| Summary : An artillery fort, built 1862-1869 for the defence of the south-east side of Plymouth. Buitlt on the site of a Civil War Fort Stamford besieged and captured by the Royalists in 1643. The present fort was built as Fort Turnchapel and designed to cover the gap to Laira, the merchant ship anchorage at Jennycliff Bay, and the north flank of Staddon Fort. An irregular five-sided structure with two single and a double caponier covering the rock-cut ditch. The proposed armament was seven 9-inch rifled muzzle loaders on the two seaward sides, thirteen guns on the land fronts, and six mortars in the salients. The fort remained in military use until 1956, although the armament was probably not modernised after 1893. Scheduled. |
More information : (SX 493527) Stamford Fort (NAT). (1)
Fort Stamford, or Fort Turnchapel, built about 1869 as part of the Plymouth Defences, overlooks the Sound and the Cattewater, and is of unusual construction. The gorge face (the NW face) appears to be the usual granite gorge wall with accommodation within and the entrance via a drawbridge over the ditch. Inside, however, the inner side of the wall is mounded and the accommodation is
virtually underground. This mounding and rampart continues round the fort with an additional occupied mound, containing the magazines, dividing the terreplein. Armament of two 10 inch guns is recorded in a report of 1884, but no modern armament was ever installed although the fort remained in military hands until after World War II. (2)
It was built to mount seven 12-ton gunson the sea front, and 13 guns on the land side, and six mortar positions were also prepared at the salients. There was also a barracks for 230 men. Not armed after 1893. (3)
Fort Stamford was built on the site of a Parliamentarian fort built in 1642-3. It is depicted on Pasman's plot of 1644 as being a triangular work. Full description of the later fort. (4) |