Summary
The upstanding and buried remains of a mid-C19 defensive battery on Shotley Point, sited on a bluff above Harwich Harbour with construction phases in 1862-1865, 1880s-90s and the early C20.
Reasons for Designation
Shotley Battery, including its 1939 subterranean air raid shelters, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Period: the remains are representative of the period from the 1860s onwards, characterised by a huge national programme of coastal fortification, and successive advances in artillery. They also illustrate the national focus on military training in the C20;
* Rarity: it is the only surviving mid-C19 battery in East Anglia, and unusual nationally in its continuous military use throughout most of the C20;
* Documentation: various record sources and studies have contributed to our understanding of the origins of the battery, the rapid successive changes to its artillery, and its use as a naval training establishment through much of the C20;
* Survival: almost the entire footprint of the battery survives. It retains many well-preserved original features including a surviving length of the Carnot wall, gun emplacements and magazines, and air raid shelters. The partly infilled perimeter ditch also survives well;
* Fragility: the remains are vulnerable to slow decay and vegetation growth;
* Diversity: for the range and complexity of the site’s component features, including the Carnot wall and defensive ditches, traversing passage, gun embrasures and emplacements, magazines, stores and shelters;
* Potential: there is strong potential for the buried remains of the battery, and its infilled outer ditch, to contain deposits retaining significant information on the construction and use of the fort, and on its function and role in the wider defensive landscape.
* Group value: it is part of an important group of defence structures at Shotley, including scheduled monuments Martello Tower “L” (NHLE 1005993), Martello Tower “M”, (NHLE 1005994)) and a number of listed buildings relating to HMS Ganges.
History
Shotley battery was constructed between 1862 and 1865 following recommendations by a Royal Commission set up to report on the defences of the United Kingdom, as result of renewed fears of invasion from France.
The battery would supplement the existing defensive structures of Martello Tower “M” approximately 88 m NNE (scheduled as NHLE 1005994 ) and Martello Tower “L” 230m south west of the battery (scheduled as NHLE 1005993).
Initial proposals for an elaborate “Palmerston” fort were quickly abandoned in favour of a simpler, seven-sided defensive battery with 14 gun positions – 11 with embrasures and three at the corners. There were six expense magazines and four shell recesses at intervals, a storage building in the north-west corner and a well at the centre. The fort’s entrance was over a bridge at the west side, with loopholed Carnot walls to each side overlooking a deep ditch. The wall was about 5.8 metres high and surrounded the entire fort. Construction was complete by 1865.
By 1873 the battery had been armed with 7-inch RML (“Rifled Muzzle Loading”) guns, and the existing gun emplacements were adapted for them. The main shell store was built in 1880. By 1883 there were 14 7-inch RML 7-ton guns on Dwarf traversing wrought iron platforms.
In 1886 a report by the Royal Artillery and Works Committee recommended that Shotley should replace 10 of the existing 7-inch RML guns. From 1888 to 1890 plans were drawn up for four new gun emplacements for 9-inch guns and for the enlargement of the protective earthwork surrounding the main magazine, and creation of a subterranean traversing tunnel through it. The gun positions were not updated, but the earthworks were enlarged and the traversing passage was created through them.
In 1891 two 10-inch guns on long-range carriages were installed in new emplacements, and a new subterranean shell magazine was constructed adjacent to the original main magazine.
The guns were withdrawn from use in 1901 and the battery became redundant. In 1902 a Royal Naval Hospital was constructed to the east of Martello Tower L and in 1903 the naval training ship HMS Ganges was moored at Shotley. The whole site was transferred to the Royal Naval Training Establishment (RNTE) for the training of hundreds of young naval recruits in 1904 and in 1927 the establishment was renamed “HMS Ganges” after the training vessel. A number of buildings were constructed within the walls of the battery, including three gymnasiums and an electricity generating station in the southern area, and workshops and rifle ranges to the north. A series of mess huts was constructed at the southern corner of the battery, involving clearing and levelling of the ramparts and infilling of the ditch in this corner. Around 1915 a solana rifle range was created within part of the eastern ditch.
Air raid shelters were created along the eastern boundary of the battery, likely to have been constructed around 1939.
The RNTE closed in 1976, and Shotley was then used as a base for training by the police. After 1999 the police used it only sporadically, by which time all the buildings associated with the RNTE had been demolished, the Carnot wall on the west side had been dismantled or buried, and many of the earlier features had been buried. The entire battery had become very overgrown.
In 2004 the battery was added to the schedule of monuments. In 2021, planning permission was granted for a mixed-use development including 285 dwellings on the site of the former HMS Ganges, but outside the footprint of the scheduled monument.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
The upstanding, earthwork and buried remains of a mid-C19 defensive battery on Shotley Point, sited on a bluff above Harwich Harbour with construction phases in 1862-1865, 1880s-90s and the early C20.
DESCRIPTION
The monument comprises an irregular shaped area of land around 220m by 110m which defines the original footprint of the fort including the Carnot wall and ditch. Towards the eastern (seaward) side the remains of earthen ramparts survive.
A number of principal features survive as both upstanding remains and buried features:
Carnot Wall and Defensive Ditch (1860s)
A 70m section of the Carnot wall remains intact, with a bastion at its central angle. The wall is exposed on the inner face to a height of about 1.3m. The outer face has been buried by the infilling of the ditch, leaving only the top of the wall exposed. The rampart behind the wall survives along much of the eastern face and around the north eastern salient, together with the earthworks above the 1863 magazine. The two original gun emplacements lie beneath the magazine earthworks but will survive as buried features.
The Carnot wall on the north east side and at the gorge has been demolished together with two adjoining structures which are thought to have been the original guard room alongside the entrance, and a block containing quarters and stores to the north east of it. The base of the wall and the infilled ditch around it will, however, survive as buried features.
Main Magazine (1860s)
The main magazine is one of the principal elements of the original 1860s battery to survive. It is situated towards the centre of the fort, behind the line of guns, and is a sunken structure buried beneath a large earth mound. The only visible elevation is that to the west, facing a sunken but open-topped passage (around 19m long by 1.2m wide) which provides access to the magazine. The elevation is formed of gault brick although the interior is of red brick.
The magazine contains three chambers and a lamp lobby. Access is by way of a narrow sunken area with a flight of steps at either end. Three doors open off the area. The central door gives access to the lamp lobby and the two at either end open into the northern and southern magazines.
The third magazine is to the rear of the lamp lobby and is reached by means of a doorway off the northern magazine. In the walls of the lamp lobby are hatches, originally glazed, in which lamps could be placed to illuminate the magazines beyond without risk of igniting explosives. To the rear of the magazine block is a vaulted subterranean passage with an entrance at either end.
Traversing Passage (1880s/ 1890s)
The passage is brick-vaulted and passes to the east of the main magazine in the centre of the fort and is open at each end. The passage is located beneath a large earth mound which also covers the adjacent older magazine. The passage comprises entrance lobbies at the southern and northern ends, and three main sections, slightly angled so that the passage wraps around the east side of the magazine. Each passage is about 3m wide, the two outer sections are about 14m in length and the central section about 10.5m in length. Surviving interior features include light and ventilation shafts in the passages and doors in the entrance lobbies.
Gun Embrasures for Guns 9 to 11 (1860s)
The 14 original gun emplacements from 1863 were of two types; three at the salients were semi-circular, with a parapet but no embrasures, giving a wide field of fire, and the remainder had a narrower field through embrasures in the rampart. The best-preserved surviving embrasures are those in the northern half of the fort for guns 9, 10 and 11 (as labelled on an 1883 site plan). These are of the narrower of the types and survive well with sections of the retaining wall between them.
The three partially surviving embrasures are constructed from gault brick and set within a retaining wall about 1.5m tall, dividing the raised level of the earth ramparts to the east from the lower level, with the battery to the west. Each embrasure comprises a pair of splayed walls which flank the area where the gun would have been set. At the narrow end of each embrasure is a low section of wall running parallel to the main retaining wall over which the gun would have fired. There is a pair of taller brick piers either side for added protection, although one of the pair is largely missing from guns 10 and 11.
Gun Emplacement for Gun 12 (1860s)
The emplacement for Gun 12 (as labelled on the 1883 site plan) is the survivor of the original three emplacements at the salient with a semi-circular parapet but no embrasures. The emplacement is well-preserved with the remains of mounting blocks and the traversing rail that would have allowed the gun to be rotated on pulleys. The hauling rings are also still in-situ.
Exploding Cartridge Store (1860s, enlarged 1880s and early C20)
Towards the northern end of the site is a partially sunken feature in the position marked on an 1883 plan as the “exploding cartridge store”. It is a partially-sunken, earth-covered bunker which adjoins the raised rampart to the north. The mound on top of the bunker incorporates a square concrete cap covering over the ventilation shaft. There is also a partially-surviving iron stake fence on the top, visible on a plan from 1915. The exterior, where exposed, is faced with rough concrete showing impressions of the shuttering used in its construction and is believed to be an early C20 alteration. There is an earth bank to the east side of the structure. The entrance is on the west side and is constructed of brick, with steps down to a doorway which opens into a brick vaulted chamber to the left
The interior is of brick with remains of green paint and has a number of recessed areas. The north wall has ceramic decorative vent covers.
10-Inch RML Gun Emplacement (1890s)
One of the two 10-inch RML gun emplacements survives in the southern half of the battery. The only surviving features of the other are a deeply buried pivot and a set of access steps. The northern of the two original emplacements survives well. It is constructed from mass concrete and consists of a 5m cylindrical base on which the gun would have been set. The central iron pivot is still in-situ. The emplacement is surrounded by a curved retaining wall with sloping walls, which incorporate five iron hauling-rings. There are shallow recesses in the wall, thought to be for storage. To the northern end there are two sets of concrete steps: the lower set providing access to the gun, and a higher set to access the concrete apron over which the gun would have fired.
Shell Magazine (1890s)
Between the two 10-inch RML gun emplacements is their shell magazine. It consists of a concrete structure buried under an earth mound. There is a long, exposed concrete elevation, about 19.5m long and about 2m high. It contains a number of recesses, including a raised platform which would have formed the battery commander’s post and is accessed by a ladder. The subterranean magazine is accessed by a set of concrete stairs. The bases of cast-iron railings and the base of a flagpole also survive.
The magazine is entered via a covered passage leading into a wide lobby with a shell-hoist either side. Doorways lead into a large shell store and a smaller cartridge store, both groin-vaulted chambers. The interior is of painted brick, and retains original doors, light recesses, flues and decorative vent grilles. There is much graffiti on the walls, thought to date from the 1920s to 1950s during the RNTE’s use of the site.
Inter-war Store
Situated immediately to the west of the exploding cartridge store, and constructed against the rampart, is a small single-storey flat-roofed concrete store. The doorway retains a rail for a sliding door (no longer present) and a 6-light steel-framed window. Internally it is a single space, with shelving around the walls.
Air Raid Shelters
On the eastern side of the bluff are subterranean air raid shelters, associated with the RNTE use of the site during the Second World War. The line of shelters has a zig-zag plan-form and is constructed from concrete buried in earth. The entrances are situated outside the perimeter of the battery, but the shelters extend beneath the battery. Some are blocked with earth, but others remain open.
The site also retains a sand bank and low brick wall which are the remains of a Morris Tube rifle range from the early C20, and various sets of concrete steps dating from the mid C20.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The footprint of the original battery is included, with a 2m buffer to the north, west and south sides which is considered necessary for the support and protection of the monument. The exception is a small area at the southernmost tip of the original battery which was levelled in the early-C20. At the east side, the area of protection extends slightly beyond the footprint of the battery to take in the full extent of the air raid shelters, the protection extends as far as the western edge of the path running along the foot of the bluff (there is no buffer zone in this area).
EXCLUSIONS
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling. These are late-C20 concrete fence posts and railings bordering the visible section of the Carnot wall, a C20 building alongside the expense magazine at the northern end of the surviving rampart, the remains of a C20 wall which blocked the entrance to the expense magazine, service poles and surviving floors and asphalt surfaces relating to the demolished buildings of HMS Ganges. The ground beneath all these features is, however, included.
