Whitsand Bay practice battery

Summary

Practice battery for coastal gunners firing at floating targets in Whitsand Bay; 1895-1896, enlarged 1896-1897, altered in the early C20.

Reasons for Designation

The practice battery at Whitsand Bay, which was first constructed between 1895 and 1897, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Period: Whitsand Bay practice battery characterises an uncommon survival of a stand-alone and purpose-built practice provision for coastal artillery gunners constructed in response to the 1859 Royal Commission report, which continued in use as an exercise site through to the First World War, and possibly later;

* Survival: despite some losses and neglect, a high percentage of physical features characteristic of this type of practice battery survive, illustrating and providing information about the site's historic form and function, and its rapid evolution;

* Rarity: coastal batteries which survive well are considered to be of national importance, and practice batteries should be given the same consideration, particularly as they are less substantial in their construction and are vulnerable to neglect and loss;

* Potential: the site has the potential to reveal more about its C20 use and evolution through investigation and further primary research which will contribute to our understanding of such monuments;

* Diversity: the site provides significant evidence of changes in artillery technology and directional finding over a short period of time;

* Vulnerability: the site has already been subject to disturbance, possibly because of a lack of understanding, and scheduling will help draw attention to its interest and control its future management;

* Group value: with the contemporaneous Whitsand Bay Battery, which was constructed between 1888 and 1890, and is a scheduled monument.

History

Prompted by an uncertain relationship with Napoleon III’s France during the 1850s, the Royal Commission on the Defences of the United Kingdom was established by Lord Palmerston in 1860. The Royal Commission’s report resulted in a comprehensive scheme of construction of new defences and fortifications to safeguard the Royal Naval Dockyards. The forts and batteries constructed between 1860 and 1872, including to defend the port of Plymouth, were downgraded in the following decades, but advances in shipping and the range of weapons motivated a continued defence against long-range bombardment of Devonport Dockyard and Plymouth Sound.

Above Whitsand Bay and about four miles to the south-west of Plymouth, lies a late-C19 practice battery, built to supplement Whitsand Bay Battery to its north, built between 1888 and 1890 as Raleigh Battery, which is a scheduled monument. The practice battery was constructed for long-range practice firing over the bay by coastal gunners in the garrison, and the inevitable heavy use of the practice battery guns prevented undue wear on the fort’s main armaments.

Whitsand Bay practice battery was constructed with two sets of gun mountings: the first four were installed to the east between 1895 and 1896, and then four to the west were built from August 1896 and handed over to the Royal Artillery in June 1897. The east set was built for four 64-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns. Two of the mountings were later adapted for 6-inch quick-fire guns on Vavasseur recoil mountings. The west set initially had four mounted 3-pounder quick-fire guns, replaced in 1903 by 12-pounder quick-fire guns. The original approved site for these lay to the east of the first set of gun mountings. The two remaining rifle muzzle loading guns may have been dismounted in 1903, followed by the quick-fire guns in around 1919. The practice operations were regulated by Depression Range Finders (DRF), with weather shelters, magazines and range dial panels added in the early C20.

Whitsand Bay Battery was not armed in either World War, although the 12-pounders at the practice battery were used in the First World War. It has been suggested that the practice battery was used in the Second World War to test captured German weapons, although no evidence for this is currently available.

The practice battery is referenced in published sources, including Pye & Woodward (see Sources). The site was recently cleared of vegetation, uncovering more of the western section of the site. To date, no programme of excavation or recording has been made.

Details

SUMMARY OF ASSET
Practice battery for coastal gunners firing at floating targets in Whitsand Bay; 1895-1896, enlarged 1896-1897, altered in the early C20.

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
Situated above the cliffs almost in the centre of Whitsand Bay, and to the north of the former military road which runs along the coast, are the above and below ground remains of a late-C19 practice battery. It comprises two initial phases of gun mounting on the south side of the site and retains evidence of later improvements to artillery. Along the north side of the site are the standing remains of two ammunition stores, ready-use ammunition lockers and shelters, and depression range finders. A sunken trackway off the north side of the former military road leads to the practice battery.

DESCRIPTION
Whitsand Bay practice battery is located about 60m to the south-west of the western caponier of Whitsand Bay Battery (now a holiday park). It is constructed within the glacis of the battery on an artificially-levelled platform at the base of an upward slope leading to the south side of the battery. The southern extent of the site is defined by a low bank above a slope leading down to the former military road (now the main coastal route between Tregantle and Rame). The practice battery comprises two phases of development to the east and west; each covers an area of approximately 1,000 square metres.

The eastern part of the practice battery comprises four circular gun-positions of two types of mounting, each approximately 3.5m in diameter. From the north-west, the first and third mountings are Vavasseur type: a tall central cylindrical pivot mounting with a surrounding racer rail. The second and fourth mountings comprise a lower cylindrical pivot mounting surrounded by a circle of bolts, a racer rail, and a flat plate, and at the outer edge a further flat plate encircled by a range of cogged teeth. All of the components are cast iron set on concrete aprons. The positions are fronted by a low concrete parapet wall about 0.5m high with concrete steps between each mounting, leading up to a modern bank which has been further built up and then slopes down to the former military road.

Approximately 6m to the north of the north-west gun position and sited at a lower level below the concrete plinth which holds the gun positions, is a brick-built combined weather shelter and magazine with double-skin walls and a flat concrete-slab roof, measuring approximately 10m long by 4m wide. The structure has three door openings on the south side, one on the west side, and there are internal brick partitions. In front of the south side of the magazine is a concrete-slab panel approximately 2m high by 1.5m wide, with a recess on its south face which held the electronic workings for a range dial panel to assist the gunners in the direction of fire. There is a further identical panel to the north-east, opposite the eastern gun position.

To the west, at a slightly higher level, are the remains of four gun-positions comprising a concrete apron with a circular concrete mounting plate set with iron bolts. At the front of the mountings is a bank. To the north of each position is an open-fronted ready-use ammunition locker, of brick construction about 0.75m high by 1.5m wide, with a concrete-slab roof. In between the two western and two eastern shelters there is a concrete block about 0.5m high by 0.75m wide, with a sunken concrete-lined recess in front; this was probably used as a blast shelter. At the north-western side of the site, again sited at a lower level than the gun positions, is a double-skin brick-built combined magazine and weather shelter with a flat concrete-slab roof. It has three openings on the south side.

Located between the east and west parts of the practice battery is a concrete cylindrical pillar of a Depression Range Finder (DRF) position, and there is a further DRF at the east end of the made slope below the glacis to the battery. A further square-section pillar is located by the western gun positions, which may also be related to range finding.

The track leading from the former military road is about 45m in length and is sunk between the banked slope up to the battery to the north and a low bank to the south. It is surfaced with stone chippings and there is a gateway to the east. Both banks to the north and south of the site appear to have been disturbed in recent years, including the addition of material to the northern slope.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduled area has been determined by the topography of the glacis to the south-west (the 96m contour) and to the north-east (the 100m contour), the field boundary to the north (War Department boundary) and the gateway from the former military road to the south-east.

EXCLUSIONS
The modern trackway surfacing and gate from the former military road are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground below them is included.

Sources

Books and journals
Pye, A, Woodward, F, The Historic Defences of Plymouth, (1996), 91-94
Hogg, Ian V, Coast Defence in England & Wales 1856-1956, (1974), 180

Websites
Heritage Gateway: Cornwall & Scilly HER, accessed 30/05/2024 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO23179&resourceID=1020
Historic England Research Records: Whitsand Bay Practice Battery, accessed 30/05/2024 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=41b194e4-528c-49a0-b0b2-9fad83a8c2c1&resourceID=19191

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