the chalets. The two 6-inch gun emplacements are intact on top of the battery but are not accessible. The concrete pits for the Moncrieff carriages can still be seen beneath the later 6-inch B.L. emplacements. In 2011 Gosport Borough Council agreed the use of the casemates as a small museum by the Historical Diving Society.
Nothing of No.3 battery remains. No.4 Battery has been completely destroyed. The site is a stable and paddock for horses. The ditch has been filled.
From 1950 the ditch of the Stokes Bay Lines was filled because of complaints from residents of mosquitoes and stagnant water. The section from No.2 Battery to No.3 Battery was filled first so that the Stokes Bay Road and promenade could be widened. The final section to be filled was that from No.3 Battery as far as No. 4 Battery. [6]
The site of Battery 5 has been used by the Royal Naval Physiological Laboratory and then as Qinetiq Dive Test Centre. It is currently derelict and earmarked for housing development. [7] No.5 Battery is a scheduled ancient monument. The original rampart is mostly intact and the expense magazines survive.
Gosport is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status, on the south coast of Hampshire, England. At the 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a population was 81,952. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite the city of Portsmouth, to which it is linked by the Gosport Ferry. Gosport lies south-east of Fareham, to which it is linked by a Bus Rapid Transit route and the A32. Until the last quarter of the 20th century, Gosport was a major naval town associated with the defence and supply infrastructure of His Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Portsmouth. As such over the years extensive fortifications were created.
The Hilsea Lines are a line of 18th- and 19th-century fortifications built at Hilsea to protect the northern approach to Portsea Island, an island off the southern coast of England which forms the majority of the city of Portsmouth and its key naval base. They are now used as a greenspace and leisure area, also known locally as Foxes Forest.
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.
Shornemead Fort is a now-disused artillery fort that was built in the 1860s to guard the entrance to the Thames from seaborne attack. Constructed during a period of tension with France, it stands on the south bank of the river at a point where the Thames curves sharply north and west, giving the fort long views up and downriver in both directions. It was the third fort constructed on the site since the 18th century, but its location on marshy ground led to major problems with subsidence. The fort was equipped for a time with a variety of large-calibre artillery guns which were intended to support two other nearby Thamesside forts. However, the extent of the subsidence meant that it became unsafe for the guns to be fired and the fort was disarmed by the early 20th century.
Coalhouse Fort is an artillery fort in the eastern English county of Essex. It was built in the 1860s to guard the lower Thames from seaborne attack. It stands at Coalhouse Point on the north bank of the river, at a location near East Tilbury which was vulnerable to raiders and invaders. It was the last in a series of fortifications dating back to the 15th century and was the direct successor to a smaller mid-19th century fort built on the same site. Constructed during a period of tension with France, its location on marshy ground caused problems from the start and led to a lengthy construction process. The fort was equipped with a variety of large-calibre artillery guns and the most modern defensive facilities of the time, including shell-proof casemates protected by granite facing and cast-iron shields. Its lengthy construction and the rapid pace of artillery development at the time meant that it was practically obsolete for its original purpose within a few years of its completion.
Fort Luton was built between 1876 and 1892 south of Chatham, Medway, South East England. It is one of the five late Victorian land front forts built to defend the overland approaches to Chatham. It is the smallest of the Chatham forts and was built near to the village of Luton.
Fort Gilkicker is a historic Palmerston fort built at the eastern end of Stokes Bay, Gosport, Hampshire England to dominate the key anchorage of Spithead. It was erected between 1863 and 1871 as a semi-circular arc with 22 casemates, to be armed with five twelve-inch guns, seventeen ten-inch guns and five nine-inch guns. The actual installed armament rather differed from this. In 1902 the RML guns were replaced by two 9.2-inch and two six-inch BL guns, and before the First World War the walls were further strengthened with substantial earthwork embankments. The fort was disarmed in 1956 and used for storage until 1999. On 28th July 2022, the fort was sold at auction for just under £1.4M and planning has been granted for 26 homes. Since then a massive restoration project has been underway.
Fort Widley is one of the forts built on top of Portsdown Hill between 1860 and 1868 on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom. It was designed, along with the other Palmerston Forts atop Portsdown, to protect Portsmouth from attack from the rear.
Fort Fareham is one of the Palmerston Forts, in Fareham, England. After the Gosport Advanced Line of Fort Brockhurst, Fort Elson, Fort Rowner, Fort Grange and Fort Gomer had been approved by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom a decision was made to build an outer line of three more forts two miles in advance of the Gosport Advanced Line. Of these three projected forts only Fort Fareham was built due to the need to cut costs. It acted as a hinge between the forts on Portsdown Hill and those of the Gosport Advanced Line, filling the gap at Fareham. It has been a Grade II Listed Building since 1976.
Fort Nelson, in the civil parish of Boarhunt in the English county of Hampshire, is one of five defensive forts built on the summit of Portsdown Hill in the 1860s, overlooking the important naval base of Portsmouth. It is now part of the Royal Armouries, housing their collection of artillery, and a Grade I Listed Building.
Whitsand Bay, situated in south east Cornwall, England, runs from Rame Head in the east to Portwrinkle in the west. It is characterised by sheer, high cliffs, dramatic scenery and long stretches of sandy beaches. The South West Coast Path runs the length of the bay.
Cliffe Fort is a disused artillery fort built in the 1860s to guard the entrance to the River Thames from seaborne attack. Constructed during a period of tension with France, it stands on the south bank of the river at the entrance to Cliffe Creek in the Cliffe marshes on the Hoo Peninsula in North Kent, England. Its location on marshy ground caused problems from the start and necessitated changes to its design after the structure begin to crack and subside during construction. The fort was equipped with a variety of large-calibre artillery guns which were intended to support two other nearby Thamesside forts. A launcher for the Brennan torpedo—which has been described as the world's first practical guided missile—was installed there at the end of the 19th century but was only in active use for a few years.
Fort Gomer was one of the Palmerston Forts, in Gosport, England, the southernmost and first-built Polygonal fort in the defence line to the west of Gosport. It was located on land immediately to the west of the present Gomer Lane. Fort Gomer was the most southerly fort in the line of five which formed part of the ‘Sea Front and Spithead Defences’, Inner Line, Land Front, Left Flank. This line of forts was later known as the Gomer-Elson Line or 'Gosport Advanced Line' This consisted of, from south to north, Fort Gomer, Fort Grange, Fort Rowner, Fort Brockhurst and Fort Elson. An inscription above the main entrance through the barrack block read `Erected AD 1853’. The fort was almost complete before work began on Fort Elson in 1855. The estimated cost of Fort Gomer was £92,000 in 1869.
Fort Pasir Panjang or Labrador Battery is located within Labrador Park at the southern tip of Singapore island. It was one of the 11 coastal artillery forts built by the British in the 19th century to defend the western passageway into Keppel Harbour against piracy and foreign naval powers. During the 1942 Battle of Pasir Panjang, the fort played a supporting role but a limited one in defending the Malay Regiments against the Japanese invasion at Bukit Chandu. In 1995, the site was gazetted by the National Heritage Board as one of the 11 World War II sites in Singapore.
Browndown Battery, also referred to erroneously in some sources as Browndown Fort, is a former military coastal defence fortification and base on the Southern shoreline of England in the county of Hampshire. First erected in the mid-1840s, the battery was continuously modified until disarmed in 1905/6. It has been a Grade II Listed Building since 1983.
Redcliff Battery is a battery located to the west of the Culver Cliffs and east of Yaverland on the Isle of Wight, England. It is one of the many Palmerston Forts built on the island to protect it in response to a perceived French invasion. Construction of the battery began in April 1861 and was complete by September 1863 at a cost of £4,776. Most of it has fallen into the sea. Only small amount left May 2020
Fort Ballance is a former coastal artillery battery on Point Gordon on Wellington's Miramar Peninsula.
Fort Rowner is one of the Palmerston Forts, in Gosport, England.
Fort Monckton is a historic military fort on the south-east shoreline of the Gosport peninsula, Hampshire. Built on the ruins of Haselworth Castle to protect Portsmouth Harbour at the start of the American War of Independence, it was rebuilt in the 1880s as a Palmerston fort. It now houses a training centre for the intelligence services.
Fort Elson was one of the early Palmerston Forts, in Gosport, England, the northernmost polygonal land fort in the defence line to the west of Gosport. It was located on land immediately to the south of Elson Creek, to which it was connected by a sluice. Fort Elson was the most northerly fort in the line of five which formed part of the ‘Sea Front and Spithead Defences’, Inner Line, Land Front, and Left Flank. This line of forts was later known as the Gomer-Elson Line or 'Gosport Advanced Line' This consisted of, from south to north, Fort Gomer, Fort Grange, Fort Rowner, Fort Brockhurst and Fort Elson. Work began on Fort Elson in 1855. The estimated cost of Fort Elson was £63,740 with the actual cost £61,180.
