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.
The bay is overlooked by Rame Head, a conical hill with the ruins of a 14th-century chapel dedicated to St Michael on top. [1] Polhawn Cove is a rough beach, consisting of sharp rocks, shingle and an area of open sand. West of Captain Blake's Point, long stretches of sand are interspersed with rocky headlands and small bays, many inaccessible at high tide. The holiday settlements of Freathy and Tregonhawke are built on terraces on the cliff faces.
A National Trust property at Sharrow Point preserves a small cave excavated by hand in 1874 by a hermit called Lugger, who inscribed verses on the ceiling to relieve his boredom. Lugger's Cave is fenced off to the public. [2]
The headland forms part of Rame Head & Whitsand Bay SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), noted for its geological as well as biological interest. The SSSI contains 2 species on the Red Data Book of rare and endangered plant species; early meadow-grass ( poa infirma ) and slender bird's-foot-trefoil (from the lotus genus). [3]
A campaign to stop the dumping of dredged silt and sludge (5.3 million tonnes since the 1980s) from the River Tamar and the port of Plymouth has been running for several years. In 2010 the group with the help of Sheryll Murray secured an independent review of the dump site, [4] but the review stated that no significant environmental impact has occurred and the dumping continues.
There is a UK Ministry of Defence firing range between Tregantle Fort at the western end of the bay and Trethill Cliffs near Portwrinkle, and this area is closed during Tregantle Fort firing range operations. [5]
Whitsand Bay is popular with divers, and in 2004 the former Royal Navy frigate HMS Scylla was scuppered to provide a new underwater reef. [6] The Scylla was sunk nearby an existing World War II wreck, the Liberty Ship James Eagan Layne .
HMS A7, an early Royal Navy submarine, sank in Whitsand Bay, Cornwall on 16 January 1914 with the loss of her crew whilst carrying out dummy torpedo attacks on Onyx (her tender) and Pygmy. An oil slick was seen and the location marked. Several attempts were made to salvage her over the next month by attaching hawsers to the eye-ring on the bow, but her stern was too deeply embedded in the mud and the hawsers parted without pulling her out. She lies today where she sank, in about 130 feet (40 m) of water. In 2001, she was declared as one of 16 wrecks in British waters designated as "Controlled Sites" under the Protection of Military Remains Act by the British Government and which cannot be dived without special permission.
The beach does not have any toilets and access to the beach is steep, narrow and slippery. Whitsand Bay is a popular surfing spot. An RNLI lifeguard service operates between May and September at the foot of Tregonhawke cliff, where there is a surf school and a cafe. [7]
There are dangerous rip currents. The western part of the beach is closed during firing range operation at Tregantle Fort, firing times are indicated by a red flag. The paths to the beaches at Sharrow Point, Withnoe, Tregonhawke and Freathy are steep, narrow and slippery and are not suitable for wheelchairs. There is a risk of being cut off at high tide.
The 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom identified Whitsand Bay as a weak point in the defences of Plymouth and proposed two Palmerston forts; Polhawn Battery at the eastern end, whose guns would cover the beaches and prevent an amphibious assault, and Fort Tregantle at the western end which prevented an overland approach.
| Polhawn Fort | |
|---|---|
 | |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Polhawn Fort |
| Designated | 19 November 1986 |
| Reference no. | 1310634 |
The battery was designed by Captain Edmund Frederick Du Cane and was completed in 1864. It is a two-storey work built of limestone with granite facings, sited on the cliff overlooking the bay. The upper storey consists of seven casemates which originally housed 68-pounder guns. The lower floor consisted of accommodation and a magazine. The rear was protected by a narrow ditch, crossed by a drawbridge at roof level and defended by three caponiers and numerous loopholes in the rear wall. In 1885, the smoothbore guns were replaced by seven 64-pounder rifled muzzle-loaders, which served until 1898; a proposal to replace them with two 6-pounder quick-firing guns was not implemented. During the First World War, the battery was used for accommodation for gunnery officers and the magazine was used as a military detention cell. The battery was sold by the War Office in 1927, becoming a hotel and tea room; the name appears to have changed to Polhawn Fort at this time. It was sold again in 1968 and has been restored as a hotel and wedding venue. [8]
At the western end of Whitsand Bay, Tregantle Fort stands 360 feet above sea level. It is hexagonal in shape and is surrounded by a ditch on three sides. The fort was completed in 1865 and included a barracks designed for 1,000 men. It was intended to be armed with 22 7-inch guns but only seven were ever fitted. It was used for musketry training during World War I and gas warfare training and accommodation for US troops in World War II. It is currently part of the Defence Estate and is regularly used as a live firing range with red flag warnings and the path down to the beach closed. Tregantle Down Battery was also built a short distance from the fort between 1888 and 1894.
| Whitsand Bay Battery | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Whitesand Bay (or Tregonhawke) battery |
| Designated | 19 March 1976 |
| Reference no. | 1004664 |
When the Stanhope Committee reviewed the country's defences in 1887, it was realised that naval artillery had improved so much that it would have been possible for enemy warships to anchor in the Bay and bombard Plymouth without being threatened by the existing forts. [9] To counter this threat, a battery of three 12.5 inch rifled muzzle-loaders and two 6 inch breech-loaders was constructed near Stone Farm at the top of Tregonhawke Cliff. The RML guns were mounted in concrete open barbettes and 6-inch guns on Hydropneumatic disappearing carriages. The battery was strongly fortified against land attack with a dry moat protected by three caponiers. [10]
It was completed in 1893 at a cost of £25,991. [11] but The 6-inch guns did not stay in place very long and were removed in 1897. Despite recommendations for rearming during the First World War, the RMLs remained the sole armament until the battery was fully disarmed in 1920. During World War II, the battery was used for radar training, as part of the Coast Artillery Training Centre, Plymouth. [12] It was released by the military in 1951 and became a caravan park. Although the ditch has been filled-in, many of the original features can still be seen.
Cawsand and Kingsand are twin villages in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated on the Rame Peninsula and is in the parish of Maker-with-Rame.
Grain Fort is a former artillery fort located just east of the village of Grain, Kent. It was constructed in the 1860s to defend the confluence of the Rivers Medway and Thames during a period of tension with France. The fort's location enabled its guns to support the nearby Grain Tower and Garrison Point Fort at Sheerness on the other side of the Medway. It was repeatedly altered and its guns upgraded at various points in its history, before being decommissioned in 1956 when the UK abolished its coastal defence programme. It was subsequently demolished. The remnants of the fort are still visible and have been incorporated into a coastal park.
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.
Fort Bovisand is a fort in Devon, England near the beach of Bovisand. It was built as a result of the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom which reported in 1860. It is located on the mainland to defend the entrance of Plymouth Sound, at the narrows opposite the east end of Plymouth Breakwater. The fort is beside Bovisand harbour.
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 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.
The Rame Peninsula is a peninsula in south-east Cornwall. It is surrounded by the English Channel to the south, Plymouth Sound to the east, the Hamoaze to the northeast and the estuary of the River Lynher to the north-west. On a clear day, the Atlantic Ocean can be seen from advantageous points from Rame Head. The largest settlement is Torpoint, which is on the eastern coast, facing Devonport in Plymouth, Devon.
Portwrinkle is a small coastal village in south-east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western end of Whitsand Bay five miles (8 km) south-west of Saltash.
Tregantle Fort in south east Cornwall is one of several forts surrounding Plymouth that were built as a result of a decision in Lord Palmerston's premiership to deter the French from attacking naval bases on the Channel coast.
Scraesdon Fort, near the village of Antony, is one of several forts in South East Cornwall which formed part of the ring of forts surrounding Plymouth to protect Plymouth Sound and, in particular, the naval dockyard of Devonport from enemy naval attack. They were built as a result of a decision in Lord Palmerston's premiership to deter the French from attacking naval bases in the south of England.
The Forgotten Corner of Cornwall is a geographical area of South East Cornwall, Great Britain. It includes the Rame Peninsula and the town of Torpoint, as well as villages like Antony, Downderry, Polbathic, Portwrinkle and Widegates.
The RML 12.5-inch guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns designed for British battleships and were also employed for coast defence.
St Catherine's Fort is a 19th-century Palmerston Fort on St Catherine's Island, at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Stamford Fort is a 19th-century fort, built as a result of the Royal Commission on National Defence of 1859. Part of an extensive scheme known as Palmerston Forts, after the prime minister who championed the scheme, it was built to defend the landward approaches to the east of Plymouth, as an element of the plan for the defence of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport. It is 165 feet above sea level, between Jennycliffe Bay and Hooe Lake.
Brownhill Battery is a former gun battery at Staddon Heights, Plymouth, Devon. It was one of a number of Plymouth fortifications to be recommended by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom in 1859. Construction began in 1861, at the same time as Staddon Fort and other defensive works at Staddon Heights. The battery was completed by 1868, but was left unarmed.
Grenville Battery is a former coastal artillery battery, built to defend the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport.
Hawkins Battery is a former coastal artillery battery, built to defend the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport.
Tregantle Down Battery was a high angle gun battery in south east Cornwall. It was built between 1888 and 1894 to defend HMNB Devonport from Whitsand Bay area and was infilled to form a car park in the early 1970s.
Rame Church Battery was a gun battery in south east Cornwall. It was built between 1889 and 1893 to defend HMNB Devonport from Rame area and was demolished and infilled in the early 1970s.
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