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Summary

Searchlight emplacement probably built circa 1900 for lighting the minefield(s) between the shore and the breakwater. Comprises a square flat-roofed concrete and brick structure with a window opening seaward and a doorway at the rear.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1416506: Defence Electric Light Emplacement, North of Bovisand Harbour

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX45SE/450/1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• SEARCHLIGHT BATTERY (XIX - 1900 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV160693.

Des=plymouth fortress survey/pye, a.(1992)/bovisand.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV160694.

Pro=wo78/2314/(1896)/1:2500 os map with 1899 and c 1906 amendments.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV160695.

Pro=wo190/122/(c1903-15)/grenville battery fort record book.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV160696.

Pro=wo78/5041. Pt 1/(1896)/os 1:2500 map with c 1910 amendments.

English Heritage, 10/02/2014, Staddon Heights DAS - Submarine Mine Observation Station and Searchlights, Wembury, Devon (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV356299.

Defence Electric Light emplacement of c.1910 located on a promontory above the shore, to the north of Fort Bovisand Harbour.

DESCRIPTION: a searchlight emplacement, square on plan, positioned on a cliff-face promontory. The
emplacement has a rectangular opening to the seaward side and a wide door opening in the south wall. By the door opening is a concrete platform with a railing, and thirteen steps rise up the cliffside. The platform and steps are partially collapsed. In the north wall is a lower recess for a stove, with a flue duct in the outer concrete skin. The walls have an inner skin of red brick. The concrete roof is reinforced with steel beams. There is a round hole in the roof for ducting the heat from a searchlight. By the door an iron ring is fixed to the roof.

Group value: the structure forms part of an historic group with Bovisand Submarine Mine
Observation Station, Fort Bovisand and related structures, and with the Staddon Heights military landscape as a whole.

The Defence Electric Light (DEL) emplacement north of Bovisand Harbour is listed at Grade II, for the
following principal reasons:
Historic interest: it has strong cultural and historical significance, within both a local and national
context, marking the late-C19/ early-C20 use of mines to defend against submarine attack;
Date: the DEL is a relatively early example of its type;
Rarity: few search light assemblages survive well;
Intactness: despite some decay to the fabric, and the removal of the doors and fittings, the majority of
the fabric remains intact and legible.

A Defence Electric Light emplacement of c.1900, with steps to the rear, historically associated with Bovisand mine observation station and Fort Bovisand

PLYMOUTH FORTRESS SURVEY, 1992, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV27236.

Searchlight position. A square flat-roofed concrete and brick structure with a window opening seaward and a doorway at the rear. Probably built in c 1900 for lighting the minefield(s) between the shore and the breakwater. May also originally have been a searchlight directing post. Access originally via a pathway along the coast from the south and down the stairway from the quarry and submarine mine observation station above. There is a small building (now demolished) at the base of this stairway which may be a sentry post dating to World War II. In good condition apart from the sea eroding the wall and stairway to its rear (plymouth fortress survey).

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 2017, South Cornwall Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Desk-Based Assessment, 1075 (Interpretation). SDV360825.

A small concrete-built searchlight emplacement associated with the Bovisand Submarine Mine Observation Station.

Ordnance Survey, 2018, MasterMap 2018 (Cartographic). SDV360652.

Emplacement shown.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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