History
The battery at Shotley point was constructed between 1862 and 1863 as a part of the royal commission to defend the United Kingdom. There was plan for a much larger fort but was later scrapped for a battery to compliment the two original Martello towers which where constructed somewhere between 1808 and 1812.
The site is placed above the port of Felixstowe and was originally armed with fourteen, 68 pound guns. Later on they were replaced with seven inch muzzle loading guns and two 10 inch long range guns.
In 1902 a navy hospital was established on the grounds but it was transferred to H.M.S Ganges in 1904 to train boys of 15+ in basic seamanship, the guns at the battery were later dismantled in 1911 and some of the battery was demolished to make way for accommodation blocks.
Explore
After a failed trip with a friend and my misses in the middle of the night to see the battery and the swimming pool which resulted in us scrambling round in the the dark through brambles and the misses nearly breaking her ankle I decided to take a drive over to Shotley one afternoon and after a short reccy of the site I found a way in relatively easy.
My first stop was one of the Martello towers which is surrounded by thorns and brambles but there is a path right up to the ladder which seemed pretty sturdy after a short climb to the first level and thinking I was going to be blown off the thing lol I went to get my camera from my bag just to realise I hadn’t charged it from my last trip, thank god for modern technology lol after a breather I decided to have a climb back down to have a look in the door way and bottom of the tower.
The sun was starting to set so I made my way toward the battery it’s hard to imagine what the battery would of looked like when it was first constructed. The first part of the battery I came to was the store room and the subterranean magazine which is quite small but cool to see nonetheless.
I then went to the main battery and walked through all that is left of it and for some reason there were hundreds of used shotgun cartridges in the tunnel and the surrounding area which I couldn’t get my head round, I’m going to go back for a full explore of H.M.S Ganges in the next few weeks if any other local explorers fancy tagging along!
Thanks for reading my first report.
The battery at Shotley point was constructed between 1862 and 1863 as a part of the royal commission to defend the United Kingdom. There was plan for a much larger fort but was later scrapped for a battery to compliment the two original Martello towers which where constructed somewhere between 1808 and 1812.
The site is placed above the port of Felixstowe and was originally armed with fourteen, 68 pound guns. Later on they were replaced with seven inch muzzle loading guns and two 10 inch long range guns.
In 1902 a navy hospital was established on the grounds but it was transferred to H.M.S Ganges in 1904 to train boys of 15+ in basic seamanship, the guns at the battery were later dismantled in 1911 and some of the battery was demolished to make way for accommodation blocks.
Explore
After a failed trip with a friend and my misses in the middle of the night to see the battery and the swimming pool which resulted in us scrambling round in the the dark through brambles and the misses nearly breaking her ankle I decided to take a drive over to Shotley one afternoon and after a short reccy of the site I found a way in relatively easy.
My first stop was one of the Martello towers which is surrounded by thorns and brambles but there is a path right up to the ladder which seemed pretty sturdy after a short climb to the first level and thinking I was going to be blown off the thing lol I went to get my camera from my bag just to realise I hadn’t charged it from my last trip, thank god for modern technology lol after a breather I decided to have a climb back down to have a look in the door way and bottom of the tower.
The sun was starting to set so I made my way toward the battery it’s hard to imagine what the battery would of looked like when it was first constructed. The first part of the battery I came to was the store room and the subterranean magazine which is quite small but cool to see nonetheless.
I then went to the main battery and walked through all that is left of it and for some reason there were hundreds of used shotgun cartridges in the tunnel and the surrounding area which I couldn’t get my head round, I’m going to go back for a full explore of H.M.S Ganges in the next few weeks if any other local explorers fancy tagging along!
Thanks for reading my first report.
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