Ramparts, Revetments, North Battery Platform, North and South Musketry Walls of Northern Fort

Details

BRIXHAM

SX95NW BERRY HEAD COUNTRY PARK, Berry Head 1946-1/2/9 Ramparts, revetments, N battery 18/10/49 platform, N & S musketry walls of northern fort (Formerly Listed as: BERRY HEAD COMMON Berry Head Fort, NE Redoubt)

GV II*

Formerly known as: Walls of redoubt NE of Berry Head Common BERRY HEAD COMMON. Defences of military redoubt. 1795-1807. Probably designed by Lt-Col Alexander Mercer. Ramparts and musketry walls of roughly coursed squared Devonian limestone rubble; gate piers and gun embrasures of ashlar. Ramparts and battery platform have granite string courses. Ramparts cut off the neck of the northern promontary of Berry Head, protecting the seaward-looking artillery batteries from landward attack. The ramparts are 3-sided with 18 gun embrasures; roughly central gateway with long walled passage behind. Dry moat in front, deepest next to the gate. Adjoining the northern rampart is a battery platform, protected on its south-western side by a long musketry wall. A short stretch of musketry wall has survived on its north-eastern side, but most has been destroyed by quarrying. A substantial stretch of the southern musketry wall survives, approx 140m long, running north-east from the southern end of the ramparts. It includes a triangular projection or 'redan' to provide covering fire along the wall face. Ramparts are of earth with a slightly battered stone revetment wall on the outside. Inside is a raised terrace with the gun platforms cut into it; these have stone rubble side walls and some have floors of granite slabs installed in 1802-09 to replace the original wooden floors. Gun embrasures are slightly splayed on the inside and broadly splayed on the outside. Cannon have been imported into a few of them to give some idea of their original appearance. The gateway, now approached by an earthern causeway, originally had a wooden drawbridge. The recesses and some of the iron fittings for this are still visible on the inner faces of the tall gate piers, which have neckings and caps made from projecting stone courses; the caps have shallowly chamfered tops with iron spikes for former finials. Half-way down the passage at either side is a shallow recess in the stone side walls; these have iron hinges and were presumably designed to hold a pair of gates folded back. At the rear the walls slope downwards to match the ramparts, curving outwards at each end and finished with a round pier; that to north retains a shallow conical cap of red sandstone. The higher parts of the walls have flat stone copings; these have mostly been removed in the lower parts. The counterscarp revetment wall, which exists only for a short stretch at either side of the entrance causeway, is of roughly coursed, squared limestone rubble. The battery platform has no features, apart from the granite string course along the top of its front retaining wall and the musketry walls at either side. Neither these nor the southern musketry wall has a coping. (Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Reports: Pye A R: Berry Head Fort, Brixham: 1990-: 14-17).

Listing NGR: SX9427856521

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

383524

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Report in Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit, (1990), 14-17

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.