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| HER Number: | MCO62482 |
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| Name: | PENDENNIS - World War Two defence lights |
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Summary
The Searchlight Battery providing the minefield illumination for the 6-pdr twin quick-fire batteries, here and at St Mawes became operational on 18 November 1941. All five emplacements were very low sited on the rocks below Crab Quay Battery, the foundations of each being awash at high water.
Protected Status: None recorded
Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded
Monument Type(s):
Full description
The Searchlight Battery providing the minefield illumination for the 6-pdr twin quick-fire batteries, here and at St Mawes became operational on 18 November 1941. All five emplacements were very low sited on the rocks below Crab Quay Battery, the foundations of each being awash at high water.
After inspection of the installation from the air during construction, the emplacements were rock camouflaged. This system employed local shillet bedded in a concrete slurry fixed to the outside of the
concrete emplacements on a chicken wire mesh. This convincing camouflage made the emplacements look like part of the rocky foreshore. Air photographs of St Mawes taken in the 1950s demonstrate very clearly how difficult it was to see the emplacements on both sides of the harbour, which despite their low aesthetic impact on the Henrician castles were demolished by the Ministry of Works in the 1970s.
The emplacements are numbered from south to north 1 to 5. Lights Nos 1-3 have two slits each allowing alternative positions for the narrow beams. No 4, presumably a sentry beam, has only one slot. No 5 was a moving light and the emplacement was fitted with sliding shutters and a bullet proof glass screen. Nos 1-4 were supplied by power from four 22 kW Lister engines in engine room A, built during 1941 above Castle Drive. Light No 5 was supplied with power from a single 22kW Lister generator in engine room B. The searchlights were controlled by a directing station beneath the Battery Observation Post inside the Twin 6pdr director tower which commanded views of the whole arc of the illuminated area. All of the lights were directable with contractor gear (No 5 type) and the moving light No 5 was equipped for remote control from the director tower. The lights were wired up to receive power from the engine room at Pendennis Point in the event that the Middle Point installation was put out of action (1).
<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), site U21 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.
Sources / Further Reading
| [1] | SCO1563 - Cornwall Event Report: Linzey, R. 2000. Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000). site U21. |
Associated Finds: none recorded
Associated Events
- ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth
Related records
| 18709 | Part of: PENDENNIS - Post Medieval fort (Monument) |
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