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Shoreham Fort |
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History The
guns, mounted on the gun platform or terreplein, fired over a low
protective wall. The wooden gun carriage recoiled up an inclined plane on
a traversing wooden platform carried on iron rails. Each gun was manned by
at least seven men and was manoeuvred using wedges, levels and block and
tackle. the Gunnery Officers could supervise operations from the steps
placed between the gun emplacements, which could also be mounted infantry
to fire muskets at enemy troops approaching on foot from the beach.
The Barrack Block accommodated officers and men and, with its rifle slits,
formed part of the fort defences. A central area served as a parade ground
and beneath this were two tanks which, if needed, could supply the fort
with water in time of attack. The water tanks approximately carried 11,578
gallons of water. Soon
after the fort was completed it was proposed that the fort should be
remodelled after criticism in parliament. Apart from the difficulties
traversing the guns because there was insufficient room behind the
parapet, it was also pointed out that if round shot hit the beach in front
of the fort it would have the affect of grape shot over the men exposed
when working the guns. This criticism seems to have been justified and
lead to a new inquiry in about 1859 and three additional fortification
expansion works were generously proposed:- 1,
A battery of five guns immediately opposite the harbour entrance, where
the lighthouse stands today 2,
A strong casemated work of 12 guns and accommodation for 200 men. This was
to be built on the west side of the harbour entrance, although no one is
sure whether it would be where the original fort was built or whether they
would keep the original and build near it 3,
A new work for a 6 gun battery on the neck of the eastern promontory
between
Although this work never happened the fort
was still manned by the volunteers until at least 1896, so the fort was
manned for the short period of roughly 36 years In the Second World War a battery of six-inch guns was erected on the fort, but these have since been removed and only part of the footings survive, It may have been at this stage, or even earlier, when the gun emplacements I, III and VI were modified by the lowering of the walls over which the guns fired. There was also a searchlight tower constructed on the western side of the fort, which still survives today. The Barrack Block was variously used as a film studio and private dwelling before being demolished in about 1960.
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