Scraesdon Fort

Scraesdon Fort
Scraesdon Fort
	Main entrance gate to the Fort
	Scraesdon Fort
Coordinates	50°22′19″N 4°15′46″W / 50.371876°N 4.262662°W
Site information
Open to; the public	No
Condition	Complete, but overgrown and derelict
Site history
Built	1859-1868
In use	Training area
Materials	Earth; Masonry
Scheduled monument
Official name	Scraesdon Fort
Designated	19 January 1968
Reference no.	1140707
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Scraesdon Fort
Designated	26 January 1987
Reference no.	1004347

Scraesdon Fort, near the village of

Lord Palmerston

's premiership to deter the French from attacking naval bases in the south of England.

Scraesdon Fort was designed in 1859 by Captain (later Maj General) William Crossman,^[1] and was built by F Roach and Company, Plymouth.

It was completed at a cost of £137,000. It is constructed in the Land Front,

7-inch breech-loading guns on the ramparts.^[2] By 1893 it mounted one 64 Pounder Rifled Muzzle Loading Guns, eight 7-inch Rifled Breech Loading (RBL) gun, two 32 Pounder Smooth Bore Breech Loading (SBBL) guns and two 5-inch Breech Loading guns.^[3]

The upper level is 254 ft above mean sea level (

AMSL

) and the lower level is 173 feet AMSL.

The fort was used by the

Royal Marine Commandos recruits as part of their final exercise, as well as being used by local Army Reserve units. The most renowned history of the fort, is that of the Scraesdonians. These are two brothers who know the fort better than any map, or man. Legend has it, they have never been seen, nor caught whilst in the fort grounds. Their names will be etched in the history of the walls of Scraesdon for eternity. The fort is also used for airsoft events on an ad hoc basis. It was Grade II listed in 1968.^[4]

A military railway. used from 1893 to 1903, connected the fort with the

Fort Tregantle. The railway ran underneath the metal bridge and down a gradient, then went underneath the current A374 road

, and alongside Wacker Quay. The locomotive shed was extant on the quayside until the late 2000s,when it was removed by Cornwall CC, who had been using it as a highways depot. and other remnants of the railway can also be seen . There was also an extensive marshalling area next to the east wall of the fort.

References

^ Freddy Woodward, (1996) The Historic Defences of Plymouth, Cornwall County Council, p174
^ South West Archaeological Research Framework (SWARF)
^ The National Archives WO196/31, Ports and harbours Western District: Revision of Coast defence armaments prior to June 1894
^ Historic England (7 December 2015). "Scraesdon Fort, Antony (1004347)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 June 2019.