Site Records

SiteName: Lydden Spout Battery

Sub Brit site visit August 1996 and February 2003

No. 3 gun pit is the best preserved with most of it's circular concrete surround still visible although the pit itself is completely filled with earth and rubble from the demolished buildings. At the back of the gun pit there is a partially backfilled walkway into the magazine tunnel. There are doorways on either side of this walkway into two underground irregularly shaped underground rooms, only the east room is accessible. This was the crew shelter; it has a fireplace in one corner and two large apertures into the now backfilled gun pit. It is unclear whether these were glazed windows or unglazed hatches for passing items through to the gun pit or for communication purposes.

It is assumed the opposite room is identical on all three emplacements. At No. 1 gun this room is identical in shape with a further two hatches, but it is sub-divided into two rooms with the framework for a heavy steel door between them. There is no fireplace and the inner room has evidence or shelving around the walls.

The outer room (closest to the entrance) was the officers' shelter and the inner room was the gun store for spares, sights, tools etc.

The brick lined tunnel to the two magazines at No. 3 gun is 39 metres in length with a bend after 8 metres for blast protection. At the end of this tunnel there is a sharp turn to the right for 8 metres with the two magazines located on the north side of this short tunnel. Both magazines are 6 metres in length but the right hand (east) magazine is slightly narrower. Both magazines are divided into bays along both walls.

The left hand magazine was the shell store. On one wall just inside the door a section of the wall is painted black and clearly marked with the types of shells stored in the magazine. 'C.P.B.C.', 'H.E.' and 'Practice'. CPBC stands for Common Pointed Ballistic Capped which would have been Mk. 36B of 102lbs containing a TNT/Beeswax filling for engaging lightly armoured or non-armoured ships. HE is high explosive Mk29B standard nose fused HE shell for un-armoured ships and land targets. Practice is solid shot with no fuse or explosive filling. The 'blackboard' would have been chalked with the number of each stored in the room.

Photo:No. 3 Gun Charge Magazine
Photo by Nick Catford

The right hand magazine was for the charges, which for 6" Naval guns came in silk bags containing 22.25 lbs of cordite sticks with a red silk patch containing gunpowder on one end. The silk bags would have been placed in the gun breech with the red patch facing towards the back of the gun. A slide at the back of the breech would then have been opened and a percussion tube inserted, this would have been fired by the breech worker either electronically or mechanically.

The two magazines each have four high level ventilation grilles, two in each wall. Additionally the right hand magazine has additional ventilation with air bricks just inside the entrance door. Beyond the second magazine the tunnel turns sharply to the right for 16 metres to the main entrance with another bend in the tunnel for blast protection. The entrance has been backfilled and is not visible on the surface. Just inside the entrance to the tunnel there are a number of fuse boxes and switches. There is electrical conduit running just below ceiling level throughout the tunnels with lights at regular intervals on the ceiling and a light in each of the magazines. No 2 and No 1 gun emplacements are both still extant although both back filled. The tunnels and magazines are accessible for both emplacements and are similar in design. The crew room for No. 2 gun is also accessible.