Shoreham Fort: A Victorian Coastal Defence at Shoreham Harbour
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- British
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page13 sections
History
Shoreham Fort is a military defensive structure in the United Kingdom, located at the entrance to Shoreham Harbour at Shoreham-by-Sea, where the River Adur meets the sea in West Sussex. Planned during the political alarm of the 1850s and completed in June 1857, it was a Victorian coastal fortification built at a cost of £11,685. Also known as Shoreham Redoubt, Old Fort, or Kingston Redoubt, it is now a scheduled monument, a nationally protected archaeological or historic site under United Kingdom heritage law.
Planning and Victorian service
The fort’s design was similar to Littlehampton Fort, which had been built in 1854. Shoreham Fort was intended to defend the approach to the harbour from the sea. Its original armament comprised six 68-pounder guns mounted on traversing platforms, allowing the guns to be aimed across a wider arc.
The 1st Sussex Artillery Volunteers, a Victorian volunteer artillery unit responsible for manning defensive guns, garrisoned the fort. Their shooting won a prize for accuracy in 1865. A military review in 1873, however, judged the original guns obsolete and the construction inadequate. The review also noted that the defences faced the sea while leaving the fort vulnerable to attack from land. It recommended a stronger nearby fort, but that proposal was never carried out. By 1886, the armament had been replaced by two 80-pounder guns and three 64-pounder guns.
Twentieth-century transformations
In the early twentieth century, Shoreham Fort was used as an open-air studio for silent films. Four films were made there in 1914, giving the military site a brief role in the developing film industry.
During the Second World War, the fort became part of an emergency coastal battery equipped with aiming lights and two 6-inch guns. After the war, its barrack block was demolished, and a coastguard tower was built on the gun platform. West Sussex County Council restored the site in 1977 and 1978. Further restoration has since been undertaken by the Friends of Shoreham Fort.
In March and April 2014, a First World War Nissen hut was transferred from a site near Chichester and rebuilt on one of the fort’s former hut bases. A Nissen hut is a prefabricated corrugated-metal military shelter developed during the First World War. Historic England, the public body responsible for protecting England’s historic environment, confirmed through a dedicated project that it was the last usable First World War Nissen hut in the country. In September 2020, the Friends of Shoreham Fort built a memorial training trench for people who trained locally before leaving for France during the First World War. The Imperial War Museum has listed the trench as an official war memorial.
Remains
Shoreham Fort has the form of a lunette, a crescent-shaped fortification with straight sides. Its gun platform stands 15 feet, or 4.6 metres, above sea level. The platform and ramparts are enclosed by a ditch, while defensive positions and surviving later features show how the fort’s military functions changed over time.
Fortifications and gun positions
Gun platform and ramparts
The restored gun platform occupies the elevated centre of the fort. During the Second World War, two 6-inch guns were installed in emplacements constructed on top of the terreplein, the level area behind a rampart or parapet used for artillery or other military equipment. The platform remains part of the visible restored structure, together with the surrounding ramparts.
Ditch and Carnot wall
The ditch surrounds the gun platform and ramparts. A Carnot wall runs along its centre, pierced by loopholes through which defenders could fire at attackers crossing the ditch. The restored ditch and wall remain viewable as part of the fort’s defensive layout.
Caponiers
Brick-roofed caponiers occupy each of the three wall angles. A caponier is a covered defensive position projecting into or across a ditch, enabling defenders to fire along it. The central caponier straddles the ditch and connects with the fort through a tunnel beneath the gun platform and ramparts. The eastern and western caponiers also served as latrines.
Barracks and later features
Barrack block
The barrack block at the rear of the fort accommodated 38 men. Although the building was demolished after the Second World War, its foundations and parts of the parade ground remain identifiable.
Aiming-light station
A Second World War aiming-light station stands outside the fort to the east. National Coastwatch Institution volunteers use it to observe the nearby harbour entrance and sea approaches. The National Coastwatch Institution is a volunteer organisation that monitors the United Kingdom’s coastal waters and approaches.
Nissen hut
The Nissen hut transferred from near Chichester was reconstructed on an existing hut base within the fort. It serves as an education centre and display space, preserving a prefabricated military building alongside the nineteenth-century defences.
Memorial training trench
The training trench built in 2020 forms a memorial feature within the site. It was created for educational use in memory of people who trained in the local area before departing for France during the First World War, and it is listed by the Imperial War Museum as an official war memorial.
