Stack Rock Fort is a fort built on a small island in the Milford Haven Waterway, Pembrokeshire, Wales. A 3-gun fort was built between 1850 and 1852, and then upgraded from 1859 to 1871 with a new building that completely encased the original gun tower. It is now a Grade II* listed building [1] and a scheduled monument (registered SAM number PE334).
A fortification at Stack Rock was first proposed by Thomas Cromwell in 1539 to protect the waterway, although this would not actually come to fruition at the time. Similar proposals were made in 1748 when Lewis Morris carried out a survey of Milford Haven, reporting on shipwrecks and navigation and recommending that a small fort be built here. Another survey followed in 1817. The Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock was felt to be in need of defence from the sea, [2] The result was a tower mounting three guns, similar to the two towers in Pembroke Dock. [3] The tower was oval in section, with a maximum diameter of 55 feet (17 m) and a maximum height of 30 feet (9.1 m). [4] Construction commenced in 1850, being completed in 1852. [5]
In 1858, the first appearance of the French ironclad Gloire rendered the tower and its guns obsolete, so it was decided to completely surround it with a new battery. The original design was for two decks each of 19 casemates and 16 open air guns above, 54 guns in total, and built mainly of limestone. However, after the foundations had been started in 1861, the design was amended to have stronger granite piers supporting iron gun shields. The basements and magazines had been completed in 1863, when the design was altered again, for 16 large guns on a single floor of casemates in the front and seven smaller guns on two floors in the gorge, the rear of the fort facing into the Haven. The top floor was built as accommodation intended for 4 officers and 152 men. On the roof of the fort, three gun turrets each with two huge RML 12-inch 25-ton gun were planned, but never installed. This scheme was finally completed in 1871. [3] The usual peacetime garrison was one officer and thirty men. [5] Disarmed in 1929, it was first placed on the market in 1932 and sold for £160. [5] In 2005 it was sold once more for £150,000. [6]
Concerns over the security of a nearby LNG jetty were raised in 2013, following the discovery of potential trespasser activity. [7]
The fort was sold again in 2020 to a private owner for an undisclosed amount. Land Registry records show [8] that it was sold in January 2021 for £191,000 to community interest company (CIC) Anoniiem. [9]
The original tower housed three 32-pounder guns, as well as a single 12-pounder for protection of the walls of the dock. From 1859 to 1871, the armaments were changed to sixteen 10-inch and seven 9-inch Rifled Muzzle Loaders. These were replaced with four 12-pounder QF (quick firing) guns in 1902. A small number of men manned the fort during World War I and by this time, only two 12-pounder QF guns remained. [2]
Milford Haven is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages.
Pembroke Dock is a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Pembroke on the banks of the River Cleddau. Originally Paterchurch, a small fishing village, Pembroke Dock town expanded rapidly following the construction of the Royal Navy Dockyard in 1814. The Cleddau Bridge links Pembroke Dock with Neyland.
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.
Beacon Hill Battery is a late-19th and 20th century coastal fortification that was built to defend the port of Harwich, Essex. It is a scheduled ancient monument.
Fort Hubberstone, on the west side of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, is a Grade II* Listed Building which belongs to 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. Together with Popton Fort on the opposite shore, it provided an interlocking field of fire, and represented the last layer of defence before reaching the Royal Naval dockyard at Pembroke Dock. Construction began in 1860 and was completed in 1863 at a cost of £55,000. It is a large battery, with eleven guns in casemates, eight in an open battery above, with another nine in an open flank battery, and a large barracks to the rear. It is a D-shaped structure, with a bomb-proof roof which protected the barracks and other buildings from mortar projectiles. On its landward side, it was protected by a deep ditch, and on the seaward side by a counter-scarp gallery. The associated casemate battery is located further down the headland and separated from the fort.
Milford Haven Waterway is a natural harbour in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is a ria or drowned valley which was flooded at the end of the last ice age. The Daugleddau estuary winds west to the sea. As one of the deepest natural harbours in the world, it is a busy shipping channel, trafficked by ferries from Pembroke Dock to Ireland, oil tankers and pleasure craft. Admiral Horatio Nelson, visiting the haven with the Hamiltons, described it as the next best natural harbour to Trincomalee in Ceylon and "the finest port in Christendom". Much of the coastline of the Waterway is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, listed as Milford Haven Waterway SSSI.
Angle is a village, parish and community on the southern side of the entrance to the Milford Haven Waterway in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The village school has closed, as have one of the two pubs, the village shop and St Mary's church. There is a bus link to Pembroke railway station.
Pembroke River is a short waterway near Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
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.
The town of Milford Haven was founded in 1793 by Sir William Hamilton, who initially invited Quaker whalers from Nantucket to live in his town, and then, in 1797, the Navy Board to create a dockyard for building warships.
HMS James Watt was a 91-gun steam and sail-powered second rate ship of the line. She had originally been ordered as one of a two ship class, with her sister HMS Cressy, under the name HMS Audacious. She was renamed on 18 November 1847 in honour of James Watt, the purported inventor of the steam engine. She was the only Royal Navy ship to bear this name. Both ships were reordered as screw propelled ships, James Watt in 1849, and Cressy in 1852. James Watt became one of the four-ship Agamemnon-class of ships of the line. They were initially planned as 80-gun ships, but the first two ships built to the design, HMS Agamemnon and James Watt, were rerated on 26 March 1851 to 91 guns ships, later followed by the remainder of the class.
Scoveston Fort, on the northern shore of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales, U.K., is a Grade II Listed Building which belongs to 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. Built on high ground to the north east of the town of Milford Haven, it commands excellent views of the surrounding countryside, and was the only fort around the Haven to be built inland.
St Catherine's Fort is a 19th-century Palmerston Fort on St Catherine's Island, at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
South Hook Fort, on the northern shore of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, is a Grade II*-listed building which belongs to 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.
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".
Alexandra Battery is a coastal artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It was constructed at the neck of the South Mole to enfilade the coastal fortifications of Gibraltar. The battery stood on the site of several previous fortifications; it was built over the New Mole Battery, which was itself constructed on the site of an old Spanish fort in front of the Tuerto Tower.
Pill Fort was a sconce fort located on the northern shore of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. It was built by Royalist forces in order to prevent Parliamentarian forces landing at Pembroke Castle, and to protect Royalist forces landing from Ireland.
Paterchurch Tower is a Grade I-listed medieval fortified tower in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It received its name from one of the families that owned the land. While its exact function is not known, it probably served as a pele tower for the manorial complex in which it was situated.
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 Pembroke Royal Garrison Artillery was a part-time unit of the British Army that defended the coast of West Wales during both world wars. Although it never saw action in its coastal defence role, it manned a number of siege batteries of heavy howitzers for service on the Western Front and Italian Front in World War I.