Slough Fort
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Slough Fort is a small artillery fort that was built at Allhallows-on-Sea in the north of the
Hoo Peninsula The Hoo Peninsula is a peninsula in Kent, England, separating the estuaries of the rivers Thames and Medway. It is dominated by a line of chalk, clay and sand hills, surrounded by an extensive area of marshland composed of alluvial silt. The n ...
in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. Constructed in 1867, the D-shaped fort was intended to guard a vulnerable stretch of the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
against possible enemy landings during a period of tension with
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. Its seven
casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...
s initially accommodated rifled breech loading guns, which were replaced by the turn of the century by more powerful breech-loaders on disappearing carriages, mounted in concrete wing batteries on either side of the fort. It was likely one of the smallest of the forts constructed as a result of the 1860s invasion scare. All of the guns were removed by 1912, though the fort continued in use during the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
as a command post. It was decommissioned in 1920 and sold off in 1929. Since the 1960s, it has been used as a stables adjoining a holiday camp. The camp's owners funded a partial restoration in 2012–13 that uncovered previously buried features of the fort.


Strategic context

The fort was constructed in response to a naval arms race between Britain and France. Britain's coastal defences had not been substantially upgraded since the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
, but a new generation of accurate and powerful guns, mounted on fast-moving, manoueuvrable iron-clad warships, had rendered obsolete the existing 18th and early 19th century forts along the British coastline. The Thames was seen as particularly vulnerable; as well as being one of the country's most important trade routes, it possessed several naval installations of great importance, including the victualling yards at
Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...
, the armaments works of Woolwich Arsenal, the shipbuilding yards at
North Woolwich North Woolwich is an area in the London Borough of Newham in East London. It is located on the northern bank of the River Thames, across the river from Woolwich. It is connected to Woolwich by the Woolwich Ferry and Woolwich foot tunnel. Des ...
, and the magazines at
Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater Lond ...
. The government's response to the increased threat was to appoint a
Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom The Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom was a committee formed in 1859 to enquire into the ability of the United Kingdom to defend itself against an attempted invasion by a foreign power, and to advise the British Government on ...
, which published a far-reaching report in 1860. It recommended that many existing forts should be upgraded or rebuilt entirely, and that new forts should be constructed to guard particularly strategic or vulnerable points along the coast. In all, around 70 forts and batteries were constructed around the English coast as a result of the Royal Commission's report. Slough Fort was probably one of the smallest of these.


Construction

The position of Slough Fort (which took its name from the now-disappeared farmsteads of Upper and Lower Slough, just west of the fort) was dictated by its position on a ridge overlooking a slope leading down to the riverside. It was the only point along a fourteen-mile stretch of the river between Cliffe to the west and
Grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
to the east where a landing could be effected, due to the marshes along the rest of the shoreline. A fort situated at that point could thus provide an effective defence against an enemy attempting to land here. It also served to fill the gap between the upriver forts ( Cliffe, Coalhouse and Shornemead) and those at the mouth of the Medway (
Grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
and
Garrison Point Garrison Point is a promontory and historically significant urban park located near the junction of Georges River and Prospect Creek. The parkland may be accessed off Henry Lawson Drive, in the south-western Sydney suburb of , in the Ci ...
). As an 1869 report noted, the fort was constructed "to prevent an enemy landing at the only accessible point for the purpose of attacking
Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century, ...
from the north". The land for the fort was bought by the
War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
in 1861 for £1,639, but it was not built until 1867. The estimated cost of constructing the fort was reported in 1869 to be £27,343 (equivalent to £ today). It took the form of a semicircular arc of seven casemates facing the river with a defensive ditch in front. Each casemate was faced in granite with magazines below providing ammunition via hoist shafts. A defensible block constructed of Kentish ragstone closed off the arc and provided the fort's domestic accommodation. The fort's main entrance is at the centre of the defensible block. A small stone-paved parade ground occupied the centre of the fort. After it was built, the ground behind the fort was raised and made into a
glacis A glacis (; ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in bastion fort, early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More genera ...
. On the roof of the fort, accessed from the ground level by two spiral staircases, there was an observation post protected by a
banquette A banquette is a small footpath or elevated step along the inside of a rampart or parapet of a fortification. Musketeers atop it were able to view the counterscarp, or fire on enemies in the moat. A typical size is a foot and a half (approximate ...
(an elevated step to facilitate rifle fire against attackers at close range).


Operational history

Slough Fort was initially armed with seven 7-inch rifled breech loaders (RBLs) positioned in the casemates. It was manned by three officers, one NCO and 75 other ranks. Between October 1889 and December 1891, a pair of wing batteries were constructed from concrete on either side of the fort, with a range finder position being added to the fort's roof. The new batteries accommodated two 9.2-inch and two 6-inch breech loaders on disappearing mountings, allowing them to recess below ground level once they had fired. These were much more powerful and longer ranged weapons than the old RBLs and were capable of engaging a battleship at a substantial distance. The old RBLs were removed. The structure of the fort underwent substantial changes around this time. The casemates, which were now vulnerable to the more powerful artillery that had been developed since they were built, were covered almost up to roof level by an earthen glacis. Their interiors were also partly infilled with rubble, as was the defensive ditch in front of the casemates, providing additional protection against enemy fire as it helped to camouflage the structure. Two light quick-firing guns with ammunition lockers were installed on the fort's roof to guard against small, fast-moving threats such as
torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s. The rest of the fort remained intact but was now used as a barracks for the wing batteries. Three of the truncated casemates were converted into married quarters, one became officers' quarters and the final three were used by the men. An additional set of detached quarters for a Warrant Officer and a small detachment of Royal Engineers was constructed to the south-east of the fort, along with barrack stores. Two new 9.2-inch guns were installed in 1906 in the western wing battery. They were mounted on
barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...
s, enabling them to recoil along their axis and so delivering a much faster rate of fire. One 9.2-inch and one 6-inch gun on a disappearing mounting remained in the eastern wing battery before being removed in 1907. During the war the fort was used as a Battery Command Post operating in conjunction with a Port War Signal Station located to the fort's east, which was responsible for monitoring all shipping entering or leaving the Thames. The remaining two 9.2-inch guns were removed in 1917 and reinstalled at Fletcher Battery, a newly built position on the
Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derived ...
. The Army discontinued the use of the fort in 1920 and in 1929 it was sold off and converted into a small zoo. It saw one further period of military usage during and immediately before the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
; it was used as an observation post from 1938, became part of the local anti-invasion system in 1939–40 and was used as part of the air defence network against
V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...
s in 1944. After the war it belonged to the Allhallows Estate Company before passing to Strood Rural District Council. Plans were advanced to demolish it but the cost proved prohibitive. It was instead converted into a riding stables in the early 1960s.


Current status

Slough Fort is well-preserved and still substantially intact, though it has suffered some damage over the years (notably the loss of the outermost gun position of the left wing battery) and is surrounded on three sides by the caravans of the Allhallows Leisure Park.
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...
designated it as a Grade II*
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
in 2009 in recognition of its unusually good state of preservation and for the way that it embodies "both technological developments in armaments and coastal defence during the late-C19 to early-C20 as well as the changing views of the perceived defensive need on the north Kent coast at this time." The wing batteries have been listed separately, also since 2009, as a
scheduled 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 recognition of their rarity. The fort is currently privately owned and continues to be used as a stables; the casemates are used as stalls for the horses. The main body of the fort is not accessible to the public, but Bourne Leisure, the owners of the adjoining Allhallows Leisure Park, have funded a partial restoration. The wing batteries have been cleared of thousands of tons of accumulated debris, a walking trail linking them has been laid out and interpretative signs have been installed for the benefit of visitors to show how the fort once appeared and how it functioned when it was in use. The Slough Fort Preservation Trust is working to repair the fort and increase public access.


References

{{reflist, 2


External links


Slough Fort Preservation Trust
Forts in Kent Palmerston Forts Forts on the River Thames Coastal fortifications