Old Needles Battery
Old Needles Battery, Totland
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1220402
- Date first listed:
- 28-Mar-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Old Needles Battery
- Statutory Address:
- Old Needles Battery, Totland
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1220402
- Date first listed:
- 28-Mar-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Old Needles Battery
- Statutory Address 1:
- Old Needles Battery, Totland
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Old Needles Battery, Totland
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Isle of Wight (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Totland
- National Grid Reference:
- SZ 29563 84887
Details
SZ38NW
1354-0/4/310
TOTLAND
Old Needles Battery
II
Former battery, now owned by National Trust as a museum. Built between 1861 and 1863 after the Royal Commission Review into the state of Britain's defences after France's first ironclad warship "La Gloire" was built. The old Needles Battery was one of a series of land forts, batteries and sea forts designed to protect Portsmouth and Southampton.
Built of brick with cement dressings. It is approached across a bridge with a cambered cement arch with keystone. Dated 1862 and brick walling. On the landward side the walls are of flint with brick lacing courses. The battery has six semi circular gun emplacements, a Laboratory, Guard Rooms and shell and cartridge stores. The barracks, officers quarters and artillery store have been demolished. The gun emplacements were enlarged to receive larger guns in 1869-75 and in 1875 but by the 1890s a new battery was built because it was feared that the more powerful modern guns might bring down the cliff and the Old Needles Battery became a practice battery. In 1899 a searchlight emplacement was built, a brick round-headed tunnel approached by a spiral staircase leading to a brick and cement emplacement.
Britain's first anti-aircraft gun was tested on the parade ground in 1913. Attached to the south is a c.1940 Signal Station (now used as a coastguard station) of red brick with metal casements.
Listing NGR: SZ2956384887
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 393234
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Cantwell, A, Sprack, P, The Needles Batteries Isle of Wight, (1981), 13-16
The International Journal of Fortification and Military Architecture in The International Journal of Fortification and Military Architecture, Vol. 13, (1985), 69
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jun-2026 at 08:08:16.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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