For important guidance on the use of this record, please click here.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary - not yet available

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 10552: PENDENNIS PENINSULA FORTIFICATIONS
• Conservation Area: FALMOUTH

Other References/Statuses

• Defence of Britain Project (1995-2003): AH42
• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SW83SW 4
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 18709.34
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW83SW 19

Monument Type(s):

• BATTERY (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

A new battery for two 6-in guns on hydropneumatic mountings, completed in 1895, was constructed close to and partially obscuring the Half Moon RML battery. It too was named Half Moon Battery.

The new work was supported by a further gun in Bell Bastion then known as One Gun Battery. The facilities at Half Moon effectively duplicate those described for One Gun Battery. They comprised: cartridge store, shell store and combined Royal Artllery Store and lamp room. A flat roofed masonry war shelter with two rooms for gun detatchments and a third for officers was built to the rear of the battery in an area excavated into the rock slope. This utilised and enlarged the excavations made to extend the terreplain of the smooth-bore battery in 1854.

In common with all new work of this period, access to the magazine was strictly controlled by a system of gates and lobbies, in particular a shifting lobby in which the magazine men changed out of their 'No 8's' and donned special magazine clothes and shoes to minimise the likelihood of carrying metal objects or grit, which might cause a spark, into the cartridge store. In addition the battery was served by a small telephone
room below the Gun Group Commander's terrace. This shelter allowed him to talk to range finding specialists operating the depression range finders and later the position finders emplaced at a higher level on the castle ramparts. A small area of naturalistically modelled vermiculated render survives on the terrace near A/I gun. This may well be the only remnant of a render coat applied to the whole battery which was probably painted to assimilate with the natural surroundings like the coeval 12-pdr batteries. A passage linking A/1 gun position with the ditch in front of the ravelin and hence the sally port passage was tunnelled through as part of the works.

The approved armament lists for 1901 describe the two guns mounted at Half Moon Battery as BL Mk VIs on the latest carriage, probably hydropneumatic Mks I or II. This type of carriage allowed the guns to be loaded in the security of a deep concrete pit underneath a steel shield. It was elevated through a slot in the shield to fire over the apron of the emplacement, by a hydropneumatic piston. The battery could despatch a pointed Palliser shell accurately up to 10,000 yards. This type of mounting allowed for only a small rate of fire and was subject to mechanical failure.

The battery, minefield, medium range quick fire guns and lights all remained 'state of the art,' until 1905 when the Committee on the Armaments of Home Ports, "recommended that the three 6 in breech-loading guns at Pendennis Castle on disappearing mountings, should be replaced by two 6 in breech-loading Mk VII guns ... " and the remaining Mk VI disposed of.

Half Moon Battery was radically remodelled in 1909. The work began in August when the guns were dismounted by means of gyn shears. Elevator brackets were raised by gyn and taken to the rear on planks. The work of dismounting the hydropneumatic battery was completed in September 1910. The Fort Record Book records, that "After being stripped of metal the battery was returned to theArmy Ordnance Department and the guns and mountings sold under War Office authority … contracts dated 18 October 1910."

In June 1910 the work was reconstructed to take two Ordnance BL 6 in Mk VII guns on barbette mountings which were received together with carriages, cradles, shields and all fittings. The new guns were mounted by 20 February 1911. The remodelling involved the construction of substantial subterranean shell and cartridge stores linked to the barbette emplacements by manually powered ladder lifts. The stores which had served the hydropneumatic battery were incorporated into the new work, with the old cartridge store
converted to a lamp room. The shifting lobby was removed to a new position between the new cartridge stores but its form and function remained exactly as it had 15 years earlier. On the aprons of the emplacements and the walls of the area are the remains of painted two tone camouflage which almost certainly dates to this remodelling. The massive cut through the counterscarp linking the battery with the upper sallyport passage is first shown on Ordnance Survey maps of 1910 and it seems likely that it was made during these alterations to provide a fast route for gun detachments to man the guns in an emergency, possibly making the rock-cut tunnel redundant.

The Mk VII gun, introduced in 1898, was usually mounted on a centre pivot Mk II mounting. The steel wire gun, which used separate shot and shell, had a maximum range of 13, 350 yards. The Mk II mounting was very different to its hydropneumatic predecessor. The barrel sat in a hydraulically damped cradle, called a recuperator, fixed to the pivot, the whole ensemble being surrounded towards the sea by a thick armoured plate, the shield Mk I, to give the gun detachment a modicum of protection. Target data acquired by range finder or position finder cells around Pendennis was supplied to Watkins dials on the carriage.

The battery is shown supported by position finder cells and a Battery Commander's cell and two electric lights at Pendennis Point on the Ordnance Survey map of 1910. By 1912, these guns were replaced with two 6 inch Mark7 breech loaders. The two 6in guns at Half Moon Battery comprised the only approved armament at Falmouth.

The guns at Half Moon were active throughout the First World War. The two guns continued to be approved armaments for the port in 1918 and remained so until 1938 when the guns and mountings were dismantled and returned to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich prompted by a false sense of national security.

Galvanised by the Munich Crisis, remodelling of the battery to mount two breech loading Mk VII guns on new Mk VI mountings began in 1939. The emplacements were almost completely demolished and new pits and aprons cast to accommodate the Mk VI mountings. Half Moon Battery was desingated 216 (MOON) coast battery identified as 'A' Group, whilst St Anthony Battery was 'B' Group.

During 1941 gun houses were built over the emplacements and camouflaged to merge into the surrounding bracken. When firing the guns, the Passive Air Defence regulations required the soldiers mananing the weapons to place rifles and side arms with respirators, gas capes and helmets on hooks nearby. These hooks survive inside both emplacements on the wall of the gun houses. Half Moon Battery remained the Examination Battery throughout 1942.

In 1943 the 6 in Mk VII guns were replaced with 6 in Mk XXIV guns on the same Mk V mountings. The men at this time providing the infantry defence of the battery dug various 'strong posts' around the work. In 1944 the battery ceased to be the Examination Battery for Falmouth. Also in 1944 a Bofors 40mm light anti-aircraft equipment was emplaced close to Half Moon Battery to provide local air defence for the work.

The battery received dedicated radar equipment in 1944 which was emplaced in South Bastion. Behind the battery were two 600 gallon reserve tanks of water for use only when the mains supply to the war shelter failed.

The battery was relegated to Care and Maintenance in 1945. It continued to be used for practice shoots and its magazines were kept fully stocked until 1956 when the Ministry of Supply began dismantling Half Moon Battery. The guns were cut up on site for disposal as scrap. The cordite was burned at Pendennis Point the removal being complete by 1957. The radar equipment and fire control instruments were all removed by 1957 and returned to the Ordnance.

The battery was scheduled as an Ancient Monument in 1957 but this did not protect its setting effectively and in 1979 it was compromised by the construction of a Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre which obscured A/1 gun's command of Falmouth Bay. In addition The Ministry of Works demolished certain redundant buildings, considered to put a strain on the public purse. These included the war shelter, the artillery stores and the static water tanks and their support structures. In 1996 the battery underwent extensive consolidation and repair including introduction of electrical servicing to enable it to be opened to the public.(21).

The guns were supported by searchlights on Pendennis Point and a new battery observation post was built in the ramparts above (PRN 166147).

--------------------------------
Site history:
1: 1927. DRAKE, S/IAM
3: 1987. WESTON, SM/IAM
4: 1988. HARTGROVES, S/CAU
5: 1988. HARTGROVES, S/CAU
--------------------------------

Johns, C, 1998, Pendennis Castle - Half Moon Battery Roof (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1196.

Johns, C, 2001, Half Moon Battery, Pendennis Castle, Cornwall - Archaeological watching brief during resurfacing of hardstanding area April 2001 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1229.

<1> Hals, W, 1740, The Compleat History of Cornwall, 129 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3429.

<2> Lilly, C, 1715, An Exact Plan of Pendennis Fort (Bibliographic reference). SCO3870.

<3> Norden, J, 1728, Speculi Britanniae Pars (Bibliographic reference). SCO4001.

<4> Polwhele, R, 1803, History of Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO4140.

<5> Lysons, D & S, 1814, Magna Britannia, VOL III, CORNWALL, 989, 99, 104 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3885.

<6> Hitchins, F & Drew, S (Eds), 1824, The History of Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO3595.

<7> TREGONNING HOOPER, 1827, UNKNOWN TITLE, VOL I, NO 6, 7-9 (Unedited Source). SCO5851.

<8> Thomas, R, 1827, History and Description of the Town and Harbour of Falmouth, 110-113 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4698.

<9> Thomas, R, 1851, Letters to the West Briton (Article in newspaper). SCO4699.

<10> Brine, F, 1855, Shilling Trip to Falmouth (Bibliographic reference). SCO2906.

<11> Pasfield Oliver, S, 1875, Pendennis and St Mawes (Bibliographic reference). SCO4086.

<12> Beckett, R, 1961, Tercenteniary of Falmouth (Bibliographic reference). SCO2815.

<13> UNKNOWN, 1963, MOW GUIDE (Unedited Source). SCO7885.

<14> Carew, R, 1969, The Survey of Cornwall 1602 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3044.

<15> Institute Of Cornish Studies, 1987, Place-Names Index (Bibliographic reference). SCO3621.

<16> Padel, OJ, 1985, Cornish Place-Name Elements, 85, 177-180 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4064.

<17> Hartgroves, S & Sharpe, A & Roberts, C, 1985, Pendennis Castle and the Headland, Falmouth (Cornwall Event Report). SCO3459.

<18> Morley, B, 1988, The Castles of Pendennis and St Mawes (Bibliographic reference). SCO3957.

<19> Sharpe, A, 1989, Pendinas Castle (Cornwall Event Report). SCO4367.

<20> Walker, R, 1989, Pendennis Castle Resistivity Survey 1989 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5007.

<21> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), Site M2 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO154 - Pendennis and St Mawes C19th and 20th Defences
• ECO665 - Pendennis Half Moon surfacing
• ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth

Related records

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.