Blacknor Battery
Blacknor Battery, also known as Blacknor Fort, is a former battery of early 20th century origin at Blacknor Point, on the west side of the island and west of Weston. Constructed in 1900-02, the battery was one of a number of fortifications built to defend Portland Harbour and its naval station. Following its decommissioning in 1956, the battery became privately owned and is now split between two residences.
History
Construction of Blacknor Battery and World War I (1900-1918)
The first proposal for defensive works to be established at Blacknor Point was made in 1846, when Major-General Cardew produced a report of recommended defences for the new harbour of refuge at Portland, which was formed with the construction of two breakwater arms in 1849-72. In addition to the Verne Citadel, Cardew proposed a number of batteries including one to be placed at Blacknor Point on the western side of the island and another at Dirdale Point on the eastern side. Although these two batteries did not come to fruition, the establishment of a defensive work at Blacknor Point was considered again later in the century.
Blacknor Battery was constructed as one of the later coastal defences for Portland Harbour, alongside Upton Battery near Weymouth. By the late 19th century, Portland Harbour had become firmly established as a Royal Navy station, which continued to rise in importance into the following century. As the end of the 19th century neared, rapid advances in naval warfare and technology, particularly of the torpedo, led to concerns over the harbour's vulnerability. Proposals were made for a further two breakwater arms to fully enclose the harbour and these were constructed between 1895 and 1905. Meanwhile, the existing fortifications for the harbour underwent modernisation and new defences, including Upton and Blacknor, were approved. The battery at Blacknor, with its commanding clifftop location overlooking Lyme Bay, was intended to defend the western approaches to Portland and provide a counter bombardment role by defending Portland Harbour and its shipping from long range bombardment.
Construction of the battery was carried out between July 1900 and February 1902 by local builders Messrs Jesty and Baker for a cost of £6,296. It was constructed with two gun emplacements and their associated magazines, along with a battery command post, a telephone room, a caretakers' quarter, stores and toilets. The original armament was two 6-inch BL Mark VII guns; these had arrived before September 1901, prior to their mountings, and were left outside the battery until they were ready for installation. In 1905-06, a war shelter was added to the battery for a cost of £1,391 and included ablutions and a cookhouse. The structure was mounded with earth to make it bombproof.
In 1905, a War Office Committee inspected the battery and concluded that the two 6-inch BL guns should be replaced by larger 9.2-inch BL Mark X guns. Construction of new emplacements, an altered and enlarged magazine level, a new battery command post and a new telephone room were carried out in 1908-09 by Messrs W. Hill and Company of Gosport. Speaking of the battery's modifications, the Southern Times commented in May 1908: "Blacknor will be a fort which the boldest enemy will hesitate before attacking from the sea side." The two 6-inch guns were dismounted in late 1907 and transferred to the Breakwater Fort the following year. The mountings for the new guns arrived at Portland in May 1908 on board the government-owned store vessel Lord Wolseley and the guns themselves arrived at Castletown in December 1908 and January 1909 (the first being brought by the War Department vessel John Adye). They remained there for over a month, owing to wet weather making the island's roads too soft to bear the 28 ton weight.
The two guns were taken up to the battery by traction engine in February 1909. When the first gun started its journey, the already difficult operation was hindered by two further setbacks, with the Southern Times reporting: "The pin in one of the carriages shot out and suspended operations for a few days and on Thursday, just as a start was being made again, the transport carriage broke down and the gun rolled across the road, having to be replaced by jacks." The first gun arrived at the battery on 19 February and the second followed on the 26 February. Their installation was completed in August and they were tested for the first time on 24 November 1909, when each gun fired a number of rounds. In 1910, a position finding cell was built at West Cliff, near Priory Corner, in connection with the new guns. A Royal Artillery workshop was also built at the battery during the same period.
During World War I, the battery received two BLC 15-pounder guns as additional armament and these were installed in emplacements outside of the battery on its north and south sides. They provided additional protection for Whitehead's Torpedo Works at Wyke Regis and the Royal Navy's Mere Oil Fuel Depot. A BL 5-inch howitzer for firing star shells was also supplied for illumination purposes and was positioned outside the battery's entrance.
Experimental use (1930s)
Aside from being used by the Army for regular firing practice, Blacknor Battery became a rocket test facility during the 1930s, which saw it used for experiments with anti-aircraft rockets, catapults, gliders and coloured searchlights. The experiments with AA rockets were largely conducted between 1937-39 by the Explosives Research Department of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, using 3-inch tubular charges produced by the Royal Naval Cordite Factory at Holton Heath. Gun-laying predictors were used to monitor the fall of shot in a series of successful trials. The experiments were discontinued briefly in 1938, but resumed again prior to the outbreak of World War II. As Blacknor Battery was required as a coastal defence during the war, the trials were soon relocated to Aberporth in Wales, leaving the battery under full control of the Army.
World War II (1939-1945)
During World War II, the battery was manned by 103 Battery of the 522nd (Dorsetshire) Coast Regiment RA and a number of new buildings were erected to provide increased accommodation and facilities. This included two barrack rooms, a dining room, ablution rooms, latrines, a drill shed, a training hut, a sergeant's mess and cookhouse, a battery office, a guard room, a passive air defence (PAD) centre and a number of store rooms. The original caretaker's quarters became the officers' quarters and mess with latrine, the telephone room became a dressing station, and the 1905-06 shelter provided a cookhouse, barrack room, recreation room and canteen. Outside of the battery site, a new battery observation post was built on the cliff-edge to the south.
Early in the conflict, breeze block blast walls were added within the battery and two Bren guns were mounted on emplacements as a light anti-aircraft defence. A single Lewis gun was also mounted on the former 15-pounder emplacement by the new BOP until its removal in 1942. This gun, intended to protect against low flying aircraft sweeping in under the cliffs, finished off a Dornier DO 17 bomber during the Battle of Britain on 17 July 1940. A German Junkers Ju 88 also crashed alongside the battery on 11 August 1940. Although the plane was set to make a perfect landing, it snagged the battery's telephone wires, which in turn retracted the undercarriage. The plane landed intact and no fatalities occurred among the four crew members, although the pilot suffered more severe injuries than the others.
In 1943, the battery's defensive role was reduced to night-time duty only. On 5 April 1943, between 00:32am and 00:45am, the battery engaged E-boats operating in Lyme Bay and claimed a successful hit on one. On the night of 27 April 1944, the battery witnessed the Slapton Sands Massacre of Exercise Tiger. The exercise, a large-scale rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, resulted in tragedy when the participating American soldiers were attacked by German E-Boats. Most of the 700 casualties drowned and many of the bodies recovered were taken to the pier at Castletown. As witnesses to the event, the gunners at Blacknor Battery were authorised to open fire, but this was soon withdrawn over the fear of causing fatalities from friendly fire.
Post war decommissioning and aftermath (1945-)
Surplus to requirements as a coastal defence, the disposal of Blacknor Battery's two BL guns was approved in August 1953. In February 1954, they were sold for salvage through the Ministry of Supply to Messrs. Cohen Bros of London for £200 each, and in turn they resold them to Messrs. Thompson Bros of Cardiff for £400 each. Removal commenced on 20 April and was completed on 24 June 1954. Once all remaining equipment and assets of value were removed, Blacknor was handed over to the garrison engineer of Weymouth on 30 August 1954.
With the abolition of Coastal Defence in the UK in 1956, Blacknor Battery was sold off by the War Office that year. The caretaker's quarters was subsequently converted into a bungalow and some garages, outbuildings and a riding stable were added to the site. Later on, the former battery site was split into two separate properties, the Stables and the Cottage.
Land Dispute (2004)
In 2004, a land dispute between the two owners of the adjacent bungalows at the battery made national news. According to the BBC, Edwin Hoskins and Graham Vranch became neighbours in the 1970s. In 1978, the pair drew up a legal agreement which stated that if either of them decided to sell their property and land, the other would be given first refusal for one month. When Hoskins decided to sell in January 2004, Vranch made an offer to buy his property for £55,000, which was a sum far lower than Hoskins expected. On 22 February, Hoskins invited Vranch to his house and shot him with a gun. Vranch survived the shooting and Hoskins was imprisoned in July 2004 at Salisbury Crown Court. In 2006, Hoskins, serving his seven-year sentence at HMP Guys Marsh in Dorset, was found dead in his cell, having hanged himself from the window bars.
Use of gun emplacement for construction of a new house (2008-2011)
In 2008, the Cottage bungalow, including the southernmost gun emplacement, was sold for £250,000 to Paul and Debbie Care, who soon submitted a planning application to erect a new residence on top of the emplacement. Planning permission was approved in September 2008. The project quickly gained the interest of Channel 4's Grand Designs and although filming took place at the end of the year, the programme decided to withdraw when construction came to a halt due to "design delays".
Amended plans were submitted in December 2009 and approved the following March. The house was completed in April 2011, although the surrounding land was not landscaped and remained unfinished. While the gun emplacement became part of the new dwelling, the attached magazines and other features were left untouched, and the existing bungalow was retained as an annexe. The family put the property up for sale in late 2013 for almost £1 million and a series of price reductions followed from £850,000 and £750,000 in 2014 to £395,000 in 2016. In 2014, the property made an appearance on the BBC house-hunting TV show Escape to the Country.
Access and surviving features
Blacknor Battery remains private property but can be seen from surrounding public footpaths. The World War II battery observation post and the two World War I 15-pounder gun emplacements all remain accessible to the public and are located alongside the route of the South West Coastal Path. The interior of the BOP remains accessible, although it has suffered from weathering and vandalism, and part of its roof collapsed in mid-2014.
Although the southernmost BL gun emplacement has been redeveloped with the construction of the 2010-11 residence, the adjacent emplacement survives intact and unaltered. The magazine level between the two emplacements also remains. Behind the intact emplacement, the 1905-06 shelter, the c. 1910 workshop and the remains of the 1908-09 battery command post all survive. The original caretaker's quarters also survives, as does the nearby World War II latrine block and PAD centre.
Blacknor Battery is one of the few fortifications in Portland and Weymouth area not to be awarded listed building or scheduled monument status, alongside B and D Batteries at East Weare. In their 2018 report "A National Planning Overview for 19th Century Forts and Associated Fortifications", Historic England noted Blacknor's "group value with the associated defences" in the area but added that "the conversion of some elements has affected its significance and aesthetic value".
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) BBC News Dorset - Jailed prison worker found hanged - February 2006 - website page
2) Do You Remember? - Portland's War - Part 1 - Sept. 1939 to Sept. 1940 - An Island Time Publication - Amusement World - book
3) Dorset Echo - Portland home idea could be a 'Grand Design' - December 2008 - website page
4) Dorset Echo - TV filming of Portland fort’s grand design starts - Harry Walton - December 2008 - website page
5) Heritage Gateway - Blacknor Fort, Rocket Test Facility - HER Number: 4 001 378 - website page
6) Historic England - A National Planning Overview for 19th Century Forts and Associated Fortifications - Volumes 1 and 2 - Jane Phimester - 2018 - website page
7) Journal of the British Interplanetary Society - Volume 47 - The development of the 3-inch British military rocket - S. J. Pooley - 1994 - journal
8) Jurassic Coastline - Blacknor - Quick Facts Area - website page
9) Rightmove - 6 bedroom detached house for sale - Blacknor Fort, Portland, Dorset - website page
10) Pastscape - Blacknor Battery - website page
11) Portland Encyclopaedia - Rodney Legg - Dorset Publishing Company - 1999 - ISBN: 978-0948699566 - pages 16, 17, 45 - book
12) Portland Harbour and its Defences Report - anonymous author - undated - pages 81, 85
13) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles - website page
14) The Coastal Defences of Portland and Weymouth - E. A. Andrews and M. L. Pinsent - 1981 - supplement to the journal Fort (Fortress Study Group) - report
15) The National Archives - Portland, Dorset: Blacknor Battery - WO 192/301 - fort record book - 1941-54 - website page
16) The National Archives - Weymouth and Portland Area: Blacknor Battery - WO 78/5078 - declassified plans and drawings - 1904-07 - website page
17) View from Online - Portland: A Look Through the Keyhole - April 2011 - website page
History
Construction of Blacknor Battery and World War I (1900-1918)
The first proposal for defensive works to be established at Blacknor Point was made in 1846, when Major-General Cardew produced a report of recommended defences for the new harbour of refuge at Portland, which was formed with the construction of two breakwater arms in 1849-72. In addition to the Verne Citadel, Cardew proposed a number of batteries including one to be placed at Blacknor Point on the western side of the island and another at Dirdale Point on the eastern side. Although these two batteries did not come to fruition, the establishment of a defensive work at Blacknor Point was considered again later in the century.
Blacknor Battery was constructed as one of the later coastal defences for Portland Harbour, alongside Upton Battery near Weymouth. By the late 19th century, Portland Harbour had become firmly established as a Royal Navy station, which continued to rise in importance into the following century. As the end of the 19th century neared, rapid advances in naval warfare and technology, particularly of the torpedo, led to concerns over the harbour's vulnerability. Proposals were made for a further two breakwater arms to fully enclose the harbour and these were constructed between 1895 and 1905. Meanwhile, the existing fortifications for the harbour underwent modernisation and new defences, including Upton and Blacknor, were approved. The battery at Blacknor, with its commanding clifftop location overlooking Lyme Bay, was intended to defend the western approaches to Portland and provide a counter bombardment role by defending Portland Harbour and its shipping from long range bombardment.
Construction of the battery was carried out between July 1900 and February 1902 by local builders Messrs Jesty and Baker for a cost of £6,296. It was constructed with two gun emplacements and their associated magazines, along with a battery command post, a telephone room, a caretakers' quarter, stores and toilets. The original armament was two 6-inch BL Mark VII guns; these had arrived before September 1901, prior to their mountings, and were left outside the battery until they were ready for installation. In 1905-06, a war shelter was added to the battery for a cost of £1,391 and included ablutions and a cookhouse. The structure was mounded with earth to make it bombproof.
In 1905, a War Office Committee inspected the battery and concluded that the two 6-inch BL guns should be replaced by larger 9.2-inch BL Mark X guns. Construction of new emplacements, an altered and enlarged magazine level, a new battery command post and a new telephone room were carried out in 1908-09 by Messrs W. Hill and Company of Gosport. Speaking of the battery's modifications, the Southern Times commented in May 1908: "Blacknor will be a fort which the boldest enemy will hesitate before attacking from the sea side." The two 6-inch guns were dismounted in late 1907 and transferred to the Breakwater Fort the following year. The mountings for the new guns arrived at Portland in May 1908 on board the government-owned store vessel Lord Wolseley and the guns themselves arrived at Castletown in December 1908 and January 1909 (the first being brought by the War Department vessel John Adye). They remained there for over a month, owing to wet weather making the island's roads too soft to bear the 28 ton weight.
The two guns were taken up to the battery by traction engine in February 1909. When the first gun started its journey, the already difficult operation was hindered by two further setbacks, with the Southern Times reporting: "The pin in one of the carriages shot out and suspended operations for a few days and on Thursday, just as a start was being made again, the transport carriage broke down and the gun rolled across the road, having to be replaced by jacks." The first gun arrived at the battery on 19 February and the second followed on the 26 February. Their installation was completed in August and they were tested for the first time on 24 November 1909, when each gun fired a number of rounds. In 1910, a position finding cell was built at West Cliff, near Priory Corner, in connection with the new guns. A Royal Artillery workshop was also built at the battery during the same period.
During World War I, the battery received two BLC 15-pounder guns as additional armament and these were installed in emplacements outside of the battery on its north and south sides. They provided additional protection for Whitehead's Torpedo Works at Wyke Regis and the Royal Navy's Mere Oil Fuel Depot. A BL 5-inch howitzer for firing star shells was also supplied for illumination purposes and was positioned outside the battery's entrance.
Experimental use (1930s)
Aside from being used by the Army for regular firing practice, Blacknor Battery became a rocket test facility during the 1930s, which saw it used for experiments with anti-aircraft rockets, catapults, gliders and coloured searchlights. The experiments with AA rockets were largely conducted between 1937-39 by the Explosives Research Department of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, using 3-inch tubular charges produced by the Royal Naval Cordite Factory at Holton Heath. Gun-laying predictors were used to monitor the fall of shot in a series of successful trials. The experiments were discontinued briefly in 1938, but resumed again prior to the outbreak of World War II. As Blacknor Battery was required as a coastal defence during the war, the trials were soon relocated to Aberporth in Wales, leaving the battery under full control of the Army.
World War II (1939-1945)
During World War II, the battery was manned by 103 Battery of the 522nd (Dorsetshire) Coast Regiment RA and a number of new buildings were erected to provide increased accommodation and facilities. This included two barrack rooms, a dining room, ablution rooms, latrines, a drill shed, a training hut, a sergeant's mess and cookhouse, a battery office, a guard room, a passive air defence (PAD) centre and a number of store rooms. The original caretaker's quarters became the officers' quarters and mess with latrine, the telephone room became a dressing station, and the 1905-06 shelter provided a cookhouse, barrack room, recreation room and canteen. Outside of the battery site, a new battery observation post was built on the cliff-edge to the south.
Early in the conflict, breeze block blast walls were added within the battery and two Bren guns were mounted on emplacements as a light anti-aircraft defence. A single Lewis gun was also mounted on the former 15-pounder emplacement by the new BOP until its removal in 1942. This gun, intended to protect against low flying aircraft sweeping in under the cliffs, finished off a Dornier DO 17 bomber during the Battle of Britain on 17 July 1940. A German Junkers Ju 88 also crashed alongside the battery on 11 August 1940. Although the plane was set to make a perfect landing, it snagged the battery's telephone wires, which in turn retracted the undercarriage. The plane landed intact and no fatalities occurred among the four crew members, although the pilot suffered more severe injuries than the others.
In 1943, the battery's defensive role was reduced to night-time duty only. On 5 April 1943, between 00:32am and 00:45am, the battery engaged E-boats operating in Lyme Bay and claimed a successful hit on one. On the night of 27 April 1944, the battery witnessed the Slapton Sands Massacre of Exercise Tiger. The exercise, a large-scale rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, resulted in tragedy when the participating American soldiers were attacked by German E-Boats. Most of the 700 casualties drowned and many of the bodies recovered were taken to the pier at Castletown. As witnesses to the event, the gunners at Blacknor Battery were authorised to open fire, but this was soon withdrawn over the fear of causing fatalities from friendly fire.
Post war decommissioning and aftermath (1945-)
Surplus to requirements as a coastal defence, the disposal of Blacknor Battery's two BL guns was approved in August 1953. In February 1954, they were sold for salvage through the Ministry of Supply to Messrs. Cohen Bros of London for £200 each, and in turn they resold them to Messrs. Thompson Bros of Cardiff for £400 each. Removal commenced on 20 April and was completed on 24 June 1954. Once all remaining equipment and assets of value were removed, Blacknor was handed over to the garrison engineer of Weymouth on 30 August 1954.
With the abolition of Coastal Defence in the UK in 1956, Blacknor Battery was sold off by the War Office that year. The caretaker's quarters was subsequently converted into a bungalow and some garages, outbuildings and a riding stable were added to the site. Later on, the former battery site was split into two separate properties, the Stables and the Cottage.
Land Dispute (2004)
In 2004, a land dispute between the two owners of the adjacent bungalows at the battery made national news. According to the BBC, Edwin Hoskins and Graham Vranch became neighbours in the 1970s. In 1978, the pair drew up a legal agreement which stated that if either of them decided to sell their property and land, the other would be given first refusal for one month. When Hoskins decided to sell in January 2004, Vranch made an offer to buy his property for £55,000, which was a sum far lower than Hoskins expected. On 22 February, Hoskins invited Vranch to his house and shot him with a gun. Vranch survived the shooting and Hoskins was imprisoned in July 2004 at Salisbury Crown Court. In 2006, Hoskins, serving his seven-year sentence at HMP Guys Marsh in Dorset, was found dead in his cell, having hanged himself from the window bars.
Use of gun emplacement for construction of a new house (2008-2011)
In 2008, the Cottage bungalow, including the southernmost gun emplacement, was sold for £250,000 to Paul and Debbie Care, who soon submitted a planning application to erect a new residence on top of the emplacement. Planning permission was approved in September 2008. The project quickly gained the interest of Channel 4's Grand Designs and although filming took place at the end of the year, the programme decided to withdraw when construction came to a halt due to "design delays".
Amended plans were submitted in December 2009 and approved the following March. The house was completed in April 2011, although the surrounding land was not landscaped and remained unfinished. While the gun emplacement became part of the new dwelling, the attached magazines and other features were left untouched, and the existing bungalow was retained as an annexe. The family put the property up for sale in late 2013 for almost £1 million and a series of price reductions followed from £850,000 and £750,000 in 2014 to £395,000 in 2016. In 2014, the property made an appearance on the BBC house-hunting TV show Escape to the Country.
Access and surviving features
Blacknor Battery remains private property but can be seen from surrounding public footpaths. The World War II battery observation post and the two World War I 15-pounder gun emplacements all remain accessible to the public and are located alongside the route of the South West Coastal Path. The interior of the BOP remains accessible, although it has suffered from weathering and vandalism, and part of its roof collapsed in mid-2014.
Although the southernmost BL gun emplacement has been redeveloped with the construction of the 2010-11 residence, the adjacent emplacement survives intact and unaltered. The magazine level between the two emplacements also remains. Behind the intact emplacement, the 1905-06 shelter, the c. 1910 workshop and the remains of the 1908-09 battery command post all survive. The original caretaker's quarters also survives, as does the nearby World War II latrine block and PAD centre.
Blacknor Battery is one of the few fortifications in Portland and Weymouth area not to be awarded listed building or scheduled monument status, alongside B and D Batteries at East Weare. In their 2018 report "A National Planning Overview for 19th Century Forts and Associated Fortifications", Historic England noted Blacknor's "group value with the associated defences" in the area but added that "the conversion of some elements has affected its significance and aesthetic value".
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) BBC News Dorset - Jailed prison worker found hanged - February 2006 - website page
2) Do You Remember? - Portland's War - Part 1 - Sept. 1939 to Sept. 1940 - An Island Time Publication - Amusement World - book
3) Dorset Echo - Portland home idea could be a 'Grand Design' - December 2008 - website page
4) Dorset Echo - TV filming of Portland fort’s grand design starts - Harry Walton - December 2008 - website page
5) Heritage Gateway - Blacknor Fort, Rocket Test Facility - HER Number: 4 001 378 - website page
6) Historic England - A National Planning Overview for 19th Century Forts and Associated Fortifications - Volumes 1 and 2 - Jane Phimester - 2018 - website page
7) Journal of the British Interplanetary Society - Volume 47 - The development of the 3-inch British military rocket - S. J. Pooley - 1994 - journal
8) Jurassic Coastline - Blacknor - Quick Facts Area - website page
9) Rightmove - 6 bedroom detached house for sale - Blacknor Fort, Portland, Dorset - website page
10) Pastscape - Blacknor Battery - website page
11) Portland Encyclopaedia - Rodney Legg - Dorset Publishing Company - 1999 - ISBN: 978-0948699566 - pages 16, 17, 45 - book
12) Portland Harbour and its Defences Report - anonymous author - undated - pages 81, 85
13) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles - website page
14) The Coastal Defences of Portland and Weymouth - E. A. Andrews and M. L. Pinsent - 1981 - supplement to the journal Fort (Fortress Study Group) - report
15) The National Archives - Portland, Dorset: Blacknor Battery - WO 192/301 - fort record book - 1941-54 - website page
16) The National Archives - Weymouth and Portland Area: Blacknor Battery - WO 78/5078 - declassified plans and drawings - 1904-07 - website page
17) View from Online - Portland: A Look Through the Keyhole - April 2011 - website page
Gallery
These images can be enlarged by clicking on them. Some images have information attached to them, and to view this you can either enlarge the image or hover the mouse over each thumbnail.
1904 plan of Blacknor Battery
A plan of Blacknor Battery, based on War Office drawings, dated 1904 (National Archives - Ref: WO 78/5078). It can be enlarged by clicking on it.
