West Blockhouse Fort | |
---|---|
Dale, Pembrokeshire in Wales | |
A view of the barracks from the terreplein or gun platform at West Blockhouse Fort. | |
Coordinates | 51°41′18″N5°09′29″W / 51.6883°N 5.1580°W Coordinates: 51°41′18″N5°09′29″W / 51.6883°N 5.1580°W |
Type | Coastal artillery fort |
Site information | |
Owner | Landmark Trust |
Open to the public | Yes |
Site history | |
Built | 1857-1858 |
West Blockhouse Fort is a mid-19th century coastal artillery fort at West Blockhouse Point, a rocky headland near Dale, Pembrokeshire, to the west of Milford Haven in Wales.
The site of the present fort was previously occupied by a disused blockhouse which had been built by order of King Henry VIII as part of a national fortification programme initiated in 1539. It was called West Blockhouse; a corresponding but uncompleted gun tower on the other side of the Milford Haven Waterway near Angle was called East Blockhouse. [1] West Blockhouse was demolished in preparation for the construction of the present fort and there are no visible remains. [2]
The present fort was planned in the early 1850s in response to a perceived threat from the Emperor Napoleon III of France, who had come to power following a coup d'etat in December 1851. [3] It was intended to protect the anchorage at the mouth of the Milford Haven Waterway by means of interlocking fire with nearby Thorn Island Fort and Dale Fort which were constructed at the around the same time. A date of 1857 is inscribed over the main entrance, [4] and it had been completed by 1858. Although there were various proposals to either rearm the fort's increasingly obsolete six 68-pounder muzzle-loading guns or to abandon it altogether, it was not until 1893 that it was reduced to the status of a "practice battery" and was finally disarmed in 1900. However, in 1901, the terreplein or gun platform was rebuilt to take four 5 inch gun breech-loading guns and a further two 3 pounder quick-firing guns were installed on the roof of the barrack block. By 1907, the nearby West Blockhouse Battery having been completed, all of the guns at the fort had been removed, but it continued in use for storage and accommodation. During the Second World War, the fort became the headquarters of the Haven's searchlight defences and two searchlight positions were built close by. [5]
The military presence at the fort ended in 1956 and the fort was allowed to become derelict. The buildings were purchased by the Landmark Trust in 1969 and the land in the following year. Restoration began in late 1986 and included the internal reconstruction of the barracks as holiday apartments and rebuilding the original brick vaulted roof that had been replaced with concrete to support the quick-firing guns. [6] The architect for the conversion was Andrew Thomas of Thomas Jones Associates, Builth Wells. The fort became a Grade II* Listed Building in 1996, because it is "Probably the best preserved of all the 'Palmerston Forts' around Milford Haven". [4]
In 1900, work started on a battery for modern breech loading coast artillery on a site 150 yards (138 metres) to the west of the fort and higher up the cliff. At the same time, a similar battery was constructed across the haven at East Blockhouse near Angle. The battery was completed with an armament of two BL 9.2 inch Mk X guns and three BL 6-inch Mk VII guns. Over the following decades, various guns were withdrawn and then reinstated, but in 1939, the 9.2 inch guns were removed, leaving two 6 inch guns which seem to have been manned until the abolition of coastal artillery in 1956. The site is now derelict and although the concrete gun emplacements remain, other features of the battery have been demolished, buried or have become overgrown. [7]
Garrison Point Fort is a former artillery fort situated at the end of the Garrison Point peninsula at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. Built in the 1860s in response to concerns about a possible French invasion, it was the last in a series of artillery batteries that had existed on the site since the mid-16th century. The fort's position enabled it to guard the strategic point where the River Medway meets the Thames. It is a rare example of a two-tiered casemated fort – one of only two of that era in the country – with a design that is otherwise similar to that of several of the other forts along the lower Thames. It remained operational until 1956 and is now used by the Sheerness Docks as a port installation.
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Dale Fort is a mid-nineteenth century coastal artillery fort at Dale Head, a rocky promontory near Dale, Pembrokeshire, to the west of Milford Haven in Wales. It is one of the centres run by Field Studies Council and offers residential and non residential fieldwork for schools, colleges and universities, holiday accommodation and professional and leisure courses in natural history and arts.
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The BL 6-inch gun Mark VII was a British naval gun dating from 1899, which was mounted on a heavy traveling carriage in 1915 for British Army service to become one of the main heavy field guns in the First World War, and also served as one of the main coast defence guns throughout the British Empire until the 1950s.
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Thorne Island is a rocky islet and part of the community of Angle, Pembrokeshire, Wales, with an area of 2 acres (8,100 m2), dominated by a coastal artillery fort built to defend the Milford Haven Waterway in the mid-19th century. It has been the site of a number of shipwrecks, including one in 1894 that was carrying a cargo of Scotch whisky.
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St Catherine's Fort is a 19th century Palmerston Fort on St Catherine's Island, at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Chapel Bay Fort is located on the southern shore of the Milford Haven Waterway, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The fort is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from the village of Angle. One of a series of forts built as part of the inner line of defence of the Haven following the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, it is a Grade II Listed Building. and is also known as "Chapel Bay Battery".
The East and West Blockhouses were Device Forts built by King Henry VIII in 1539 to protect the harbour of Milford Haven in Wales. The two blockhouses were positioned on either side of the Milford Haven Waterway in the villages of Angle and Dale respectively, overlooking the sea. The East Blockhouse was never completed, but the remains were reused as a defensive site in the Second World War. The West Blockhouse was described by contemporaries as forming a round tower with gunports, but it was demolished when West Blockhouse Fort was built on the same site in the 19th century.