Site Records

Site Name: Beacon Hill Fort (Harwich)

Barrack Lane
Harwich, Essex
OS Grid Ref: TM263326

Sub Brit site visit 5-1996, 9-1998 & 12-2003

4.7-INCH QUICK-FIRING (QF) EMPLACEMENTS & MAGAZINES
In 1892 two 4.7-inch QF emplacements with underground magazines were built. The southern emplacement with its magazine is largely intact but the northern emplacement was used as the foundation for the 1941 battery observation post

The southern emplacement consists of a gun floor, a semi-circular wall and sloping apron at the front and wing walls on the flanks. The gun floor stands 1.34m high with access by a flight of steps protected by the north wing wall

Three ready-use ammunition lockers are set into the back of the gun floor accessed by a short flight of steps. There is a fourth locker on the southern side

The magazine is on the south west side of the emplacement and consists of three rooms at the bottom of a curving flight of steps. The first room is a lobby which leads into the shell store which in turn leads into the cartridge store. Both magazines originally had light recesses in the walls but the recess in the cartridge store has been removed.

Although the northern emplacement is partially intact it is almost completely obscured by the battery observation post that has been built on top of it. The northern magazine is still accessible and is identical and in a similar condition to the southern magazine.

6-INCH BL AND LATER 6-INCH MARK VII GUN EMPLACEMENTS & MAGAZINE
In 1901 a 6-inch BL gun emplacement was built together with a magazine and shelter. Very little now survives of this emplacement as it was largely demolished during the construction of a 6-inch Mark VII emplacement in 1941. Sections of the gun floor and flanking wall can be identified and a cartridge lift with much of its mechanism intact still survives. The Mark VII structure incorporates a rectangular concrete casemate which stands to the rear of the emplacement; it has an access doorway through the rear wall. The concrete roof is strengthened with iron girders as defence against an air attack. Five ready use ammunition lockers are located against the back wall. Two sets of steps lead up from the casemate to the emplacement where there are a further five ready-use ammunition lockers at the rear, some retaining the framework for double metal doors.

The gun pit is 7.5 metres in diameter and is partially covered by a circular platform supported on concrete pillars. The holdfast bolts for guns are still in place in two concentric circles.

Because of its exposed position and likelihood of erosion six tiers of concentric concrete buttressing were added to the front of the emplacement in 1944 but these haven't prevented some cracking of the structure.

Behind the casemate there is a 10 metre long covered way to the top of an ammunition lift from the magazine below. Ammunition brought up from the magazine would have been loaded on to trolleys and pushed to the ready use lockers in the casemate. There is a sign on the wall which reads 'A3 Emplacement'.

The 1901 underground magazine to the south side of the emplacement survives although it is much altered following conversion for use with the later Mark VII gun. There is a single entrance with a sign above the door that says 'A2 Magazine' The building is divided into three rooms, a shifting lobby, shell store and cartridge store. The shell store is just inside the entrance and occupies the west side of the building, and at the far end the original metal and timber mechanism for a band ammunition lift still survives.

The shifting lobby is directly in front of the entrance and still retains a seat and coat hooks. The cartridge store is reached by passing through the shifting lobby. An issue hatch with a sliding wooden door still survives as do two lamp recesses between the two stores

A gun crew shelter also built in 1901 stands to the west of the magazine and at the north west corner of the casemate there is a concrete pillbox with a gun pit for an anti-aircraft gun on the roof. The pillbox is similar in style to a standard Type 27 but hexagonal rather than octagonal.

PRACTICE BATTERY FOR 64-POUNDERS RML's & MAGAZINE
In about 1894 a practice battery was built at the southern end of the promontory. The emplacement was probably for three 64-pounder RML's and consists of a rectangular level concrete gun floor with a low concrete wall around three sides. Behind each of the open embrasures there are four concentric semi-circular iron racers set into the concrete; these allowed the guns to traverse on their carriages.

An underground magazine still exists some 75 yards to the west. A flight of steps gives access to two rooms from a short corridor. The first room was the shell store and the second room was the cartridge store which was entered through a small shifting lobby. There are two lamp recesses between the shell store and the cartridge store and one between the shell store and the shifting lobby.

Further information and pictures about this site continues here

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