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Summary

In 1898 a portion of the old battery was reconstructed as a light quick fire anti-motor torpedo boat battery for two 6-pdrs - one Hotchkiss and one Nordenfeldt, both on cone mountings.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other Statuses/Codes: none recorded

Monument Type(s):

• BATTERY (19th Century to Edwardian - 1898 AD (between) to 1903 AD (between))

Full description

In 1898 a portion of the old battery was reconstructed as a light quick fire anti-motor torpedo boat battery for two 6-pdrs - one Hotchkiss and one Nordenfeldt, both on cone mountings. A small vaulted subterranean cartridge store reached by a manhole in the rear of the emplacements survives from this phase but has been obscured by Office of Works alterations. As part of the works relating to the construction of the 6-pdr battery, access passages to the 1850s expense magazine were made bomb proof and the building converted for use as a shell and filled shell store. A 1920s Office of Works survey suggests there was also a rudimentary war shelter built against the parapet to the west of emplacement No 1.

The battery was augmented by the now well-established submarine minefield, which since 1896 could be illuminated at night by two searchlights at the waters edge to the north of the castle. The 6-pdr armament is known to have been in place by 1900, and in May of that year, the Royal Miners Artillery Militia was embodied to man the guns to replace the regular Royal Artillery Garrison sent overseas to fight the Boers.

The battery was found to be too low in practice and in 1903 it was dismantled and the guns returned to the Army Ordnance Department, the role of anti-motor torpedo boat defence having been effectively taken over by a bettery of 2 x 12-pdr quick fire guns constructed in Castle Field to the north east of the castle between 1900 and 1901.

The westernmost of the 6-pdr emplacements was removed in the 1920s along with the concrete roof covering of the Victorian magazine passages and the war shelter. The entrance to the subterranean cartridge store was covered over and grassed. The side arms store at the west end of the battery was lost at this time relating to the alterations made by Burgoyne in the mid 1850s (1).

<1> Linzey, R, 2000, Fortress Falmouth. An conservation plan for the historic defences of Falmouth Haven Vol II (2000), site W5 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO1563.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO455 - Fortress Falmouth

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