Mumbles Battery
| Mumbles Battery | |
|
Glamorgan | |
|---|---|
 Mumbles Battery and the lighthouse | |
| Type: | Pamerston fort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS635872 |
| Location: | 51°34’1"N, 3°58’16"W |
| History | |
| Built 1859-61 | |
| Information | |
Mumbles Battery is a former artillery battery on the Mumbles on the coast of Glamorgan, guarding the north shore of the Bristol Channel and overlooking Swansea. It was built around the base of the Mumbles Lighthouse.
This is one of the many 'Palmerston Forts' built in response to a perceived French invasion, and was designed to protect Swansea Bay. Construction of the battery began in 1859 and was completed by 1861 at a cost of £8,760.[1]
The fort mounted five 80 pounder rifled muzzle loading (RML) guns, two in casemates and three on the roof.[2] From 1892 the battery was reduced to care and maintenance and used for practise by the Glamorganshire Artillery Volunteers. Between 1899 and 1901 the obsolete RML guns were removed and replaced by two 4.7-inch quick-firing (QF) guns on the roof of the battery.
During the Second World War the defences of the Bristol Channel were increased significantly. In 1940 the two 4.7-inch guns were operated by soldiers from the 531st (Glamorgan) Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery.[3] Well before the end of the war, as the German threat decreased, the battery was placed into care and maintenance.
The battery was declared surplus to requirements in 1956 upon the dissolution of Britain's coastal artillery. The guns were dismounted and the battery disposed of.
References
- ↑ Stevenson, Ian, 2000. The Bristol Channel and Swansea Defences, Redan:Journal of the Palmerston Forts Society, Gosport, pp28-50
- ↑ Mumbles Battery Plan of Casemates and Terreplein, The National Archives, WO78/5219
- ↑ Col K W Maurice-Jones, 1959. The History of Coast Artillery in the British Army, Royal Artillery Institution, London, p221
- Saunders, A.; Spurgeon, C.J.; Thomas, H.J.; Roberts, D.J. (2001). Guns Across The Severn: The Victorian Fortifications of Glamorgan. Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. ISBN 1-871184-25-8.
