| Summary : The earthwork, rock cut and some of the earth covered parts of the Royal Commission fort known as Crownhill Fort, built between 1863 and 1872. Part of a series of defences which protected the city of Plymouth and Devonport Dockyard from attack by land. The fort was designed by Captain EF Du Cane as the principal and largest fort of the defensive line, and lies between Woodland Fort and Bowden Battery, to which it was connected by a military road.This is an outstanding example of the later period Royal Commission fortifications and is the only one of this type in Plymouth to be actively preserved and open to the public. A earthen rampart measuring from 20 metres to 30 metres wide surrounds the fort, which has an irregular septagonal plan. It is accessed via a single storey, stone gatehouse to the south. Within the fort is a large semicircular parade ground surrounded by buildings, including officers' quarters, barracks, a magazine and a cookhouse. The survival of numerous slit trenches and foxholes of World War II date provide evidence for the fort's later history. |
More information : (SX 487592) Crownhill Fort (NAT). (1)
SX 487592. Crown Hill Fort was built in 1868 and is a very large seven-sided fort, bastioned at each corner, ditched with extensive caponiers and counterscarp galleries. In 1869 it was called 'The Key of the North-Eastern Defences' and the most ambitious work of the entire defence line. It is today the Headquarters of Plymouth Garrison, and is perfectly maintained. (2)
The Royal Commission fortifications are a group of related
sites established in response to the 1859 Royal Commision report on the defence of the United Kingdom. This report was produced due to the threat of invasion following a strengthening of the French Navy. These fortifications represented the largest maritime defence programme since the initiative of Henry VIII in 1539-40. There were eventually some 70 forts and batteries in England which were due wholly or in part to the Royal Commission. (3)
The fort was built to carry 32 guns of which 6 were in Haxo casemates, 6 mortars, and 2 Moncrieff mountings. The ditch is 30 feet deep and covered one full and five demi-caponiers, as well as scarp galleries and carnot walls. It has a casemated barracks for 300 men. It was continuously garrisoned. (4)
Notes on the forts `restoration' after it passed to the Landmark Trust. (5)
Full description. (6) |