Brean Down Fort sits on a spit of land jutting out into the Bristol Channel and is relatively deserted despite being next to a beach. The fort is owned by the National Trust but it’s free to enter and a great spot for a bit of exploring and enjoying the views.
Visiting Brean Down Fort
The fort is a lovely walk along a windswept headland, after climbing the steps to reach the top. There is a small car park at the bottom of the hill, near the steps and there is a cafe there too. Other than that it’s just a cliffside walk, usually battered by wind, with great views until you reach the fort at the far end.
My Experience
The walk up the steps to the top is quite exhilarating and once at the top, the headland stretches in front of you. The fort is at the far end and mostly hidden from view. When you get there it is a mix of a large Victorian barracks, magazines and gun sites with WW1 and WW2 defences added on.
There were a few information boards about the history of the fort and life for the garrison. The whole thing seemed just too fantastic, were the French really such a threat in the 1850’s that the navy couldn’t have dealt with anything they sent and for the vast cost of these forts how many ships could have been built?
Certainly for us this is an easy place to visit and a lovely day trip with the dogs. There is also the added benefit of letting them swim in the sea afterwards!
Brean Down Fort Photo Gallery
History
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 (18 cm) 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-pound (14 kg) charge of gunpowder able to fire a 112-pound (51 kg) Palliser shot at 1,560 feet (475 m) per second. This could pierce 8 inches (20 cm) of armour at 1,000 yards (910 m). It was proposed to replace the 7-inch (18 cm) guns with larger 9-inch (23 cm) versions in 1888 but this was never put into action. It had a large, underground, main gunpowder magazine, 15 feet (4.5 m) by 18 feet (5.5 m) by 20 feet (6.1 m) high. The fort was staffed by 50 officers and men of the Coast Brigade, Royal Artillery, but no shots were ever fired in action.
In 1897, following wireless transmissions from Lavernock Point in Wales and Flat Holm, Guglielmo Marconi moved his equipment to Brean Down and set a new distance record of 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) for wireless transmission over open sea. 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 (3 tonnes) 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 (183 m). 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.
It was then used as a café, owned by the Hillman family from at least 1907 until sold in 1936 to the ‘bird sanctuary people’.
World War II
On the outbreak of World War II the fort was rearmed with two six-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 north west 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 of 571st Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery, formed from Brean Down Fire Control in December 1941 and disbanded in April 1944.
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).
References
There is an excellent article on the fort at the abandoned places site here.
The National Trust site giving visitor information is here.
There’s a lot of information on walking around the fort on the walking the battlefield site here.
The history above is taken from the Wikipedia page here.