Calshot Castle
Calshot Castle | |
---|---|
Device Fort | |
Site information | |
Owner | Hampshire County Council |
Controlled by | English Heritage |
Official name | Calshot Castle: a 16th century artillery castle |
Designated | 31 December 1987 |
Reference no. | 1014619 |
Open to the public | Yes |
Site history | |
Materials | Portland stone |
Calshot Castle is an artillery fort constructed by
During the
History
16th century
Construction
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Calshot_Castle%2C_Hampshire_1539_almost_true.jpg/220px-Calshot_Castle%2C_Hampshire_1539_almost_true.jpg)
Calshot Castle was built as a consequence of international tensions between England,
In 1533, Henry broke with Pope
Calshot Castle was designed to protect the
The castle initially had a garrison of eight gunners, five soldiers and a lieutenant, under the command of a captain.[9] In the late 1540s, it was heavily armed by the standards of the time, with 36 pieces of artillery.[9] In the 1580s, the castle caught fire and the timber needed for the repairs required 127 trees to be sent from the New Forest.[11] The work was carried out in 1584, prompted by the threat of a Spanish invasion, but by that time its garrison had shrunk to eight men.[9]
17th–19th centuries
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Calshot_Castle%2C_1895_battery_map.png/220px-Calshot_Castle%2C_1895_battery_map.png)
In the early 1600s, England was at peace with France and Spain and coastal defences received little attention.
The castle was modernised in the 1770s with a new parapet around the central keep, alterations to the gun embrasures around the outer wall and an expansion of the gatehouse with an additional set of rooms for the castle's captain.[16] Reports in 1793, however, showed the castle's guns to be in a poor condition and complained that the fortification was under the command of an infirm, elderly master-gunner.[17] Improvements were probably made at the start of the Revolutionary Wars that year, but in 1809 the geographer James Playfair described the castle as merely "a blockhouse with a garrison".[18] In 1804, the castle was used to store munitions for the Sea Fencibles, fishing boats used as volunteer naval vessels to counter the threat of a French invasion.[19] Seven guns were added to the castle's arsenal to protect against French attack.[19]
With the end of the
During the 1880s, concerns were raised that Southampton might be vulnerable to French attack using small ships armed with torpedoes.[23] As a result, in 1894 the War Office took the castle back from the coastguard, building a boom across Southampton Water which was moved using three gunboats.[24] The 16th-century castle was too small to host a gun battery to protect the boom, so a larger battery was built south of the old castle in 1895, armed with two 4.7-inch (120 mm) and four 12-pounder (5.4 kg) quick-firing guns, supported by three searchlights mounted on the older castle walls.[25] The boom was managed from two towers called "dolphins", one just beside the castle and the other on the far side of the water, each with two 12-pounder quick-firing guns of their own, in turn supported by machine guns.[26] The creation of these defences ultimately forced the nearby yacht club to move to the southern end of the spit.[22]
1900–45
In the first years of the 20th century, Calshot Castle's defensive role continued unchanged. The castle's keep was redesigned in 1907 to allow it to house two of the castle's quick-firing guns on its roof.[27] A new, lighter "ladder" boom across Southampton Water was installed in 1907, but within two years this approach had been replaced by a plan to block Southampton Water with a boom made up of floating hulks.[28] A 1910 plan proposed that the castle would be garrisoned in wartime by 10 officers and 154 men, 75 of whom would have to be housed nearby rather than in the fort itself; additional naval personnel would also have been needed to man the support vessels for the boom.[29] A Royal Naval Air Station was built alongside the castle in 1913 to house twelve experimental seaplanes which were intended to support the Royal Naval fleet operating along the Channel.[30] Calshot was particularly suitable for seaplanes, as the surrounding waters and coastline were relatively quiet and calm.[31]
The
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Gloster_VI.jpg/220px-Gloster_VI.jpg)
During the inter-war years Calshot was taken over by the Royal Air Force, becoming RAF Calshot. It was used as the School for Naval Co-operation and Aerial Navigation from 1918 onwards and began housing the Seaplane Training Squadron in 1931.[38] The 1895 battery was demolished to create additional space for the growing station, and a narrow-gauge railway constructed along the spit.[39] Parts of the castle moat were concreted over to provide parking for planes.[35] Calshot twice hosted the Schneider Trophy air races over the Solent, the last two in the sequence of popular international events designed to encourage the development of new, high-speed technology.[33] The Empire Air Day events were also held at Calshot, attracting 1,000 visitors in 1935.[40]
During the
1945–21st century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Red_Funnel_Ferry_from_Calshot_Castle%2C_Hampshire_-_geograph.org.uk_-_726656.jpg/220px-Red_Funnel_Ferry_from_Calshot_Castle%2C_Hampshire_-_geograph.org.uk_-_726656.jpg)
After the war, Calshot returned to duty as an active air base, housing two squadrons of
English Heritage took over management of the castle in 1983, and stripped back 20th-century additions to present it as it might have appeared in 1914, including demolishing the old signal station tower.[49] The site remains open to visitors and received 5,751 visitors in 2010.[50] The castle is protected under UK law as a Grade II* listed building and as a scheduled monument,[51] but its coastal position means it is at risk from erosion or changing sea levels caused by climate change.[52] The air station's former hangars are still used as a recreation centre by Hampshire County Council.[53]
Architecture
Calshot Castle is a three-storey, circular fortification, comprising a keep, gatehouse and curtain wall, predominantly constructed of ashlar Portland stone.[54] When first built in the 16th century, it was designed to carry three tiers of artillery: two positioned on the second floor and the roof of the central keep, and the third in the outer curtain wall.[9] Additional guns could have been placed on the roof of the gatehouse and on the first floor of the keep.[9] Historic England considers it to form a "well preserved example" of the Device Forts.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Calshot_Castle_plan_labelled.png/220px-Calshot_Castle_plan_labelled.png)
The castle is surrounded by a water-filled, 16-sided moat, 8.8 metres (29 ft) across, accessed over a 20th-century bridge[51] into the gatehouse, an 18th-century design based on a simpler 16th-century original.[55] The gatehouse was altered in 1896, with the addition of brick-built ancillary buildings to the southern end.[55] It was probably intended to provide additional living space for the garrison.[56] The gatehouse leads into what was originally a 16-sided courtyard with 15 gun embrasures round the curtain wall.[57] The wall was lowered to its current height in the 1770s and a concrete building to house searchlights, dating from 1896, now stretches along the southern end of the castle.[57]
In the centre of the castle is the keep, which has an external diameter of 16 metres (52 ft), an octagonal lower storey and circular walls on the upper levels.
The first floor of the keep has been restored to its early 20th-century appearance as a barracks room.[58] The second floor was redeveloped in the late 19th century to form another barracks room, with its ceiling incorporating additional early 20th-century girders and concrete to support the gun battery above it.[60] The roof of the keep has two 12-pounder gun mounts with their original gun-lockers; there is a 12-pounder gun on display originally used on a Royal Naval vessel.[60] The keep's roof would originally have been flat, with crenellations for artillery, but both the roof and crenellations were removed in the 1770s.[58]
See also
Notes
References
- ^ a b "Calshot Castle: A 16th Century Artillery Castle", Historic England, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ Thompson 1987, p. 111; Hale 1983, p. 63
- ^ King 1991, pp. 176–177
- ^ Morley 1976, p. 7
- ^ Hale 1983, p. 63; Harrington 2007, p. 5
- ^ Morley 1976, p. 7; Hale 1983, pp. 63–64
- ^ Hale 1983, p. 66; Harrington 2007, p. 6
- ^ Harrington 2007, p. 11; Walton 2010, p. 70
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Coad 2013, p. 11
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 12
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 12; Coad 2006, p. 105
- ^ Harrington 2007, p. 49; Saunders 1989, pp. 70–71
- ^ Godwin 1904, p. 6
- ^ Lawrence H. Officer; Samuel H. Williamson (2014), "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present", MeasuringWorth, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ Godwin 1904, p. 30; Coad 2013, p. 12
- ^ Coad 2006, p. 105; Coad 2013, p. 14
- ^ Coad 2006, p. 105
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 14; Playfair 1809, p. 26.
- ^ a b Coad 2006, p. 106
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 17; Coad 2006, pp. 106–107
- ^ a b Coad 2006, pp. 106–107
- ^ a b Anonymous (1907), "Castle Yacht Club", National Maritime Museum, Cornwall, archived from the original on 2 October 2015, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ a b Coad 2006, p. 109
- ^ Coad 2006, pp. 109–110
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 18; Coad 2006, pp. 109–110
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 19; Coad 2006, pp. 109–110
- ^ a b c d Coad 2006, p. 110
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 19; Coad 2006, p. 110
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 20; Coad 2006, p. 110
- ^ Coad 2013, pp. 20–22
- ^ Coad 2006, pp. 110, 112
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 19
- ^ a b Coad 2013, p. 22; Coad 2006, p. 112
- ^ Sutherland & Canwell 2010, p. 226; "Calshot Seaplane Base", Transport Trust, archived from the original on 10 October 2015, retrieved 3 October 2015
- ^ a b Coad 2006, p. 112
- ^ Coad 2006, p. 112; Sutherland & Canwell 2010, p. 226
- ^ a b c Coad 2013, p. 22
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 22; Sutherland & Canwell 2010, p. 226
- ^ Coad 2006, pp. 112–113
- ^ Sutherland & Canwell 2010, p. 227
- ^ Coad 2006, p. 112; Sutherland & Canwell 2010, p. 228
- ^ Coad 2013, pp. 22, 24
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 24; Coad 2006, p. 113; Sutherland & Canwell 2010, p. 228
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 24; Coad 2006, p. 113; Sutherland & Canwell 2010, p. 228; "Calshot Seaplane Base", Transport Trust, archived from the original on 10 October 2015, retrieved 3 October 2015
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 24; Coad 2006, p. 113; "Southampton Port Operations" (PDF), Southampton Branch, World Ship Society, archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2015, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 24; Coad 2006, p. 113
- ^ Chapple 2014, p. 77; "Southampton Port Operations" (PDF), Southampton Branch, World Ship Society, archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2015, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ Coad 2006, p. 113; "Southampton Port Operations" (PDF), Southampton Branch, World Ship Society, archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2015, retrieved 10 October 2015; "Restored Watchtower Looking for Sea Loving Volunteers", Southern Daily Echo, 19 January 2010, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 24; Coad 2006, p. 112; "Calshot Castle", Historic England, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ BDRC Continental (2011), "Visitor Attractions, Trends in England, 2010" (PDF), Visit England, p. 63, archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2015, retrieved 3 October 2015
- ^ a b "Calshot Castle", Historic England, retrieved 10 October 2015; "Calshot Castle: A 16th Century Artillery Castle", Historic England, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ Fisher, Jonah (23 September 2022). "Climate change risk to coastal castles - English Heritage". BBC News. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ Coad 2006, p. 113
- ^ "Calshot Castle", Historic England, retrieved 10 October 2015
- ^ a b Coad 2013, p. 9
- ^ a b Coad 2013, p. 4
- ^ a b Coad 2013, p. 8
- ^ a b c d e Coad 2013, p. 5
- ^ Coad 2013, p. 7
- ^ a b Coad 2013, p. 6
Bibliography
- Chapple, Nick (2014). "A History of the National Collection: Volume Seven, 1953–1970". Research Report Series. London, UK: English Heritage. ISSN 2046-9799.
- Coad, Jonathan (2006). "Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793–1945". The English Heritage Historical Review. 1: 103–113. .
- Coad, Jonathan (2013). Calshot Castle: Hampshire (revised ed.). London, UK: English Heritage. ISBN 9781850741022.
- Godwin, George Nelson (1904). The Civil War in Hampshire (1642–45) and the Story of Basing House. Southampton, UK: Henry March Gilbert and Son. OCLC 4237451.
- Hale, J. R. (1983). Renaissance War Studies. London, UK: Hambledon Press. ISBN 0907628176.
- Harrington, Peter (2007). The Castles of Henry VIII. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781472803801.
- King, D. J. Cathcart (1991). The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History. London, UK: Routledge Press. ISBN 9780415003506.
- Morley, B. M. (1976). Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defence. London, UK: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 0116707771.
- Playfair, James (1809). A System of Geography, Volume II. Edinburgh, UK: Peter Hill. OCLC 239535045.
- Saunders, Andrew (1989). Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland. Liphook, UK: Beaufort. ISBN 1855120003.
- Sutherland, Jonathon; Canwell, Dianne (2010). The RAF Air Sea Rescue Service, 1918–1986. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781848843035.
- Thompson, M. W. (1987). The Decline of the Castle. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1854226088.
- Walton, Steven A. (2010). "State Building Through Building for the State: Foreign and Domestic Expertise in Tudor Fortification". Osiris. 25 (1): 66–84. S2CID 144384757.
External links
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