River Thames: Coalhouse Fort, wing battery
Taken on 30 April 2015 and uploaded 27 October 2024.
A view of the "detached wing battery" at Coalhouse Fort, on the north bank of the River Thames.
Originally built in the mid 1860s to prevent French naval incursion, the fort and its two strategic partners, Shornemead & Cliffe, served a similar purpose in WW2.
The "wing battery" was 2 pairs of guns with ammunition stores beneath them, protected by earthen mounds; an existing drainage ditch was developed to form a moat around the battery. It's mostly concrete and iron and still intact, minus the guns. Close by was a minefield and a radar tower, photos of which I've uploaded often...
Coalhouse Fort is the only one of the three preserved and accessible and, after a period of closure, re-opened earlier this month.
[DSC_9680d]
River Thames: Coalhouse Fort, wing battery
Taken on 30 April 2015 and uploaded 27 October 2024.
A view of the "detached wing battery" at Coalhouse Fort, on the north bank of the River Thames.
Originally built in the mid 1860s to prevent French naval incursion, the fort and its two strategic partners, Shornemead & Cliffe, served a similar purpose in WW2.
The "wing battery" was 2 pairs of guns with ammunition stores beneath them, protected by earthen mounds; an existing drainage ditch was developed to form a moat around the battery. It's mostly concrete and iron and still intact, minus the guns. Close by was a minefield and a radar tower, photos of which I've uploaded often...
Coalhouse Fort is the only one of the three preserved and accessible and, after a period of closure, re-opened earlier this month.
[DSC_9680d]