Ref Number: 00422
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Built to protect the Solent from invasion by French forces, the primary fortification began being built in 1852 and took a further 3 years before being completed in 1855.
Ref Number: 00422
Each barracks roof was equipped with six 32pr SB guns on movable platforms, allowing them to fire out to sea. More gun ports were built, but they were never used since the Defence Committee decided the fort no longer needed its weapons in 1876.
After that, the Royal Engineers made excellent use of the barracks by turning it into an underwater mining base. To the west of the fort is the site of an interesting experimental searchlight, built using a sea saw design in 1898 and still visible today.
The Royal Engineers left the fort in the early 1920s, and it served mostly as a quartemastering post until the 72nd Coast Training Regiment of the Royal Artillery and other training troops moved there just before D-Day.
Part of the fort was dismantled in the 1960s, but what remains is now used as a leisure and museum area, complete with a cafe, scenic walkways, and the offices of the maritime museum, model railway museum, observatory, and country side rangers.
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