Paull Point Battery

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

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

166651

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Allison, K J, The Victoria History of the County of York: East Riding, (1984), 114
Dorman, J, Guardians of The Humber 1856-1956, (1987)

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