Details
PAULL BATTERY ROAD
TA 12 NE
(south end)
3/6 Paull Point Battery
GV II
Gun battery. 1861-4, submarine mining observation post added 1886.
Remodelling of 1894 included addition of gun emplacements and magazines,
communications centre/observation post, engine house. Remodelling of
barrack ranges c1940 for ammunition storage. Reinforced concrete gun
emplacements and observation post; remainder in red brick in English bond
with York stone copings, flagstone and concrete roofs, or earth covering.
Wrought-iron railings and gates. In plan an irregular pentagon with longest
(south-west) face approximately 200 metres long running parallel to shore,
and 2 flanking faces of about 100 metres, each consisting of a ditch
4 metres deep containing a stone-coped Carnot wall with rampart and
terreplein platform behind. The Carnot wall has loopholes beneath ashlar
lintels, a large single-room caponier at the north-west corner and a double
caponier at south-west corner. The caponiers, single-storey with open
basements, have round-headed doors, loopholes and chambers with barrel-
vaulted ceilings, stone spiral staircases and internal balconies with iron
railings. The loopholed outer wall continues around the north-east side of
the work to the rear with demi-caponiers to each end, a northern entrance
with double doors between square stone-coped piers, and a small central
bastion with railings on a low wall and double gates to the north side.
Beyond the north-east outer wall is an area enclosed by spiked railings with
double gates to the north-east. Within the bastion is the former cookhouse,
single storey, 7 bays wide by 1 bay deep, with blocked original doors and
windows beneath rubbed-brick cambered arches, 6 containing lower inserted
doors with concrete lintels; parapet, flat roof. 2-bay addition to right
with board door and window beneath segmental arches. Adjoining the north-
east outer wall to either side are flat-roofed single-storey former barrack
ranges, one room deep, with the original large rooms subdivided into small
single-bay stores. The southern range, of 32 bays, has 2 pairs of blocked
full-height round-headed openings flanked by blocked windows with lower
inserted doors similar to cookhouse. Toilet block adjoining to right,
partly derelict. Similar ranges to north: 16-bay officers' quarter north of
main entrance has 2 blocked round-headed doors flanked by blocked windows
with cambered arches, all with lower inserted doors; 22-bay.section to south
of entrance has recessed 11-bay central barrack section and 8-bay former
hospital section to right with similar blocked openings and inserted doors,
and 4-bay guard-house section to left with inserted opening and segmental-
headed louvred hatches beneath original cambered arches. Coped parapet and
flat roofs throughout. On the south and south-west sides of the terreplein are
barbette gun emplacements, 3 to the south for 6-inch breech-loading guns, 2
to the north for 4.7-inch quick-firing guns, and one to the centre which
housed both a 6-inch gun on a disappearing mounting, and a flat-roofed
electric light directing station. Each emplacement has subterranean barrel-
vaulted magazines and store-rooms surmounted by concrete gun platforms, with
flights of steps to both levels. The 4 larger 6-inch gun emplacements each
have 3 or 4 lower chambers, a pair of original hand-operated internal shell
hoists, and external balconies with iron railings, 2 with small ammunition
hoist cranes. The 4.7-inch gun emplacements have single magazine chambers.
All emplacements have ready-use ammunition lockers in the gun platforms,
most still with heavy steel doors. Incorporated alongside the 2
emplacements in the north and south angles of the ramparts are round-arched
entrances to tunnels running to the caponiers. The northern rampart
contains a small flat-roofed concrete submarine mining observation post; the
south-east rampart contains a concrete and steel mounting for an electric
light director. Behind the south-west rampart is a rectangular artillery
store, with chamfered plinth, door and single flanking windows to north side
beneath segmental arches, 2 blocked windows to south side, parapet, flat
roof. To the rear of each 4.7-inch gun emplacement is a small rectangular
flat-roofed store with plinth, single segmental-arched door and blocked
window. Within the main enclosure, located inside the north-west and south-
west angles of the ramparts, are the engine house and communications post,
each protected by a large earthen mound, with a low pointed stone-coped
retaining wall and entrance to the east side. The front of the
communications post has steps down to a sunken entrance with single round-
headed doors to left and right beneath 4-course header arches flanking a
central pair of wider similar round relieving arches over 2 segmental-headed
windows and an inserted hatch beneath an ashlar lintel. Interior contains a
pair of barrel-vaulted chambers and a vertical ladder-shaft to a flat-roofed
concrete observation post on top of the mound. Adjoining the north-east
side of the mound is a small rectangular flat-roofed office with 2 doors and
single window beneath segmental arches. Former waggon shed adjoining the
north side of the mound is ruinous at time of resurvey. The engine house to
the north is similar to the communications post, but without the observation
tower, and with later alterations and additions to each side of the front,
including a flat-roofed block to the north, 3 bays by 2 bays, with
segmental-headed door and windows, and a flat-roofed partly-subterranean
concrete bunker to the north-east. Also within the main enclosure are 2
isolated single-storey buildings: 1) approximately 30 metres south-east of
north gate, 3 bays by 2 bays, with segmental-arched blind panels to each
side, segmental-headed door to east, barred windows to east and west,
inserted C20 window to south, hipped roof; used as woodstore and partly
derelict at time of resurvey. 2) former blacksmiths' shop approximately 40
metres west of north gate, 5 bays by 2 bays, with inserted doors in original
segmental-headed openings to east front, flat roof. A small square
building, approximately 20 metres south of the north gate, is ruinous at
time of resurvey. A battery for 12 gunners, established at Paull in 1542,
was still in existence in the late C17. Rebuilt in 1807 and dismantled at
the end of the French wars. Rebuilt on enlarged site 1861-4 with 19 guns;
submarine mining base added on north side 1886-7, remodelled 1894. Guns
dismantled in 1915 and became HQ for Humber defences during First World War.
Used as offices and stores until after Second World War. Now in private
ownership; some barrack buildings used as stores and stables at time of
resurvey, remainder not in use. Scheduled Ancient Monument, county
number 231. Victoria County History: York, East Riding, Vol 5, 1984, p 114;
J Dorman, Guardians of The Humber 1856-1956, 1987.
Listing NGR: TA1692425488
