Martello Tower P and Wireless Green

Summary

The upstanding, earthwork and buried remains of Martello Tower P including its dry moat and associated parcel of land known as Wireless Green. Within the green are the buried remains of a former lifeboat house and artillery shed east of the tower, site of a former coastguard station and coastguard cottages north-west of the tower, four wireless telegraphy anchors located around the tower, and a former Royal Observer Corps (ROC) underground monitoring station north-east of the tower.

Reasons for Designation

Martello Tower P and the upstanding, earthwork and buried archaeology on Wireless Green are scheduled for the following principal reasons:

*     Period: the site is highly representative of Napoleonic defences but also demonstrates a continuity in military/defensive function from the early C19 to the present day (2025);

*     Rarity: Martello Tower P is one of only 18 surviving of the original chain of 29 east coast Martello towers, and this is one of only eight towers where the moat is still evident. The area of Wireless Green is also rare for the continuity in military/defensive activity throughout the C19 and C20; 

*     Documentation: contemporary plans, documents and various studies contribute greatly to our understanding of the site and its continuous use to the present day;

*     Survival: both the upstanding and buried elements of the monument survive well, including the now buried moat which will retain important deposits; 

*     Potential: there is strong potential for the buried deposits within the moat, the below ground remains of the former lifeboat house and artillery shed, site of the former coastguard station and coastguard cottages north-west of the tower and the former Royal Observer Corps (ROC) underground monitoring station to add to our understanding of the site and the continuity and change in its use;

*     Group value: it forms part of an important group of coastal defence structures at Felixstowe. It is located around 1km north of Landguard Fort and 3km north-east of Harwich Redoubt (both scheduled and listed at Grade I and Grade II* respectively), and 2.5km south-west of Martello Tower R at the Bartlet Hospital (listed Grade II*).

History

Martello towers are a series of small coastal artillery forts, built on the south and east coasts of England to counter the threat of invasion from France in the Napoleonic era (roughly 1799 to 1815). The name and form of the Martello tower derive from a small defensive tower at Punta Mortella, a point in the bay of San Fiorenzo in Corsica. The British Army struggled to capture the tower in 1794, and when they withdrew from Corsica in 1796, they demolished most of the tower so that it could no longer be used. Contemporary correspondence misspelt Mortella as ‘Martello’, and the misspelling has remained to this day. Between 1796 and 1815, 194 towers were built in Britain and its dependencies as a result of the British being at war with both France and the United States of America.  

The proposal to build defensive chains of Martello towers along the south and east coasts of England was agreed in 1804. On the south coast 74 towers were built between Folkestone in Kent and Seaford in Sussex between 1805 and 1808 and were identified by numbers (1-74). Along the east coast of Essex and Suffolk 29 towers were constructed between 1808 and 1812; these were identified by letters of the alphabet, starting with Martello ‘A’ at St Osyth, and ending with ‘CC’ at Slaughden just south of Aldeburgh (having started again at AA once they passed Z). Of the 29 towers built along the east coast, 18 survive. Most of the east coast towers had a forward battery, some of which were constructed in the 1790s when the threat of French invasion seemed real; these batteries were of roughly triangular shape, open at the back, with guns mounted on the platform. Dry moats were built around some of the towers; they are typically 16.5ft (5m) deep and 33ft (10m) wide and were formed of a brick lining with compacted soil piled against it to form an external slope. Some towers were also constructed with a defensive sloping bank known as a glacis. All of the east coast towers have an associated parcel of land, sometimes as large as four acres (1.62 ha), which in most cases was defined by boundary marker stones and in some places also by a boundary ditch and bank.

The east coast towers were constructed of locally made red brick bonded with a high strength lime mortar, with each tower requiring around 750,000 bricks in its construction. The outer face of the brickwork was rendered with lime mortar (also known as ‘stucco’) to give a smooth surface finish. In comparison, the smaller south coast towers were constructed of yellow London brick. The east towers are generally all three storeys in height and cam-shaped on plan measuring 55ft (16.7m) in diameter and 33ft (10m) high. The walls taper upwards and are between 8ft (2.4m) and 11ft (3.3m) thick at the base, and between 5ft (1.5m) and 8ft (2.4m) thick at the top; the walls are up to one and half times thicker on the seaward side than the landward side.   Each of the towers had three floors; the entrance at first floor level was reached either by means of a ladder or where a moat and glacis had been constructed, a drawbridge. The first floor was partitioned into three sections, one for billeting a garrison of 24 men, one as a room for the commanding officer and another area as a quartermaster’s storeroom. A substantial central brick pillar supported the vaulted ceiling, radial joists and floor. A musket rack ran around the central column with capacity for 27 guns. The floor at this level was generally one third stone flag, in the garrison accommodation over the powder magazine, and the other two thirds had oak planking. The ground floor was entered from the first floor through a trapdoor by means of a ladder and was used for the storage of provisions and munitions. One third was walled off as a powder magazine with a capacity for 240 barrels; the magazine was illuminated by a lantern outside a canted glazed window so that there was no possibility of a spark causing an explosion. Below the powder store was a food store, and below the main storage area was a rainwater tank with a capacity of 2500 gallons, fed by a drain and lead pipes from the roof and operated by a pump at first floor level. Access to the roof level was by means of two stone staircases built into the walls. The roof was armed with a 24-pounder, long range cannon occupying the seaward emplacement and a smaller carronade occupying each of the two lateral emplacements. Howitzers were also installed as short-range guns to defend the tower on the landward side or at close quarters. On the parapet there were two chimneys of light-weight construction which would have been rapidly demolished in the event of an attack (as they would otherwise impede the guns and create blind spots within the field of fire). 

Martello Tower P was built between 1808 and 1812 overlooking the North Sea, supporting Landguard Fort (1.4km south-west) and Martello Tower Q (1.3km north-east). Defensive requirements were diminished following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This swift obsolescence meant that as early as 1819 the War Office sold some towers for building materials, and some were adapted for other uses; Martello Tower P was occupied by a caretaker and his family and the Coastguards from 1831. A view of Martello Tower P at Walton Beach, drawn by Henry Davy in 1837, shows the tower from the south with a timber lifeboat house between the tower and the sea.

By the 1850s developments in artillery meant the towers were not strong enough to withstand an attack, and all the Martello towers in the area had their guns removed, except Landguard Fort and Harwich Redoubt which remained armed. In the second half of the C19 Martello Tower P and other nearby towers were re-armed with a 68-pdr smooth-bore (SB) gun and two 8-inch SB guns to enhance the defences of Harwich. A survey of the site undertaken in 1864 for the War Office and published in 1866 records Martello Tower P standing near the centre of a square parcel of land, measuring 4 acres in area, with a boundary stone (BS) to each corner of the land parcel, and a wooden ‘Lifeboat House’ and ‘Gun Shed (Volunteer Artillery)’ between the tower and the sea. The wooden lifeboat house is later shown on the 1881 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, but the gun shed had by that time disappeared. In 1897, wireless telegraphy was introduced to the Royal Navy by Guglielmo Marconi and Captain HB Jackson, RN and Martello Tower P was chosen as one of Britain’s first Type ‘C’ shore stations. Two tall transmitter aerials were erected on the roof of the tower, held in place by four cemented iron anchors, after which the parcel of land became known as Wireless Green.

During the First World War (1914-18) the wireless station played a vital role in naval intelligence, intercepting messages between enemy warships operating in the North Sea. A 1917 report by the sub-committee of the War Cabinet identified Martello Tower P as one of a number of vulnerable targets likely to come under attack by Zeppelins or enemy aircraft, and determined it should receive anti-aircraft defences, plus a full-time military guard. In 1919, an Approved Arms Report declared that Martello Towers P and Q should remain armed,equipping each tower with a machine gun. By the time of the 1926 OS map the lifeboat house had been demolished, and a terrace of coastguard cottages and a coastguard station had been built within the north-west quadrant of the parcel of land, north-west of the tower.

During the Second World War (1939-45) Martello Tower P continued its coastguard duties and became a post for the Observer Corps, (which became the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) in 1941). Their task was to plot the number, height, speed, and heading of enemy aircraft and V-1 Flying bombs passing overhead using a Micklethwaite Height Corrector, situated on the former gun platform. During the Cold War an underground ROC post was constructed north of the tower on Wireless Green, designed to protect ROC volunteers from nuclear attacks and allow them to monitor radioactive fallout in the event of nuclear attack. The station was opened in June 1962 and closed in October 1968 and followed a standard design consisting of a 14 foot (4.3m) deep access shaft, a toilet / store and a monitoring room; it is one of 39 built in Suffolk.

Martello Tower P was scheduled in 1960 in recognition of its national importance. In 1976 naval control of shipping transferred from HMS Ganges to Martello Tower P, where it remained until 1979. In the same year, a new Coastguard lookout office was constructed on the roof of the Tower and was later adopted in 1998 by the volunteer National Coastwatch Institution (NCI). Martello Tower P was listed at Grade II on 10 February 1986 in recognition of its special architectural and historic interest. The coastguard station and cottages in the north-west quadrant of Wireless Green were demolished around 2008 and a housing scheme built along the south and west sides of Wireless Green around 2015.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: The monument includes the upstanding, earthwork and buried remains of Martello Tower P including its dry moat and associated parcel of land known as Wireless Green, which includes  the buried remains of a former lifeboat house and artillery shed east of the tower, the site of a former coastguard station and coastguard cottages north-west of the tower, four wireless telegraphy anchors located around the tower, and a former Royal Observer Corps (ROC) underground monitoring station north-east of the tower. The parcel of land known as Wireless Green, is rectangular in plan, covers an area of 0.78 hectares and is situated at the south end of Felixstowe seafront, 1.4km NNE of Landguard Fort and 1km east of the Port of Felixstowe. It is bounded to the north by Coastguard Walk, to the east by the Promenade, to the south by Marine Parade Walk, and to the west by Old Fort Road.

DESCRIPTION

MARTELLO TOWER P: the most prominent feature on Wireless Green today is the standing remains of the tower. It stands complete to its original height of about 10m and is squat and cam-shaped on plan, with an average diameter of around 17m. It is constructed of brick and was originally stuccoed, now cement rendered, with granite dressings and copings. The door to the west side of the tower and four window openings to the north, north-east, south-east and south sides are segmental arched with denticulated granite dressings. The entrance, which is at first floor level, retains its original nearly quatrefoil on plan, with two stair exits occupying the west foil and three former gun emplacements occupying the north, east and south foils. The level of the roof within the three emplacements has been raised by about 0.5m with steps leading up to it, covering the original gun steps and reducing the visible height of the box-like expense magazines inset below the parapet. Within the two lateral (north and south) gun emplacements, the upper part of the pivot for the gun carriages remains visible. Many of the iron hauling rings for traversing and preparing the guns are still in place. A single-storey coastguard hut, irregular on plan and constructed of brick and timber, was erected in 1979 occupying the forward (east) gun emplacement, with an aluminium flagpole attached to its landward side. Two round, red bricks chimneys rise above the parapet on the north-east and east sides; the north-east chimney survives to its full height. Two single-storey, red brick surrounds were added over the stair exits around 1979. 

Internally, the first floor is a single space, although evidence shows that it was originally divided into three rooms: one room for billeting a garrison of 24 men (on the east side), a room for the commanding officer (north-east side) and another room as a quartermaster’s storeroom (north side). A substantial central brick pillar, approximately 1.8m in diameter, fans out to form a barrel-vaulted ceiling and support the former gun platform on the roof. A musket rack formerly ran around the central column (no longer present). Inside the front door, an iron ring at the apex of the vaulted ceiling was used to haul provisions or munitions to and from the basement, via a trapdoor. A water pump which originally stood within a niche to one side of the entrance has been removed.

The former garrison room over the ground floor powder magazine, has a stone flag floor and the remainder of the first floor has timber plank flooring, originally oak. Both the former garrison room and officer’s room (in the north-east part) each have a replacement fireplace and a segmental-arched window opening with deeply splayed reveals and a vent over. Two segmental-arched doors on the north and south walls lead to curved stairways in the thickness of the wall to the roof-top gun platform, and both stairs survive intact. Access to the ground floor, originally via a trapdoor and ladder was replaced by an L-plan stair in the early C21. The entire ground floor was used for the storage of provisions and munitions and the walls contain segmental-arched recesses with vents. The central column is thick at this level (around 2.4m in diameter), supporting radial joists for the floor above. The east quadrant is walled off from the rest as the former powder magazine or store and was illuminated from an interior light passage by a canted glazed window and lantern to prevent a spark causing an explosion; the window survives although the original blast glass has been replaced with modern safety glass. The ground floor originally had a timber-boarded floor over a food and water store however this has been replaced by a poured concrete floor. 

The tower is surrounded by a brick lined, dry moat the width of which is estimated to be 12.5m. Typically the moats were up to 5m deep. The moat ditch has been infilled but survives as a buried feature and is evident as an earthwork on the surface; valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved in the fills of the moat.

SITE OF FORMER COASTGUARD STATION AND COASTGUARD COTTAGES: Remains of a former coastguard station and coastguard cottages, built around 1900 around 20m north-west of Martello Tower P and demolished around 2008, are evident as cropmarks showing the size and rectilinear plan of the buildings.
SITES OF FORMER LIFEBOAT HOUSE AND ARTILLERY SHED: Remains of a C19 wooden lifeboat house (demolished around 1900) and volunteer artillery gun shed (demolished around 1875) are evident as cropmarks approximately 25m east of the Martello Tower, showing the size and rectilinear plan of the buildings.

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ANCHOR POINTS: four iron anchor points of the former wireless telegraph station, established on the roof of Martello Tower P in 1897 are positioned approximately 13m north-east, south-east, south-west and north-west of the tower and stand to a height of approximately 0.6m.

ROC UNDERGROUND MONITORING STATION: The former ROC underground monitoring station is located approximately 30m north-east of the Martello Tower. It is visible on the surface as a grassy mound around 1.2m high, with a concrete ventilation shaft with two louvered vents at each end. That to the eastern end is adjacent to an entrance shaft. A vertical pipe extending above ground between the two ventilation shafts would have been the base plate for a Bomb Power Indicator. The entrance shaft is approximately 4.5m deep and gives access to two rooms, one containing a chemical toilet and the larger operations room which measures approximately 4.5m by 2.25m. The structure is of reinforced concrete and bitumen tanked for waterproofing purposes.  

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The monument includes the Martello Tower itself, both above and below ground, the remains of the infilled moat and associated parcel of land known as Wireless Green, which includes the sites of a former lifeboat house and artillery shed east of the tower, the site of a former coastguard station and coastguard cottages north-west of the tower, four wireless telegraphy anchors surrounding the tower, and a former Royal Observer Corps (ROC) underground monitoring station north-east of the tower.  

EXCLUSIONS: The two red-brick stair surrounds and coastguard lookout hut on the roof of the tower and any related electrical and plumbing equipment are excluded from the scheduling.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

SF 105

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
Sutcliffe, Sheila, Martello Towers, (1973)

Websites
Martello Towers, accessed 29 May 2025 from https://martellotowers.co.uk/uk
National Coastwatch Institution, ‘The history of NCI Felixstowe’, accessed 29 May 2025 from https://www.ncilivinghistory.org.uk/sites/default/files/content/Station%20Histories/Felixstowe%20History.pdf
Suffolk Heritage Explorer, 'Monument record FEX 294 - South Seafront and Martello Tower P, Felixstowe', accessed 29 May 2025 from https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF26571
East Suffolk Council, 'Regeneration Projects, Martello Tower P', accessed 29 May 2025 from https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/business/regeneration-projects/martello-tower-p/#:~:text=HM%20Coastguard%20built%20the%20first,lookout%20was%20built%20in%201979.

Other
English Heritage, ‘An Assessment of the East Coast Martello Towers – Desk Top Assessment’ Research Department Report Series no. 89-2007, (2007)

End of official list entry

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