The history:
Shornemead Fort is a now-disused artillery fort that was built in the 1860s to guard the entrance to the Thames from seaborne attack. Constructed during a period of tension with France, it stands on the south bank of the river at a point where the Thames curves sharply north and west, giving the fort long views up and downriver in both directions. It was the third fort constructed on the site since the 18th century, but its location on marshy ground led to major problems with subsidence.
- from Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
The explore:
We started off our journey by visiting Cliffe Fort in the morning, which is on private land and inside an active quarry. Unfortunately, I did not go inside, as it is pretty badly flooded by the fences, although I did spot two possible entrance spots, so I might be going back (with waders of course).
(I have plenty of photos but not sure if this is report worthy! More of a recce if anything at all.)
Fast forward to our exploration to Shornemead fort. We drove thinking we could get all the way up to the fort but unfortunately there is a railway line at Higham that has to be crossed and the gates were locked. We then drove back round next to an industrial estate where the public footpath was. There seemed to be some kind of shooting going on. There were lots of signs to not proceed if the ‘red flags’ were raised, and wouldn’t you guess, of course, they were raised. Right when we thought we would have to turn back a very nice policeman got out of his SUV and said he would stop the shooting to allow us to cross. Now, I have no idea what kind of shooting this was, whether it was game, or training but I didn’t actually see anyone firing anything. If anyone has any information on this I’d love to know! Anyways, we made it across the path and were met by the other policeman who told us we could proceed.
And now, the fort!
en.wikipedia.org
Taken from the Wiki page - note the many casemates and older guns on the left-hand side.
The rest of the fort was disarmed by the early 20th century (sometime in the 1950s), and so the Sergeants Mess and Officers Mess, and all the rest of the buildings on the South side of the fort are no longer there.
This is a casemate, which is a structure from which a gun would be fixed. This is just one of the many emplacements for high-calibre artillery guns here.
"Shornemead Fort was initially equipped with eleven 11-inch rifled muzzle loaders (RMLs) in casemates, with a range of 5.5 km (3.4 mi), plus another three 9-inch RMLs in the west-facing open battery. They were mounted on special garrison carriages to absorb their recoil and could be trained using traverse rails to alter their direction of fire.[2][7] In 1895 two 6-pdr. quick-firing (QF) guns were installed on the fort; they were intended to protect a minefield that would be installed in the river in the event of war. Searchlights were also installed in separate emplacements to the west of the fort. Around the same time, a submarine mining establishment was constructed, also located to the west of the fort.[9]"
A view of what would have been the interior of the fort.
From the opposite side.
These are the old gun emplacements
Wide angle shot showcasing the great size of the fort. There were a lot of guns situated here!
The older guns would have been here on the left-hand side, and the newer ones on the right.
Thank you very much for reading.
I will be updating this properly when I return home so if it seems unfinished that is why.
Shornemead Fort is a now-disused artillery fort that was built in the 1860s to guard the entrance to the Thames from seaborne attack. Constructed during a period of tension with France, it stands on the south bank of the river at a point where the Thames curves sharply north and west, giving the fort long views up and downriver in both directions. It was the third fort constructed on the site since the 18th century, but its location on marshy ground led to major problems with subsidence.
- from Wikipedia
Shornemead Fort - Wikipedia
The explore:
We started off our journey by visiting Cliffe Fort in the morning, which is on private land and inside an active quarry. Unfortunately, I did not go inside, as it is pretty badly flooded by the fences, although I did spot two possible entrance spots, so I might be going back (with waders of course).
(I have plenty of photos but not sure if this is report worthy! More of a recce if anything at all.)
Fast forward to our exploration to Shornemead fort. We drove thinking we could get all the way up to the fort but unfortunately there is a railway line at Higham that has to be crossed and the gates were locked. We then drove back round next to an industrial estate where the public footpath was. There seemed to be some kind of shooting going on. There were lots of signs to not proceed if the ‘red flags’ were raised, and wouldn’t you guess, of course, they were raised. Right when we thought we would have to turn back a very nice policeman got out of his SUV and said he would stop the shooting to allow us to cross. Now, I have no idea what kind of shooting this was, whether it was game, or training but I didn’t actually see anyone firing anything. If anyone has any information on this I’d love to know! Anyways, we made it across the path and were met by the other policeman who told us we could proceed.
And now, the fort!
Shornemead Fort - Wikipedia
The rest of the fort was disarmed by the early 20th century (sometime in the 1950s), and so the Sergeants Mess and Officers Mess, and all the rest of the buildings on the South side of the fort are no longer there.
This is a casemate, which is a structure from which a gun would be fixed. This is just one of the many emplacements for high-calibre artillery guns here.
"Shornemead Fort was initially equipped with eleven 11-inch rifled muzzle loaders (RMLs) in casemates, with a range of 5.5 km (3.4 mi), plus another three 9-inch RMLs in the west-facing open battery. They were mounted on special garrison carriages to absorb their recoil and could be trained using traverse rails to alter their direction of fire.[2][7] In 1895 two 6-pdr. quick-firing (QF) guns were installed on the fort; they were intended to protect a minefield that would be installed in the river in the event of war. Searchlights were also installed in separate emplacements to the west of the fort. Around the same time, a submarine mining establishment was constructed, also located to the west of the fort.[9]"
A view of what would have been the interior of the fort.
From the opposite side.
These are the old gun emplacements
Wide angle shot showcasing the great size of the fort. There were a lot of guns situated here!
The older guns would have been here on the left-hand side, and the newer ones on the right.
Thank you very much for reading.
I will be updating this properly when I return home so if it seems unfinished that is why.
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