Brean Down Fort

Brean Down Fort
Somerset
Type:	Palmerston fort
Location
Location:	51°19’40"N, 3°2’5"W
History
	Built 1864–1871, 1939
Information
Owned by:	National Trust

Brean Down Fort stands in ruin on the headland at Brean Down in Somerset, overlooking the Severn Estuary, which it was built to guard, 60 feet above the sea. The headland is nine miles south of Weston-super-Mare.

Although the fort of today is Victorian, the site has much earlier roots The site has a long history, because of its prominent position. The earliest recorded settlement is from the Early to Middle Bronze Age.

The current buildings were constructed in the 1860s as one of the Palmerston Forts to provide protection to the ports of the Bristol Channel, and was decommissioned in 1901. During Second World War it was rearmed and used for experimental weapons testing.

The site has been owned by the National Trust since 2002, following a £431,000 renovation project, as part of its Brean Down property and is open to the public.

Bronze Age to Roman

The earliest record settlement is from the Early to Middle Bronze Age. It is now on an exposed cliff as the land has been eroded by the sea. Bronze Age artefacts from the site include pottery and jewellery. Most of the finds are now in the Museum of Somerset in Taunton. The presence of a probable roundhouse has also been detected.

The site has also produced Roman gold and silver coins of the emperors Augustus, Nero and Drusus and Vespasian and a cornelian ring.

Palmerston Fort

Brean Down Fort forms part of a line of defences, known as Palmerston Forts, built across the channel to protect the approaches to Bristol and Cardiff. It was fortified following a visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to France, where they had been concerned at the strength of the French Navy. The Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, under direction of Lord Palmerston, recommended fortification of the coast. Brean Down Fort formed part of a strategic coastal defence system covering the channel between the mainland and the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm.

Four acres of land at the end of Brean Down were requisitioned in 1862, with construction beginning in 1864 and completed in 1871.

The fort was originally armed with seven 7-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns, which were among the last of this type to be made at the |Woolwich Gun Foundry. These sited at three main gun positions, including W battery containing two guns on 'C' pivots (rotating around a reused Georgian cannon set upright in the ground). Each gun weighed 7 tons and had a 30 lb charge of gunpowder able to fire a 112 lb Palliser shot at 1,560 feet per second. This could pierce 8-inch armour at 1,000 yards. It was proposed to replace the 7-inch guns with larger 9 inch versions in 1888 but this was never put into action. It had a large, underground, main gunpowder magazine, 15 feet by 18 feet by 20 feet high. The fort was staffed by 50 officers and men of the Coast Brigade, Royal Artillery. No shots were ever fired in action.

The end of the fort's active service came at 5 a.m. on 6 July 1900 when the No. 3 magazine which held 3 tons of gunpowder exploded. An inquiry found that Gunner Haines had fired a ball cartridge down a ventilator shaft causing the explosion, after being put on a charge for returning late to barracks, however this explanation has been challenged. The wall separating the fort from the moat on the south west corner was demolished and wreckage thrown up to 200 yards. No one knew why the gunner had blown up the fort, but it has been speculated that it was an act of suicide. The cannons were hauled away by traction engines.

After being decommissioned, the fort was used as a café, owned by the Hillman family from at least 1907 until sold in 1936 to the 'bird sanctuary people'.

Second World War

On the outbreak of Second World War the fort was rearmed with two 6-inch ex-naval guns and two searchlights as a coastal artillery battery. The site was also used as a test launch site for rockets and experimental weapons.

Two gun positions were built to mount the ex-naval guns in their turrets. These were later protected with a "plastic" anti-aircraft roof. One position was built over the ruins of the old west battery and the other partly obscures the northwest battery. The barrack blocks were converted and the windows partly blocked to reduce the effects of blast. Several other associated structures, including searchlight batteries for illuminating seaborne targets, a command post and the barracks for the garrison were built outside the original Palmeston fort.

The site was manned by 365 and 366 Coast Batteries RA of 571 Coast Regiment in 1942.

Several experimental weapons were trialled at Brean, by the Admiralty's Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development, based at HMS Birnbeck. The only evidence being a short length of launching rail, designed to launch a bouncing bomb.

Some of the better known weapons trialled were the seaborne bouncing bomb designed specifically to bounce to a target such as across water to avoid torpedo nets, Anti-submarine missile AMUCK and the expendable acoustic emitter (designed to confuse noise seeking torpedoes).

Gallery

• 
  The fort seen from the north path
• 
  Officers quarters
• 
  Gun emplacement
• 
  Engine House
• 
  The fort from the south path

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Brean Down Fort)

• Victorian Forts data sheet
• Brean Down - National Trust
• Palmerston Forts
• Brean Down Fort Visitor Information

References

• van der Bijl, Nicholas (2000). Brean Down Fort: Its History and the Defence of the Bristol Channel. Cossington: Hawk Editions. ISBN 0-9529081-7-4.

Books

• Brown, Donald (1999). Somerset V Hitler: Secret Operations in the Mendips 1939–1945. Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 1-85306-590-0.