19th CENTURY CASTLES

 

 

In the early part of the nineteenth century. Britain was again at war with France and the threat of invasion brought a fresh spate of defence works on the Channel coast.

 

Fort Newhaven.

In 1859, with the threat of further French invasions, plans were made for a series of seventy-two coastal forts, including this one at Newhaven. Situated on a headland commanding a good field of fire, the massive walls and moat enclose an area of 10 acres (4 ha). Within the wall is a central parade ground with perimeter casemates, which provided quarters for the garrison of three hundred.

                           

 

The fort was sunk into the hillside, which is tunnelled with passage ways and storerooms, now used as display rooms. The gun emplacements above the casemates housed forty-two guns. During the Second World War, the armaments were updated but after the army left in 1956 the fort fell into disrepair. It has been restored as a museum and was officially reopened in 1983.

 

Redoubt Fortress.

This massive brick building was one of three built along the south coast to supplement the martello towers. It consists of two concentric brick walls sunk below ground level, surrounded by a dry moat and reached by a drawbridge. A ring of casemates, for stores and barracks, surrounded a central parade ground. Above the casemates is a platform to house eleven guns. The fortress now houses the Sussex Combined Services Museum.

 

 

Royal Military Canal.

The canal was built in 1806 and runs for 30 miles (48 km) from Winchelsea to Hythe, in Kent. A road was built behind it, the Royal Military Road, to allow rapid transport of troops and equipment, and a gun turret was erected every quarter of a mile (400m). William cobbett in Rural Rides was especially scathing about this defence work and wondered how a 30 foot wide (9 m) ditch was to stop troops who had crossed the Rhine and Danube. It now provides pleasant walking and fishing along its banks.

Tower 73 (Wish Tower). King Edward's Parade, Eastbourne.

Over one hundred martello towers were built along the south coast in 1804-10 as part of the coastal defences. They consist of a circular brick tower, with a single, first-floor entrance reached by removable steps. In some cases, as here, they were surrounded by a dry moat and reached by drawbridge. Each had a garrison of over twenty men and had a single cannon on the roof. They are named after an ancient watchtower on Mortella Point in Corsica.
After the threat of invasion was over, the towers were for a while used to accommodate the Coast Blockade, a forerunner of the present day coastguard, and during the Second World War many of them were rearmed. Of the forty-seven towers built in Sussex only ten survive and this one has been restored to show the details of construction; it also houses the Coastal Defence Museum.

 

 

REDOUBT FORTRESS: Royal Parade, Eastbourne BN22 7AQ

Tel: 01323 410300. Huge fortress built in 1804 to repel Napoleon. Now a museum of the Royal Irish Hussars and the Royal Sussex regiment. It has a large collection of model soldiers.

Location:

Eastbourne

 

Opening Times:

Apr-Oct 9.30-5.30

 

Admission Prices:

Adults £1.80 Children £1 (may rise)

 

 

 

 

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