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Summary

Site of a 12 gun battery established at the eastern end of Berry Head in about 1795. It was subsequently incorporated into the No. 3 fort which was built in 1803-1805 and dismantled in about 1817. It was reused as a placement for anti-aircraft guns during the Second World War.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1017322: Berry Head Fort and battery and Hardy's Head Battery

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX95NW/49
• Tide Project: 10/09/2020
• Torbay HER: MTO20085

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BATTERY (Built, XVIII to XIX - 1790 AD (Between) to 1805 AD (Between))

Full description

County Borough of Torbay, 1967, Berry Head, 15,22-23 (Monograph). SDV362520.

Half Moon Battery was established at the eastern end of Berry Head in about 1795. It was subsequently incorporated in the No. 3 fort which was built in 1803-1805. The battery consisted of no less than 12 guns. The granite gun beds were removed for use elsewhere after it was dismantled in about 1820 but the site of the battery still survives.

Pye, A.R., 1989, Berry Head Fort, Brixham. An Archaeological Assessment, 1, 5, 6, 11, 18 (Report - Assessment). SDV362497.

Ten gun battery was built in 1779-80 at the tip of Berry Head, one of several batteries built to defend the anchorage in Torbay. It was reactivated in the Napoleonic Wars. Shown on the OS surveyors sketch of 1803-4, it was dismantled in 1817.

Pye, A.R. & Slater, W.D., 1990, Berry Head Fort, Brixham, An Archaeological Survey, 21, Figs 3, 6, 12; Plate 27 (Report - Survey). SDV362493.

A battery was first built at the point in 1779-80. It was decommissioned in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris and re-activated in 1794-5 at the start of the long French wars. It was finally dismantled in 1817.
The armament appears to have been 12 forty-two-pounder cannon protruding over a low parapet. During the Second World War there appears to have been at least one American anti-aircraft gun sited here. Most of the Napoleonic battery site remains. Plans suggest that the earlier arrangement was re-used with little alteration.
It consists of a wide terrace cut into the headland. The remains of a limestone rubble retaining wall run along the west side with the remains of a low parapet bank (originally stone revetted?) along its seaward sides. The sites of 4 gun platforms show as a cropmark during drought. The platforms would originally have been of timber, and then later of granite slabs similar to those surviving on the enceinte. At the south-east corner are the concrete settings (some with protruding iron bolts) of an anti-aircraft gun. There are the possible remains of another to the north.

Riley, H., 2023, Berry Head Fort, Hardy’s Head Battery & The Old Redoubt, Torbay, Devon. PAI Implementation Plan for Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship Scheme, 4-5, 6, Figs 9-15 (Report - Survey). SDV365956.

Half Moon Battery was built on Berry Head in 1779-80. It was recommissioned in 1794, at which time the Berry Head Fort and the Old Redoubt were built to protect it and the other batteries from land attack. It shows as an earthwork on Lidar imagery.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV362493	Report - Survey: Pye, A.R. & Slater, W.D.. 1990. Berry Head Fort, Brixham, An Archaeological Survey. Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Report. EMAFU 90.10. Hardcopy + Digital. 21, Figs 3, 6, 12; Plate 27. [Mapped feature: #126897 Imported from Torbay HER - Jan 2019, ]
	Linked documents:1
SDV362497	Report - Assessment: Pye, A.R.. 1989. Berry Head Fort, Brixham. An Archaeological Assessment. Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit. EMAFU 89.04. Hardcopy + Digital. 1, 5, 6, 11, 18.
	Linked documents:1
SDV362520	Monograph: County Borough of Torbay. 1967. Berry Head. Berry Head. Paperback. 15,22-23.
SDV365956	Report - Survey: Riley, H.. 2023. Berry Head Fort, Hardy’s Head Battery & The Old Redoubt, Torbay, Devon. PAI Implementation Plan for Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship Scheme. Hazel Riley. Digital. 4-5, 6, Figs 9-15.

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7834 - Archaeological Assessment of the Berry Head Forts
• EDV6127 - Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme (NMP) for South-West England - South Coast Devon (Ref: ACD618)
• EDV7835 - Archaeological Survey of the Berry Head Forts
• EDV9033 - Assessment of Berry Head Fort, Hardy’s Head Battery and The Old Redoubt, Torbay, Devon

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