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Description: | A large late 18th century angled bastioned fort on Portsea Island situated on the site of a mid-18th century example. It is star shaped in plan with five bastions and a ravelin on its western side. The defences supported the main armament of the fort. It is stone-faced with a brick parapet, with earthworks covering casemates, located mainly on the western side of the fort. Four of the five lengths of curtain have central gates and the fifth - Land Curtain - is now piereced by a modern vehicle entrance. The flanks of the five bastions have embrasures to provide enfilading fire along the curtains. Beyond the ramparts on all but the western, landward, side is a dry ditch, the outer-face of which is brick-lined. The entrance in the left, seaward, curtain is approached by a road which crosses a place of arms and the ditch. The defences for this entrance were later strengthened by the construction of Pivot Battery housing a 10 inch RML gun. On the western side of the fort is a ravelin designed to cover approaches from the landward side. Beyond both ditch and ravelin is a glacis which partly survives. To the south of the ravelin a high angle fire battery was inserted into the glacis in the 1890s, necessitating the construction of an access tunnel from the ditch. The first fort on the site, named after the Duke of Cumberland, was constructed around 1747 in the form of an irregular pentagon with two principal bastions. Little of this first fort remains although the guardhouse and storeroom survive. The second fort, which remains largely intact, was built between 1785 and 1812 on the same site but to a different and larger plan. During the 1860s additional accommodation was added and in the 1890s the fort was modernised to take new breech loading guns. Although armed in 1902 as a coastal battery, it was armed with a Maxim gun for local defence in the First World War.The fort is now occupied by the Centre for Archaeology, which includes the Ancient Monuments Laboratory. | Subjects: | Defence Industrial Maritime Laboratory Star Fort Bastion Outwork Coastal Battery Education Glacis Storehouse Fort Guardhouse Office | Source: | English Heritage - Viewfinder | Creator: | National Monuments Record | Identifier: | http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk... | Language: | en | Go to resource |
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