Crownhill Fort: Difference between revisions

'''Crownhill Fort''' is a [[Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom|Royal Commission]] [[fortFort]] built in the 1860s in [[Crownhill]] as part of [[Lord Palmerston]]'s ring of land defences for [[Plymouth]]. Restored by the [[Landmark Trust]], it is now home to several small businesses, museums, exhibitions and a holiday apartment sleeping up to eight people. The Fort is open to the public on the last Friday of each month and hosts tours for local schools and societies at other times.

Crownhill Fort was designed by Captain E.F.[[Edmund Frederick Du Cane]] as one of [[Lord Palmerston]]'s last forts and was the largest of the forts of [[Plymouth]]'s North Eastern defences, whose purpose was to defend the Royal Dockyard at [[HMNB Devonport|Devonport]] from the possibility of a [[France|French]] attack, under the leadership of [[Napoleon III]].

Construction began in April 1863, with Crownhill Fort being at the cutting edge of fortress design, although it does conform to the standard polygonal design of its contemporaries. It was built 400 metres in front of the defensive line, now incorporated into the east-west Crownhill Road, in an exposed position, andon isa thereforenatural outcrop. Crownhill Fort is designed for all round defence, with each of its seven sides having massive ramparts and being surrounded by a deep ditch. All sides were also protected by gunfire, with the fort having around 350 built-in rifle loopholes. It was designed for an armament of 32 guns on the ramparts and 6 [[Mortar (weapon)|mortar]]s builtsited intoin two mortar pits to the northsouth west and north west rampartsof the Parade Ground. A year later, in 1864, [[Russia]]n commander [[Eduard Totleben|General Todleben]] was shown the building works, and he complimented them.

In 1866, after a strike, George Baker, the building contractor, went [[bankrupt]] and so the work was finished in 1869 by the [[Royal Engineers]], who would laterbecome occupyCrownhill theFort's first fortoccupants. The total cost of the construction was £76, 409 which was; a large sum at the time, but amuch lowerless costcostly than other Palmerston forts.

In 1881, the Director of Artillery and Stores recommended that two forts, [[Fort Widley]] in [[Portsmouth]] and Crownhill Fort, be armed with complete peacetime armaments. ThisNone explainsof the impressiveoriginal rangearmament ofsurvives but [[The Landmark Trust]] has reinstated several [[artillery]] onpieces showsimilar atto thethose that would have occupied Forts of fortthis todaykind.

However, fortresses soon became obsolete, dueDue to advancescontinual advancement in weaponry and warfare and many [[Victorian era|Victorian]] forts were abandoned by the army. Fortunately, Crownhill Fort wasn'tremained an [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|MOD]] site until 1986 and was instead used by many different [[infantry]] regiments as HQ Plymouth Garrison.

In the [[First World War]], Crownhill Fort was used as a recruitment and transport centre for troops being sent to the fronts in [[Turkey]] and [[Africa]]. It was then used as a de-mobilisation depot before becoming a base for the newly- created [[Royal Signals Corps]].

The last time Crownhill Fort was actively used in a military situationarmed was during the [[Second World War]], when [[anti-aircraft guns]] were positioned in the fort. Following the war, in the 1950s, it had a Gun Operations Room built on the parade ground, incorporating part of the Officers barrack. It then continued as a home for the 59 Independent Commando Squadron Royal Engineers until 1983, despatching 647 troops and 1,897 tonnes of war material during the [[Falklands War]] [http://www.palmerstonforts.org.uk/pdf/crown.pdf]. The fort was purchased 3 years later by the [[Landmark Trust]], who have restored Crownhill Fort to beas the best preserved example of Palmerston's forts. In completing this task, Landmark Trust have received much assistance from grant aid courtesy of the [[European Committee]], [[English Heritage]] and the [[Heritage Lottery Fund]].

===The Ditchditch===

The main fort is surrounded by a dry ditch, defendedhewn byfrom caponiers,the whichbedrock isand hewnflanked fromby solid rock[[caponier]]s. 200 000 tonnes of material had to be moved to create the ditch, which is 30 ft deep and 30 ft wide [https://web.archive.org/web/19991003184652/http://home.clara.net/sjtammadge/crwnhll.html].

===The Caponierscaponiers===

Crownhill Fort has six three-storey caponiers[[caponier]]s. The first floor was for infantrymen, the second was for gun casements each housing Smooth-Bore Breech-Loading guns and the third connects with the ''Chemin de Ronde'', the parapeted walkway circling the fort. The Northernnorth caponier is doublea full caponier because it points in two directions. The other five caponiers are demi-sidedcaponiers because they face in one direction only.

Crownhill Fort is famous for its collection of artillery. and its regularThe [[cannon]] firings,are designedmaintained toin representworking theorder lifeand ofare menfired basedon thereevent indays theto 1890s by followingrecreate the exactsounds gunand drillatmosphere of thea working dayfortress. In total, the fort has 32emplacements for 17 guns on its ramparts (including 5 [[François Nicolas Benoît, Baron Haxo|Haxo]] casements and 2 [[Disappearing gun|Moncrieff]] pits) and 15 in its caponiers. Some of the guns that can be found at Crownhill Fort include:

* a '''replica [[Disappearing gun|Moncrieff Counterweight Disappearing Gun]]''', the only one of its kindonly intwo theworking worldexamples – the carriage uses a unique counterweight system to rise above the parapet to fire and then descend in a controlled manner, powered by the recoil.

* two '''13-inch [[Mortar (weapon)|Mortars]]''', on loan from the [[Royal Armouries]], which were designed to fire 200-pound explosive shells. It is believed that they were used in the [[Crimean War]], against [[Russia]]

* 15two [[SBBL 32-pound pounder|32 Pounder smooth-bore]] [[Breech-loading weapon|breech-loading]] guns from the 1880s, designed to fire [[case shot]]

* two '''replica [[RBL 7 inch Armstrong gun|Armstrong 7-inch rifled breechloaders]]'''. These guns were first issued to the Navy in 1858, but were found to be not powerful enough, and so were sent instead to be mounted on the ramparts of land fortifications, such as Crownhill Fort.

* two muzzle-loading 32-poundpounder cannonguns, which were rescued from [[Tregantle Fort]] in [[Cornwall]], where they were being used as gatepostsbollards.

* a [[carronade]] made by the [[foundry]] Bailey, Pegg and Co Ltd, from [[Staffordshire]] that points towards the countermining gallery.

*[httphttps://www.crownhillfortlandmarktrust.coorg.uk/crownhill-fort/ Crownhill Fort official pages on Landmark Trust site]

[[Category:VisitorTourist attractions in Devon]]

[[Category:BuildingsPalmerston and structures in DevonForts]]

[[Category:Forts of Plymouth, Devon]]

[[Category:Military and war museums in England]]