FORT CUMBERLAND

ALTERNATIVE NAME:

EASTNEY FORT, CENTRE FOR ARCHAEOLOGY

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A large late 18th century angled bastioned fort on Portsea Island situated on the site of a mid-18th century example. It is star shaped in plan with five bastions and a ravelin on its western side. The defences supported the main armament of the fort. It is stone-faced with a brick parapet, with earthworks covering casemates, located mainly on the western side of the fort. Four of the five lengths of curtain have central gates and the fifth - Land Curtain - is now piereced by a modern vehicle entrance. The flanks of the five bastions have embrasures to provide enfilading fire along the curtains. Beyond the ramparts on all but the western, landward, side is a dry ditch, the outer-face of which is brick-lined. The entrance in the left, seaward, curtain is approached by a road which crosses a place of arms and the ditch. The defences for this entrance were later strengthened by the construction of Pivot Battery housing a 10 inch RML gun. On the western side of the fort is a ravelin designed to cover approaches from the landward side. Beyond both ditch and ravelin is a glacis which partly survives. To the south of the ravelin a high angle fire battery was inserted into the glacis in the 1890s, necessitating the construction of an access tunnel from the ditch. The first fort on the site, named after the Duke of Cumberland, was constructed around 1747 in the form of an irregular pentagon with two principal bastions. Little of this first fort remains although the guardhouse and storeroom survive. The second fort, which remains largely intact, was built between 1785 and 1812 on the same site but to a different and larger plan. During the 1860s additional accommodation was added and in the 1890s the fort was modernised to take new breech loading guns. Although armed in 1902 as a coastal battery, it was armed with a Maxim gun for local defence in the First World War. The fort is now occupied by the Centre for Archaeology, which includes the Ancient Monuments Laboratory.

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(SZ 683 993) Fort Cumberland (NAT) (1)

Fort Cumberland (SZ 683 993)

Fort Cumberland is actively preserved both by being used by the Royal Marines and by the existance of a Fort Cumberland Preservation Society. Built in 1746 and enlarged in 1794, the first official record of its defensive capability is its inclusion in a return of 1805 showing its armament as eight 24-pounder, forty-one 18-pounder, twenty-five 12-pounder and seven 6-pounder guns. As might be imagined from this list, it is a very large work laid out on the bastioned trace. The 1859 report noted it as being in existence and considered that no further work was necessary to make
it any more effective, and except for rearming with newer weapons it was untouched.

By the 1880s it was exclusively the domain of the Royal Marine Artillery, which it has remained ever since. There is no record of it ever being equipped with heavy ordnance for the attack of ships, and all the evidence points to a continued prime use as a RM training establishment, with the secondary role of closing the entrance to Langstone Harbour in time of war. But when the breech-loading era arrived it was decided to put some modern ordnance into the work, and a battery of 6in BL on disappearing carriages was put in in the late 1890s. These remained in place throughout World War I and were removed in about 1924 when all these weapons were declared obsolete. Since that time it has been exclusively a Marine training centre and has not formed part of the defences. (2)

Grade 2 * (3)
Scheduled No. 277 (4)

Fort Cumberland (name confirmed) is in use by the School of Maritime
Operations (Fraser Gunnery Range). No access. (5)

A small bulwark may have been built here on the point as early as 1544 (see SZ 69 NE 8).

A star-shaped fort had been begun on the point by Lord Tyrawley in 1746-7. Fort Cumberland was planned as early as 1788, although the new work didn't start until 1794. It was built partly with convict labour and had its own brickyards on the spot. Work continued until about 1820. It was a bastioned of regular pentagonal plan and an unusual feature for its date were the casements below the ramparts, which were primarily intended for barrack accommodation. The use of casements was to become an important development in C19th fortification. With Fort Monckton, Fort Cumberland was among the last bastioned forts to be built in England, the major weakness of the bastioned trace being the inability to bring good frontal fire and the ease with which an enemy could infiltrade the bastion flanks and faces. (6)

It is presumably Tyrawley's fort which is shown on the 1773 Map of Portsea. (7)

Fort Cumberland's design may owe its origins to two plans drawn up for a new fort at Stoke's Bay in 1782 and 1784. It combines the outline of the 1782 plan with a ravelin in the moat, as proposed in the 1784 plan. (8)

Eastney Fort, 1747. The fort designed by Tyrawley is called Eastney Fort on the maps by P.J.Desmaretz until the end of 1747 when it is called Fort Cumberland. See illustration card 4. (9)

A large late 18th century angled bastioned fort on Portsea Island, on the site of an earlier example dating from the mid-18th century. It is of a regular star shape with five bastions and a ravelin on its western side. The defences supported the main armament of the fort. Stone-faced with a brick parapet, the earthworks cover casemates, located mainly on the western side of the fort. Four of the five lengths of curtain have central gates and the fifth, Land Curtain, is now piereced by a modern vehicle entrance. The flanks of the five bastions have embrasures to provide enfilading fire along the curtains. Beyond the ramparts on all but the western (landward) side is a dry ditch, the outer-face of which is brick lined. The entrance in the left (seaward) curtain is approached by a road which crosses a place of arms and the ditch. The defences for this entrance were later strengthened by the construction of Pivot Battery housing a 10 inch RML gun. On the western side of the fort is a ravelin designed to cover approaches from the landward side. Beyond both ditch and ravelin is a glacis which partly survives. To the south of the ravelin a high angle fire battery was inserted into the glacis in the 1890s, necessitating the construction of an access tunnel from the ditch. The first fort on the site, named after the Duke of Cumberland, was constructed around 1747 in the form of an irregular pentagon with two principal bastions. Little of this first fort remains although the guardhouse and storeroom survive. The second fort, which remains largely intact, was built between 1785 amd 1812 on the same site but to a different and larger plan. During the 1860s additional accommodation was added and in the 1890s the fort was modernised to take new breech loading guns. The fort is now occupied by the Centre for Archaeology, which includes the Ancient Monuments Laboratory. (10-12)

In 1902 it mounted three 6-inch breech loaders, one 64-pounder, and two 9.2-inch rifled muzzle loaders. In the First World war, a single Maxim gun is listed. (13)

In 1916 it mounted a 6-pounder Hotchkiss heavy anti aircraft gun, and in 1917 with a 3-inch heavy anti aircraft gun. (14)

Fort Cumberland located at SZ 683 993. The fort opened in circa 1810. By 1902 it was armed with two Mk. IV and one Mk. VI 6-inch breech-loading (BL) guns, one 64-pounder rifle muzzle-loading (RML) gun and one 6-inch RML high angle (HA) gun. The guns were removed by the First World War (the 6-inch guns in 1906), though it was equipped with one infantry carriage mounted and one parapet carriage mounted Maxim gun. (15-16)

The original fort is in good condition and emplacements remain. Most of the Second World War ancillary buildings have gone. (17)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 1:10 000 1972

( 2) by Ian V Hogg 1974 Coast defences of England and Wales, 1856-1956

Page(s)135-6

( 3) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

Portsmouth, 1972 Page(s)40

( 4) by Department of the Environment, Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings London 1978 List of ancient monuments in England: Volume 1, Northern England; Volume 2, Southern England; Volume 3, East Anglia and the Midlands

2 Page(s)1

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 JGB 21-FEB-83

( 6) Royal Archaeological Institute The archaeological journal

AJ Saunders 123, 1966 Page(s)147-9

( 7) A catalogue compiled by D Hodson 1978 Portsmouth record series : maps of Portsmouth before 1801

Map of Portsea Island by the Ordnance Office 1773.

( 8) G H Williams 1979 The western defences of Portsmouth Harbour 1400-1800

The Portsmouth papers no.30 Page(s)59-60

( 9) A catalogue compiled by D Hodson 1978 Portsmouth record series : maps of Portsmouth before 1801

Map 149a and note to map 149a Page(s)106

(10) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

Porstmouth, 18-MAR-1999 774-1 Page(s)101

(11) Alan Balfour 1970 Portsmouth

Page(s)22

(12) Scheduled Monument Notification

29-OCT-1999

(13) Migrated Defence of Britain Project database record originally compiled from various sources

The two databases developed by the Project can be searched on-line through the Archaeology Data Service at http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/specColl/dob/index.cfm

(14) C S Dobinson 1996 Twentieth century fortifications in England, volume 1. Anti-aircraft artillery : England's air defence gunsites, 1914-46

Page(s)287

(15) C.S. Dobinson 2000 Twentieth century fortifications in England. Volume 6.1. Coast Artillery, 1900-1956

6.1 Page(s)167-176

(16) C.S. Dobinson 2000 Twentieth century fortifications in England. Volume 6.2. Coast Artillery, 1900-1956

6.2 Page(s)259

(17) Michael J. Anderton 2000 Twentieth century military recording project: World War Two Coastal Batteries

Page(s)75

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