Victoria Tower, Jersey, is a Martello tower that the British completed in 1837 and named after Queen Victoria, who succeeded to the Throne in that year. [1] The tower sits on Le Mont Nicholas in Saint Martin just to the west of the castle of Mont Orgueil. The purpose of the tower was to defend the bay of Anne Port to its north and Gorey Harbour to the south from enemy naval bombardment. Currently, the National Trust for Jersey administers the tower.
Victoria Tower is circular and measures 33 ft (10.1 m) in height and 32 ft (9.8 m) in diameter. [2] The tower is the only Martello on Jersey to have a ditch around it. The ditch itself is 12 ft (3.7 m) deep and 10 ft (3.0 m) across. A drawbridge spans the ditch. In the counterscarp beneath the drawbridge there is a small room, with two doors, that may have been a store room. Inside the tower a circular staircase connected the three floors. [3] The tower was armed with a single 24-pounder gun. [2] During World War II and the Occupation of the Channel Islands, the Germans placed a small anti-aircraft gun on the top of the tower and constructed an entire strongpoint at the site, operated by a garrison of ninety-nine troops from the German Infantry, Artillery and Kriegsmarine.
Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts.
Eastbourne Redoubt is a circular coastal defence fort at Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. It was built in 1805 as part of the British anti-invasion preparations during the Napoleonic Wars. The building is now owned by the local authority and is open to the public.
Fort Grey, colloquially known as the "cup and saucer", is a Martello tower located on a tidal rock in Rocquaine Bay in Saint Peter, Guernsey on the west coast of the island.
Fort Denison, part of the Sydney Harbour National Park, is a protected national park that is a heritage-listed former penal site and defensive facility occupying a small island located north-east of the Royal Botanic Garden and approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of the Opera House in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. The island is also known as Mattewanye or Muddawahnyuh in the Eora language, and as Pinchgut Island.
Grouville is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. The parish is around 3.9 kilometres (2.4 mi) east of St Helier. The parish covers a surface area of 4,354 vergées (7.8 km²). The parish includes the south-east portion of the main island of the Bailiwick of Jersey, as well as the Minquiers islets several miles to the south, and is dominated by the broad sweep of the Royal Bay of Grouville. It borders St. Clement, St. Saviour and St. Martin.
Jaywick Martello Tower is a renovated Martello tower at Jaywick, 2.7 miles (4.3 km) south-west of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. It now functions as an arts, heritage and community venue. It is a Grade II listed building and a scheduled monument.
Jersey is a heavily fortified island with coastal fortifications that date to the English Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars, and Nazi Germany's occupation of the Channel Islands. The fortifications include castles, forts, towers, Martello towers, artillery batteries, and seawalls. Not infrequently, fortifications from one period are built on the site of earlier fortifications, or very near them, geography having remained the same even when firepower increased.
Grosnez Castle is a ruined 14th-century castle in Saint Ouen, situated in Grosnez in the north-west corner of the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands. Philippe de Carteret held it against the French when they held half of Jersey between 1461 and 1467, but it has been a ruin since the mid-16th century.
Battery Lothringen was a World War II coastal artillery battery in Saint Brélade, Jersey, named after the SMS Lothringen, and constructed by Organisation Todt for the Wehrmacht during the Occupation of the Channel Islands. The first installations were completed in 1941, around the same time as the completion of the nearby Battery Moltke, in St. Ouen.
The Bréhon Tower is accessible only by boat and sits on Bréhon Rock, an island in the Little Russell channel about 1.5 km northeast of St Peter Port, Guernsey, between the port and the islands of Herm and Jethou. Thomas Charles de Putron (1806–1869) built the oval tower of granite from Herm, completing the work in 1857.
Fort Saumarez is a Martello tower in Saint Peter, Guernsey, on a headland that forms the northern tip of L'Erée and extends to the Lihou causeway.
Fort Hommet is a fortification on Vazon Bay headland in Castel, Guernsey. It is built on the site of fortifications that date back to 1680 and consists of a Martello tower from 1804, later additions during the Victorian Era, and bunkers and casemates that the Germans constructed during World War II.
The British built 15 Guernsey loophole towers at various points along the coast of Guernsey between August 1778 and March 1779 to deter possible French attacks after France had declared itself an ally of the Americans in the American Revolutionary War. Towards the start of the Napoleonic Wars several towers received additional reinforcement in the form of batteries at their bases. Today, 12 towers still survive, three having been destroyed at different times. Two of the survivors, Petit Bôt and Rousse, contain interpretive exhibits that the public may examine.
The Prince of Wales Tower is the oldest martello tower in North America and is located in Point Pleasant Park, Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was built in 1796 by Captain James Straton and was used as a redoubt and a powder magazine. Restored, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1943.
Lewis Tower is a Martello tower in St Ouen's Bay on the island of Jersey. It was erected by the British in 1835, and is named after Colonel Griffith Lewis, who commanded the Royal Engineers in Jersey from December 1830 to January 1836.
Portelet Tower, Jersey, is a Martello tower that the British built in 1808 on the tidal island L'Île au Guerdain in Portelet Bay in the parish of Saint Brélade, Jersey. The site is often referred to as Janvrin's tower or Janvrin's Tomb. The site is accessible at low tide.
Kempt Tower, in La Grande Cueillette, Saint Ouen, Jersey, is also known as Saint Ouen No. 2 and La Grôsse Tou in Jèrriais, and is a Martello tower that the British completed in 1834. It is named for Sir James Kempt, the Master-General of the Ordnance from 1830 to 1834. While governor of Canada, Kempt was involved in the planning for the use of Martello towers to protect the colony. Currently, Kempt Tower serves as the interpretation centre for Les Mielles conservation area.
La Tour de Vinde is a Martello tower that the British erected between 1808 and 1810 to command the approaches to St Aubin's Bay, Jersey. The tower stands at the foot of the cliffs of Noirmont Point, in the Vingtaine de Noirmont in the Parish of Saint Brélade. During the occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II, the Germans erected Battery Lothringen on the top of Noirmont Point. The site of the tower is accessible at low tide by foot, though the tower itself is closed to the public.
The Martello Tower in Hambantota, is a small circular shaped fort, inspired by the Martello tower.
The island of Guernsey has been fortified for several thousand years, the number of defence locations and complexity of the defence increasing with time, manpower and the improvements in weapons and tactics.