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Shoreham Fort |
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History The
fort was built to accommodate two Officers, one Master Gunner and 35 NCO's
and Privates all housed in the barracks. The
ground plan was in the shape of a lunette, or a rectangular half-moon,
similar to the fort at Littlehampton, with earthen ramparts on which the
guns were mounted, and at the rear was a defensible barrack block. The
fort was surrounded at the front and sides by a ditch which carried a
Carnot wall along the bottom, this wall would have been about 12ft (3.7m)
high. Shoreham is the earliest example of a fort with a Carnot wall still
reasonably intact in the UK
. At
the three corners are the covered bastions, or Caponiers/caponierres,
which can be entered from the inside of the fort, allowing defenders to
fire along the outside of the Carnot wall whilst still being under cover.
These represent a development from the open bastions built a few years
earlier at Littlehampton, it was felt that if the men were defended by a
roof, it would make an invasion impossible to succeed, as all men were
then defended at all angles. The Caponiers were identical to that built to
protect the main entrance to Buried beneath the two ends of the ramparts were the two magazines, one of which is now incorporated into a coastguard tower. These comprised stores and shifting rooms where the shells and cartridges were loaded. Piles of iron shot were placed by each gun and shell recesses or expense magazines, where small supplies of ammunition were maintained, lay adjacent. There were no hoists, and shells were carried to the guns by hand, probably by making use either of the steps alongside and above the expense magazines or the ramp.
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