View allAll Photos Tagged Defence
black hooded oriole trying to defend its jackpot from a prodding flameback, Sunderbans, West Bengal, India
Pictures from the World Championship game between Netherlands and the Ukraine of 13 April 2009 in Torun, Poland.
Easily order prints online through www.9pm.nl/prints
Landguard Fort is a fort at the mouth of the River Orwell outside Felixstowe, Suffolk, designed to guard the mouth of the river.
In 1667, the Dutch, landed a force of 2,000 men on Felixstowe beach in front of (what is now called) Undercliff Road East and advanced on to the fort, but were repulsed by Nathaniel Darrel and his garrison of 400 musketeers of the Duke of York & Albany's Maritime Regiment (the first Royal Marines).
This was the last opposed invasion of England.
The Fort has been rebuilt and remodelled many times and after a long and fascinating history is now owned by English Heritage.
On the path down to Hollicombe Beach, near Paignton, a heavily overgrown brick and concrete platform which may be a WW2 gun emplacement or watchtower.
It has a fine view of Torbay and would provide excellent defensive coverage. I need to look this one up for more details.
The sea defences between Colwyn Bay and Llanddulas. Grey day and raining - a Peter Kay sort of drizzle. I had gone to get a long exposure on the water but the rain made that impossible.
(Part two)
The surviving World War Two Defences at Pevensey are all built in and around the Castle, although they can be seen clearly from the outside, there is now no access to their interiors, nothing survives of the other Defences of the Nodal Point. Viewing the Castle from the car park, which lies on the site of the former cattle market, a Machine Gun Emplacement built at the top of the Medieval Keep, and Firing west and
east through distinctive Horizontal Embrasures (a feature of the Castle Defences) can be seen, below it amongst tumbled ruins of the Keep are at least four Embrasures of a Rectangular Defence Post. Close by, three Anti-Tank Blocks blocked an opening here, and a Pillbox (removed post-war) stood by the detached chunk of masonry of a Tower. The east of the Castle was particularly Heavily Defended, and a further Machine Gun Emplacement was positioned at the top of the wall south of the Roman East Gate.
Within the Medieval Inner Bailey, the concrete reinforcement of both the east and north Towers can be seen, and in the exterior face of the north wall close to the East Tower a
Second World War Loophole can be made out. Not far south of the Roman West Gate, a Machine Gun Emplacement with Embrasures firing two ways was constructed amongst umbled masonry. Within the section of fallen Roman north wall, there are two further Machine Gun Emplacements, one is a purpose-built concrete and brick Pillbox disguised with flint facing to look like the Castle ruins. A further Machine Gun Emplacement on the north wall was built high in the Medieval Tower constructed on top of a Roman Bastion.
The landscape of the Defence Area is substantially the same as that which prevailed eighty years ago, although there have been substantial housing developments in Westham to the west. A large roundabout to the east of Pevensey Castle now controls the intersection of the A259 and A27 roads, and, just south of this, the Salt Haven waterway that runs past Pevensey Halt now occupies a different channel from the one that existed during the Wartime Period.
The cattle market to the east of Pevensey Castle has been removed, although its brick
flooring still forms the surface of the car park now occupying its site. Pevensey Castle itself
is in the care of English Heritage, and paid admission is required to see the Medieval
buildings of the Inner Bailey. The Outer Bailey, however, occupying most of the enclosure of the Roman Fort, around which are many of the Second World War Defences, has a right of way running through it and is open to the public at all times.
Pevensey Castle is a very important site in the context of its Second World War Anti-Invasion Defences as it contains several excellent examples of Machine Gun Emplacements incorporated into the masonry of an earlier Fortified Structure. It represents, in fact, probably the finest example of a historic building adapted for mid-twentieth century Defences, and it was both sensitive and imaginative that a decision was made after the War to preserve many of these Defences as part of the overall history of the Roman and Medieval Castle. Visitors can thereby see the Second World War as but the latest period in a continuous history of Defence at this location. A comparable site is Mont Orgueil Castle in Jersey where Defence additions and alterations made under the German Occupation have also been left largely in place.
The Castle Custodian tells of the considerable interest by the visiting public in the World War Two history of the site, and it would seem, therefore, to be important to present further information on the 1940's Defence Structures by means of information boards and possibly an expansion of the relevant section of the current guidebook. Consideration might also be given to opening up one or two of the Defence so that they can be examined internally.
Recommendations :-
▪︎That the surviving Anti-Invasion Defences at Pevensey Castle be considered of national importance. They enable the Defence of this important locality within the overall Pevensey Fortress to be interpreted, and provide evidence of the articulation of the Defence and the inter-relationship of its functionally different components. Such interpretation is assisted by the documentary evidence provided in this report of Defence Structures that were built as part of the overall strategy, but which have now been removed.
▪︎That consideration be given to opening up a number of the Defences so that they can be seen internally by the public.
▪︎That consideration be given to providing more public information on World War Two Defence of the Castle, possibly by an information board or baddition to existing literature. A 'Pillbox Walk' taking in the various Defence Works could also be drawn up.
▪︎Castle Heightc :- 31 ft (outer walls)
▪︎Controlled by :- English Heritage
▪︎Condition :- Ruin Site
▪︎Built :- c. 290 AD Built by Carausius ?
▪︎In use :- c. 290–471/491, 1066–mid-16th century, 1940–1945
▪︎Materials :-Wood, cement, flint, chalk, ironstone, greensand and sandstone
▪︎Battles/wars :-
Massacre of 491
First Siege of Pevensey (1088)
Second Siege of Pevensey (1147)
hird Siege of Pevensey (1264–65)
Fourth Siege of Pevensey (1399)
Second World War (1939–1945)
Built by Romans (c. 290)
Reoccupied by Normans (1066)
Slighted (c. 1216)
Abandoned (16th century)
State ownership (1925)
Reoccupied by Allies (1940 to 1945).