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HISTORICAL/MILITARY FEATURES OF THE FORTCasematesThe Fort was designed to hold seven cannons, and so is built with seven large arched and vaulted areas on it's main floor, each of them a casemate for one cannon. Four of the casemates are facing along the cliffs, beaches and shallow waters of Whitsand Bay, and comprise the four linked arches of the main Napoleonic Hall, which is in it's original layout. The three further casemates face slightly more out to sea, and though they were originally linked, each is now a separate bedroom comprising the two Emperor Suites and one Admiral's room (with four-poster bed). EmbrasuresAll of the rooms of the Fort, except for the kitchen, face the sea. The principal windows of the Fort are the massively constructed embrasures for the cannons: there are also many secondary windows which were originally musketry ports for small arms defence; and, it has to be admitted, several windows to the rear that were actually intended as windows. DrawbridgeThe main entrance to the Fort is at roof level across a unique drawbridge that pivots in the middle. This operates in effect through a quick release mechanism, which could be operated by a single soldier in a moment if under surprise attack (to which the Fort was quite vulnerable, being set into the hillside). This drawbridge was fully restored by John Wicksteed in 1992 and is locked for safety purposes. Murder SlotThere is a curious construction on the North end of the Fort comprising two substantial arches formed into the stonework and a sloping wall underneath. The upper arch, set into the eight-foot thick wall, is to enable the wall beneath to be angled so that the musketry slots set into it can face directly down the dry moat below, which runs out to the cliff face. Beneath this there is another substantial arch, with a sloping wall running down into the bottom of the dry moat. At the top of the sloping wall can be seen a slot behind the arch, which was originally open into the Fort. This was to enable the defending soldiers to fire down upon any attackers who had managed to get to the bottom of the wall of the Fort, and thus prevent them from mining the walls, or gathering beneath the limited range of the musketry slots for an attack. Generally where this feature is found, it is in the form of a hole (a Murder Hole), rather than a long slot. Spiral StaircaseThe main entrance into the Fort from the drawbridge is down a beautifully cut granite spiral staircase. An interesting feature of this is whether it winds in the wrong direction! An important feature of ancient spiral staircases is to wind in such a direction that the defenders, who were generally defending from above, could have their sword arms (or muskets) on the outside of the spiral, to give them the most room as they faced their attackers. Since this was obviously most normally the right hand side, it means that most spiral staircases wind down in an anti-clockwise direction. The main spiral staircase of the Fort (and its twin at the other end of the fort) do wind down in this direction, but one might assume that in a surprise attack the enemy would be coming from above: ie, they would have the advantage of the anti-clockwise wind of the spiral. A possible explanation for this is that it could be said to demonstrate that the military strategy would dictate that the defenders regard the roof level as their main retreat, and would maintain an escape route up there - having much earlier raised the drawbridge - and thus defend themselves from above, rather than below. Cannon A genuine 24-pounder "Blomefield" design cannon dating from around 1809 is now on view in the Fort grounds. This cannon would have seen service in Napoleon Bonaparte's time and quite possibly spent its active life on a ship of the line. It is in near perfect condition, and has a beautiful George III crest on the top. The Fort would have been built with this sort of cannon in mind, though if it were ever armed, which is a matter for academic dispute, it would have been with a similar cannon, a 32/64 pounder, with a bore about half an inch wider. These cannons were originally 32 pounders, ie they were originally made to fire cannon balls weighing 32 pounds in weight. They then had their muzzles bored out to put in a rifling sleeve. This restored the original bore of 6.25", and thus enabled use of the original 32-pound cannon balls. But it also enabled them to fire the latest 64 pound exploding shells, since these had brass studs to fit the rifling and so spin the shell as it left the cannon, leading to far greater accuracy and penetration. Cannon racer railsIn all the sitting room and the upper bedrooms can still be found the original circular cannon front racer rings just inside the embrasures (front windows). The rear racer rings have long been removed, though one has been found in the garden. Where these used to be has been picked out in subtle form by quarry tiles embedded into the heavy granite blocks set into the floor. The Dangerous areasThe construction of the Fort is massive. With its foundations cut into solid rock, internal wall three feet thick, ceilings with a minimum thickness of six feet, and outer wall no less than eight feet thick, it was built entirely from solid masonry. All structural support throughout is of arched and vaulted brickwork. One area however did have a wooden floor: this comprised the Magazine Room (for storage of gunpowder), the Shell Filling Room, and the changing room for soldiers (this is now one of the Cabin-Boy's bedrooms). Unusually for the time, these rooms were built into the main Fort structure. . Everything about this part of the Fort was designed to minimise the risk of sparks and accidental explosion. All the door hinges were made of brass instead of the wrought iron found elsewhere. The area was locked and shut off. In order to approach this locked-off area, the soldiers had to enter the changing room first to remove their boots and put on special slippers as well as replacing any metal bearing parts of their uniform with smocks. The Lighting RoomAn important and very dangerous element of ancient fortifications was that the stored gunpowder and explosives were always kept in deep, protected, and thereby dark areas. Since the only way that these volatile areas could be lit was by flame-based lamps, a critical design factor was to help prevent accidental explosion from within. In the lower corridors of the Fort can be seen glass-fronted cupboards set into the stone-work: these were to contain oil-lamps, and each has a grill above for ventilation of the fumes. In the most critically dangerous area - the shell-filling room, and the magazine (for storing explosives) there are several of these cupboards which can be approached from the inside via a small shut-in corridor - the so-called lighting room. The soldier (no doubt a "volunteer") had to shut himself into this corridor before lighting up the lamps that faced out onto the dangerous areas. The MagazineIn this wooden floored area lies the Magazine, which was for storing all the gunpowder and explosives for the fort. This room now has the only truly original door in the fort, complete with its special bronze hinges for minimal friction. This room, although built with the same limestone as the rest of the Fort has an inner lining of brick wall with openings for ventilation. Prisoners' WritingsIt appears that the windowless Magazine was used as a prison cell for errant soldiers at the beginning of the First World War, since the brick wall lining still has the original military white paint dating from early this century and clear pencil writings of prisoners protesting their lot. Some of these writings are dated, and factual - a recording of why they were put in there: "Pte C Stevenson, of no fixed abode charged with loitering around some bread and cheese on the seabeach." Others are not so easily distinguished between sycophancy and sarcasm "There is only one gentleman in D Company and that is Captian (sic) Brock" and "Are we down Hearted no life in the dungeon is wonderful." This room now contains the Fort's central heating boiler and hot water tank, and although the warmth and machinery belie the cold and rather frightening place it used to be, the writings still look as if they had been put there yesterday. Ready Use cupboardsAs well as the Magazine there was always the need for storage of ammunition near to the cannons themselves. One such cupboard is by the stairs at the far end of the Fort, another just under the entrance spiral stairs. One that is no longer obvious as such is a much larger one that was built into the angle where the fort's two faces meet, and is now the bathroom to the master bedroom. Musket/rifle wall bracketsOn some of the supporting walls of what is now the sitting room there can still be seen wooden pieces set into the stonework. These were effectively an old-fashioned system of wall plugs, as they provided a fixing point for the wall brackets, which held the muskets and rifles - again for Ready Use. CaponnierA caponnier is a room or corridor with musketry or small arms gun slots, which faces onto and thereby protects dry moats. The Fort originally had two. The lower one is now a single bedroom, and one has to pass through the eight feet thick wall of the main fort to enter. The other is less obvious, since it is now the kitchen on the main floor, and in earlier times some of the stonework which forms the musketry slots has been removed to make windows (two of these large stones have been re-used recently to make the fireplace in the main sitting room): a doorway was also put in. The origin of the word "caponnier" is said to have derived from the idea that the soldiers inside could easily shoot any enemy trapped in the moats just as they pleased, and were effectively in a position to reduce them to capons. Heavy shutters and locking bars There are two sets
of distinctive shutters in the Fort - large folding ones to cover the
windows at the rear of the Fort, and straight hinged ones to cover the
windows of the lower bedrooms at the front of the Fort. These are all
faced with heavy iron plate, and have small slits at the bottom for
taking the odd potshot at any passing enemy. Bomb-proofed roof.It is interesting to note that on top of the immensely strong seven arched casemates, there is a further four-foot thickness of ballast topped with a waterproofing layer of tarmac. This soft thickness was to prevent the impact of dropped mortars or the bombs of the day from destroying the casemates if lobbed over to land from above. Anti-scaling corbel and Musketry Steps There is a rounded
stonework corbel projecting nearly 12 inches which runs along all the
walls of the Fort at the height of the top decking. This was to prevent
scaling ladders with wheels on the ends from being run up the walls
by attackers. |
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