Scraesdon Fort, near the village of Antony, is one of several forts in South East

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

which formed part of the ring of forts surrounding Plymouth to protect

Plymouth Sound Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England. Description Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abo ...

and, in particular, the naval dockyard of Devonport from enemy naval attack. They were built as a result of a

decision Decision may refer to: Law and politics *Judgment (law), as the outcome of a legal case *Landmark decision, the outcome of a case that sets a legal precedent * ''Per curiam'' decision, by a court with multiple judges Books * ''Decision'' (novel) ...

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...

's premiership to deter the French from attacking naval bases in the south of England. Aerial View of Scraesdon Fort and Antony - geograph

Scraesdon Fort was designed in 1859 by Captain (later Maj General)

William Crossman Sir William Crossman (30 June 1830 – 19 April 1901) was an officer in the Royal Engineers and a Liberal and Liberal Unionist politician. Life Crossman was born at Isleworth, Middlesex, the son of Robert Crossman and his wife Sarah. His father ...

, and was built by F Roach and Company, Plymouth. Scraesdon Fort - Caponier - geograph

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

polygonal In geometry, a polygon () is a plane (mathematics), plane Shape, figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its ''edge (geometry), edges'' or ''sides''. The p ...

, near

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al format. It has a dry ditch, and was designed to have twenty-seven 7-inch breech-loading guns on the ramparts. 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. The upper level is 254 ft above mean sea level (

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

) and the lower level is 173 feet AMSL. The fort was used by the

MOD Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US * ...

as a training barracks, but it is currently empty, derelict and overgrown. It was used to train Royal Navy Artificer Apprentices from

HMS Fisgard Three ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Fisgard'' or HMS ''Fishguard'' after the coastal town of Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, Wales, the scene of the defeat of the last invasion attempt on Britain, by a French ...

and

HMS Raleigh Six ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Raleigh'', after Sir Walter Raleigh: * HMS ''Raleigh'' was a 32-gun fifth rate, previously the American . She was captured in 1778 by and and was commissioned int ...

; it is occasionally used now by

Royal Marine Commandos The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a company strength sub-unit to the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG), landing craft cr ...

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 the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in 1968. A military railway. used from 1893 to 1903, connected the fort with the

River Lynher The River Lynher () (or St Germans River downstream from its confluence with the Tiddy) flows through east Cornwall, England, and enters the River Tamar at the Hamoaze, which in turn flows into Plymouth Sound. Navigation The normal tidal l ...

at Wacker Quay, near St. Germans. It also provided a link to the main fort on the

Rame peninsula The Rame Peninsula () is a peninsula in south-east Cornwall. It is surrounded by the English Channel to the south, Plymouth Sound to the east, the Hamoaze to the northeast and the estuary of the River Lynher to the north-west. On a clear day, ...

Fort Tregantle Tregantle Fort in south east Cornwall is one of several forts surrounding Plymouth that were built as a result of a decision in Lord Palmerston's premiership to deter the French from attacking naval bases on the Channel coast. History The fort ...

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

A374 road The A374 is a main road in the United Kingdom, one of six A-roads making the border crossing between Devon and Cornwall. It is the most southerly of the A37x group of roads, starting and ending its journey with the A38 trunk road, from the ou ...

, 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

Bibliography

* *

External links

Victorian Forts data sheet
* Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall Forts in Cornwall Palmerston Forts Military history of Cornwall Grade II listed forts Scheduled monuments in Cornwall {{Cornwall-struct-stub