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

CORNWALLIS BATTERY - TWIN 6-POUNDER EMPLACEMENT
The Cornwallis Battery was built in 1941 on the south side of the 1890 10-inch BL emplacement. It is a self contained unit consisting of a casemated gun emplacement, a BOP tower, crew shelter and an underground magazine.

The gun pit is circular at the rear and angled at the front and has a large spent cartridge recess in the rear face. The pit still retains bolts for the holdfast and has a raised gunners platform at the rear. Behind the gun pit is a semi-circular gun floor with two concentric metal rails on which ammunition trolleys were wheeled to the breech of the guns. To the rear there are five ready-use ammunition lockers with remains of double metal doors still in place. The gun floor is accessed by a short flight of steps from the casemate.

The casemate has been strengthened on the seaward facing side and has a flat concrete roof covered with asphalt; it still retains some camouflage paint. Access is through a doorway in the south-west face at the top of a short flight of steps. There was a vertical ammunition lift just inside the entrance but this has been blocked off.

The brick built crew shelter is on the north side of the casemate through a linking doorway and from steps up to a doorway on the west side.

The Battery Observation Post (BOP) was located within a four storey concrete tower with each floor consisting of a single room with a heavy metal door at the rear. The lower floor has a doorway at ground level while the upper three floors are accessed by external steps. A sign on the wall close to the bottom of the steps says '6 PDR BOP'

The upper two rooms have observation embrasures in the south-west wall and along part of the adjoining walls with remains of internal shutters surviving. The lower room was the searchlight direction station and the top floor room retains a concrete pillar where the coast director instrument for controlling the guns was mounted.

The magazine consists of a rectangular underground chamber accessed by a flight of steps. There is a doorway into a single room used for both cartridges and shells. At the eastern end there is an opening in the roof for the ammunition lift but no evidence of the lift remains. Ammunition reached the magazine down an inclined chute into the lobby, this remains in place with outward opening metal doors at the top

ELECTRIC LIGHT ENGINE HOUSE & BOMB PROOF SHELTER
The longest underground structure on the site is located in woodland on the west side of the fort. The electric light engine house and bombproof shelter was built in 1890; the engine was originally designed to power the searchlights but later provided all the power for the fort.

The structure consists of a 33 metre long vaulted chamber described as a 'Bomb proof shelter' for the infantry troops defending the Twydall Profile. On the east side of the chamber there are two rooms, the smaller room to the north was the coal store and the larger was the engine room.

There are two entrances on the west side of the shelter; the north entrance consists of steps down into an open forecourt from where double metal gates lead into a short entrance tunnel into west side of the main corridor close to the northern end. The southern entrance is also down a flight of steps; turning right at the bottom there is a second pair of metal gates and a short passage directly in to the southern end of the shelter.

In the middle of the chamber, on the west side, a short side passage leads to a vertical shaft that was originally fitted with a ladder. As there is a good view of the 'Twydall Profile' and the surrounding land at this point it has been suggested that the ladder led up to a command and control position.

The engine room still retains two concrete engine beds, one for the original steam engine and dynamo and the second for the later oil fired engine that was installed in 1903. This remained in use until a new engine room was built in 25 yards to the north in 1942.

COAST ARTILLERY SEARCHLIGHTS
Two searchlight emplacements are located at the base of the forts southern rampart and accessed by a flight of steps in front of the practice battery. Both emplacements are identical with an entrance at the rear and two vertical slit embrasures at the front with remains of sliding shutters.

BATTERY OBSERVATION POST
In 1941 a three storey concrete tower was built on top of one of the 4.7-inch QF emplacements. External steps give access to each of the floors through a metal door. The lower floor was a telephone room with high level horizontal slit windows. The middle floor was for the officer in charge of the BOP. It retains some electrical fittings and windows with outwardly opening metal shutters.

The upper room has an observation embrasure along the length of the south-east wall and partly along the adjoining walls. In the eastern corner there is a concrete pillar for a depression range finding instrument; bolts on the floor behind the pillar were the mountings for a plotting table.

Further information and pictures about this site continues here

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