Sealand, seven miles off the beach at Felixstowe

dancrane said:
That's pretty deep! I wonder how thick the concrete is in the round walls. I'd imagined these forts would have been built with fairly short-term durability in mind, given the reason for their construction.
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On the other hand they were probably also built to resist biggish shock waves from bangy things ...
 
This is Red Sands Fort in May '73. On that occasion we sailed right underneath, and I was able to climb up into one of the towers. Didn't risk the catwalk though.

RedSands.jpg
 
We had a lecture at our club about these forts which was fascinating.

IIRC Roughs was one of 4 ack-ack towers built for & manned by the Navy. The other 3 were Sunk Head (destroyed finally on the 2nd attempt in the 90's?), Knock John (still there), and Tongue Sand (finally fell down in last decade, because it was accidentally sited with one end hanging over the edge of the bank). Apparently, when fully manned, they had a complement of 120 each (that must have been cozy and comfortable in a February gale!)

I remember sailing past them when they still had their guns, which were removed sometime in the 90's, as part of a Naval Exercise (allegedly), and again IIRC one is in a museum in Margate.

The still standing Red Sand and Shivering Sand forts, together with the Nore fort were built for & manned by the Army. So their various gun/searchlight/etc. towers were sited in exactly the same layout as an Army AA battery would be if they were on dry land. The Nore one was destroyed after the war because it was being run into by ships.

I wish I could remember the name of the chap who gave the lecture (perhaps someone else here knows) but he has published a couple of booklets.
 
rudolph_hart said:
We had a lecture at our club about these forts which was fascinating.

IIRC Roughs was one of 4 ack-ack towers built for & manned by the Navy. The other 3 were Sunk Head (destroyed finally on the 2nd attempt in the 90's?), Knock John (still there), and Tongue Sand (finally fell down in last decade, because it was accidentally sited with one end hanging over the edge of the bank). Apparently, when fully manned, they had a complement of 120 each (that must have been cozy and comfortable in a February gale!)

I remember sailing past them when they still had their guns, which were removed sometime in the 90's, as part of a Naval Exercise (allegedly), and again IIRC one is in a museum in Margate.

The still standing Red Sand and Shivering Sand forts, together with the Nore fort were built for & manned by the Army. So their various gun/searchlight/etc. towers were sited in exactly the same layout as an Army AA battery would be if they were on dry land. The Nore one was destroyed after the war because it was being run into by ships.

I wish I could remember the name of the chap who gave the lecture (perhaps someone else here knows) but he has published a couple of booklets.
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Possibly this guy. Bob Le-Roi? http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/CityReunion/FortFanatics.html

The forts were known as Maunsell Forts as they were designed by Maunsell & Partners who later split into Maunsell and Posford Pavery & Partners. The main force in their design was in fact John Posford. Posfords still continue as Consulting Engineers in Peterborough thought recently taken over by a dutch company and renamed as Royal Haskoning
 
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I too went to a presentation at the Marconi social club years ago on the history of the Maunsell forts. I believe they were built on the lower reaches of the Thames and towed out and sunk in position. I cannot remember the name of the presenter but he was quite old the so properly not Bob Le Roi
 
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