Clifford's Fort
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Clifford's Fort was a defensive gun battery established near the mouth of the Tyne during the
Anglo-Dutch Wars The Anglo–Dutch Wars ( nl, Engels–Nederlandse Oorlogen) were a series of conflicts mainly fought between the Dutch Republic and England (later Great Britain) from mid-17th to late 18th century. The first three wars occurred in the second ...
in the 17th century. It subsequently served as a submarine mining depot and survives today as a
Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
in the historic Fish Quay area of
North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...
,
Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...
, in
North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...
.


History


17th century

The fort was built in 1672 at the start of the
Third Dutch War The Third Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Derde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog), 27 March 1672 to 19 February 1674, was a naval conflict between the Dutch Republic and England, in alliance with France. It is considered a subsidiary of the wider 1672 to 1678 ...
. An earlier fort had been established on or near the site some thirty years earlier (a somewhat temporary structure consisting of
gabions A gabion (from Italian ''gabbione'' meaning "big cage"; from Italian ''gabbia'' and Latin ''cavea'' meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building ...
: "baskets filled with sand and mortar, with guns placed between the baskets") but this had been destroyed in action in 1644. (It was paired with a similar fort on the south bank of the river, which had been established by the Marquis of Newcastle in 1642.) Named after Lord Clifford of Chudleigh ('Clifford of the Cabal'), the new fort was built to the designs of Anglo-Swedish engineer
Martin Beckman Sir Martin Beckman (1634/35–1702) was a draughtsman/painter, Swedish-English colonel, chief engineer and master gunner of England. Life Beckman was born in Stockholm, the son of Melcher Beckman and his wife Chistiana van Benningen. He left ...
. It consisted of a raised platform, walled and with a three storey
redoubt A redoubt (historically redout) is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, although some are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldi ...
, protecting a low riverside gun battery, defended to landward by a bastioned trace. It was initially armed with thirty cannons: twenty 20-pounders and ten 10-pounders. Clifford's Fort was, from its beginnings, associated with the long-established nearby defences of
Tynemouth Castle Tynemouth Castle is located on a rocky headland (known as Pen Bal Crag), overlooking Tynemouth Pier. The moated castle-towers, gatehouse and keep are combined with the ruins of the Benedictine priory where early kings of Northumbria were buri ...
, and the Governor of Tynemouth had oversight of the Fort through until 1839. By the time the fort was built, however, the castle had fallen into a ruinous state and the fort therefore took over as the main defender of the river. The building of the fort interfered with a lighthouse which had been established on the site by Trinity House of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1539, and this remained a point of contention in subsequent decades (not least because the force of the guns, when fired, damaged the lantern).


18th century

In the 18th century there was much reconstruction, and the current seaward walls of sandstone ashlar date from that time. By 1720 the redoubt had been reconstructed to serve as a barracks for a
company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
of Invalids (military veterans who helped man the guns), with a
gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications requ ...
in the basement (as shown on a map of 1720 now in the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
). The fort continued to be well-maintained; however the building of a new Governor's House in 1726 obscured the old Low Light, which had to be rebuilt the following year. In 1748 the fort reportedly had "thirty-six 18-pounder guns in three batteries, and a large store of powder within the tower".


19th century

The fort continued in use as a gun battery until the second half of the 19th century, when the building of the Tynemouth piers effectively rendered it obsolete. It was vacated in 1881, but in 1888 the fort became the headquarters of the newly-established Tyne Division Royal Engineers (Volunteers) Submarine Miners The division was one of a number of units around the country responsible for laying and maintaining fixed electro-mechanical mines as port defences. The mines were fired remotely by way of submarine cables, stored in three large tanks alongside the eastern wall of the fort. Several new buildings were established on the site at this time and the old tower or 'keep' was demolished in 1893. At the turn of the century a pair of 6-pounder quick firing guns were installed on the site to defend the minefield.


20th century

In 1907, responsibility for mines having been transferred from the
Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
to the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
, defensive submarine mining of ports was discontinued (though it was subsequently reinstated, here and elsewhere, for the duration of the First World War). The volunteers at Clifford's Fort were redesignated
Tyne Electrical Engineers The Tyne Electrical Engineers (TEE) is a Volunteer unit of the British Army that has existed under various titles since 1860. It has been the parent unit for a large number of units fulfilling specialist coastal and air defence roles in the Roya ...
and given the responsibility of maintaining searchlights for
coastal defence Coastal management is defence against flooding and erosion, and techniques that stop erosion to claim lands. Protection against rising sea levels in the 21st century is crucial, as sea level rise accelerates due to climate change. Changes in s ...
. The Electrical Engineers moved out of the fort in 1928, whereupon the site ceased to be a military installation and was acquired by the local authority. It was then given over to serve as a fish processing plant. Several buildings from the submarine mining era were converted at this time; the mine stores and a barrack block became
smokehouses A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.
The fort continued to function as an extension to the Fish Quay through the century, though as time went on its surviving fabric suffered, parts of the fortifications being demolished as buildings were added or extended. The
Master Gunner Master gunner is an appointment of the warrant officer rank in the British and United States armed forces. United Kingdom In the British Army's Royal Artillery master gunners are experts in the technical aspects of gunnery. They fill advisory ra ...
's house at the south-west corner of the site, dating from the mid-18th century, was demolished in 1973 to make way for a fish processing unit.


Present day

Starting in 2008 the remains of the fort were comprehensively restored: a number of modern buildings were removed and the moat was reinstated. In 2013 the fort was removed from the
Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...
; this followed a ÂŁ1 million refurbishment scheme, funded by
North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered ...
Council and the
Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
, which completed the restoration of the fort and brought unused buildings back into use (including the Old Low Light, which opened to the public in 2015 as a museum telling the history of the site).


References

{{coord, 55.0098, N, 1.4335, W, source:wikidata, display=title Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside Fortifications in England 17th-century forts in England North Shields