More information : [TQ 707 767] Cliffe Fort (disused) [NAT] (1)
[TQ 707 767] Cliffe Fort. (2)
Built as a result of the Royal Commission of 1860 recommendations, one of four forts constructed in the 1860s and thought to have been occupied until 1920. Armed, originally, with R.M.L. guns, in 1885 part of the fort was adapted as a torpedo station. This was one of several designed by Louis Brennan but is the only one in Kent of which any trace exists (see also TQ 97 NW 3). By 1905 roof positions had been added. Although the torpedo station had been dismantled by World War I, light guns remained until after World War II.
Built of roughly-hewn stone blocks outside and brick inside with a moat and earthworks on the seaward side. The fort now stands derelict and the domestic range is in ruinous condition but the rest is structurally sound with some noteworthy original ironwork. Visited September 1972 (3).
Scheduled (3). (3-5)
The slipways of the Brennan Torpedo station, threatened by riverine erosion, were recorded by the RCHME in March and April of 1993. A full report with measured drawings are contained in the RCHME archive (7).
The fort was built in the 1860s as an arc of granite-faced casemates with iron shields and an open battery at the upriver end. It was fronted by a ditch and caponiers. A defensible barracks closed the rear. The fort was armed with 11 heavy rifled muzzle-loading guns in the casemates (2 x 12.5-inch and 9 x 11-inch guns) and 2 x 9-inch guns in the open battery. The guns crossed their fire with Coalhouse Fort on the North bank of the Thames, and Shornmead Fort further upstream on the South bank.
The Western part of the fort was converted to a Brennan Torpedo Station in the mid-1890s. One launching way is depicted in a map dating to 1897 and the second in a map of 1907. 4 x 12 pounder quick-firing breech-loading guns were added to the roof in concrete emplacements. These were to cover a bomb defence and minefield which would be used in wartime. During World War I, two 6-inch breech loaders were added to the roof of the casemates. The fort was used as the base for the Royal Navy Auxiliary Service during World War II. (8)
Cliffe Fort coastal battery located at TQ 707 768. The fort opened in circa 1870 and in the 1890s was equipped with four 12-pounder quick-firing guns. By December 1902 the battery was fitted with two 12.5 inch and five 11-inch rifle muzzle loading guns. During the First World War the 12-pounder weapons were replaced by a pair of 6-inch breech loading Mk. VII guns, which in turn were replaced with four quick firing guns towards the end of the war. The fort was disarmed after 1927. (14-15)
The partial remains of Cliffe Fort survive in poor condition. (16)
Coastal battery. In poor condition [no further details] [information from 1970 aerial photographs]. On S bank of River Thames, W of Cliffe. (17)
Scheduled. For the designated record please see The National Heritage List for England. (18)
The partial remains of Cliffe Fort were seen and recorded from aerial photographs during the course of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. The flooded fort appeared in a delapidated condition and surrounded on three sides by an aggregates operation, with aggregates heaped against the eastern wall of the fort when photographed in April 2010. (19-21)
The fort was surveyed in six weeks between June and September 2010 by the English Heritage Archaeological Survey and Investigation and English Heritage Architectural Investigation teams as part of the Hoo Peninsula Historic Landscape Project. The results of the survey are published in the Historic England Research Report Series. (22) |