Brean Down >>
Brean Down, rich in wildlife and history, is one of the most dramatic landmarks of the Somerset coastline, extending 1½ miles into the Bristol Channel. At its most seaward point, a Palmerston Fort built in 1865 and then re-armed in World War Two, provides a unique insight into Brean’s past.
The Down is geologically part of the Mendip Hills and is where these limestone hills dip their toes into the sea.
From the top of the Down you get panoramic views across the Somerset Levels and over Bridgwater Bay to the Quantocks and Exmoor.
These photos were taken on a January day when a wintry sun seemed to smear its light across the watery skies.
The picture on the left is looking south east over Brean sands towards the prominent hill of Brent Knoll.
To the north of the Down, lies the expanse of Weston Bay and the town of Weston-super-Mare. Just behind and above the town is Worlebury Hill, which like Brean Down was a grassy headland sticking out into the Bristol Channel until it was planted with trees in the 19th century by a local landowner.
The project must have been a difficult one as both headlands are very exposed as you can see from the wind blasted nature of the scrubby vegetation in the foreground.
Weston developed as a town during the 19th century when seaside holidays became fashionable for the middle classes and then affordable for the masses with the coming of the railways.
Out in the Bristol Channel, lies the island of Steep Holm, once a source of much of the stone used in building Weston and Bristol.
It is now a bird sanctuary and is inhabited during the summer months by a warden. It can be visited during those months by boat from Weston which involves a five mile boat trip lasting about an hour. Visitors land on a pebble beach.
Occasionally the smaller Weston vessels link up with Waverley or Balmoral paddle steamers to take some of their passengers ashore because the larger vessels are constrained by their draught. Once ashore, there is a zigzag ascent through a small sycamore wood to the island's plateau 256 feet above sea level.
At the seaward end of Brean Down lies its Palmerston Fort. It was built as a result of an invasion scare which swept the country in 1858. The French had built the first ironclad warship, "Gloire", against which Britain's wooden warhips were powerless.
Gun batteries were quickly built to defend the south coast. Four spanned the Bristol Channel - Brean Down, Steep Holm, Flat Holm and Lavernock Point in Wales.
The gun battery on Brean Down was ready for action in 1877, armed with seven huge guns. But the French invasion never happened. No guns were fired in anger and life was very quiet until...............
WW2
Gun Battery
The
Fort with Steep Holm and Flat Holm in the distance
At the outbreak of WW2, the Fort was re-garrisoned. Two naval guns and two giant searchlights were added. The original buildings were modified.
Again the Fort didn't see any enemy action, but there were some very strange goings on.
But more of that later.................
The fort is defended on its landward side by this deep ditch (right) over which entry is gained to the fort by a small bridge.
The military value of the site was obvious but the fort was never used as a defensive position during the First World War, indeed from 1913 to 1936 the battery was used as a civilian cafe. An army of walkers and holiday makers invaded the barrack room.
The parade ground (below) became a children's playground.
The parade ground with the Barrack Room
The officers quarters (right) was originally divided into four large rooms. Records show that it was occupied by Master Gunner John Bond in 1881, with his wife and children.
The outer wall of the building (facing over the ditch) has six carbine slits - which soldiers could fire through during a land-based attack.
During the Second World War the building was used as an officers' mess and its likely that the building was sub-divided into nine rooms during this period.
The Barrack Room (left) is where the original soldiers ate, slept and spent off-duty time. It was built to house 20 men, but for the most of the time, only four or five gunners lived here. Their beds opened out from the wall, doubling as chairs when folded up. It is hard to imagine but originally, soldiers wives and children would have lived here too.
During the Second World War, the barrack room was used as a canteen and liesure area. The soldiers slept in huts outside the fort.
Inside the Barrack Room
The
stairs to the magazine
The stairs leading to the magazine were the scene of a bizzare episode in the history of the battery.
At 5 am on the 6th July 1900, a huge explosion rocked the headland. A gunner called Haines committed suicide by firing his rifle into the gunpowder magazine. Half the battery was destroyed, but amazingly no one else was killed.
Why Haines took this dramatic action remains a mystery.
During the Second World War, the remote headland was an ideal outpost for the Admiralty's "Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development". Several strange devices were tested her, including torpedo decoys and a submarine version of the "Bouncing Bomb". But not all the tests went according to plan................
The building in the picture (right) was a searchlight post. Vulnerable to attack it was constructed of reinforced concrete and covered with camouflage paint. The cantilever roof has been flipped back by the sea!! The searchlights, protected by armoured steel shutters could scan the sea for enemy ships over a two mile radius.
To the right of the searchlight post is a track used in the testing of the seaborne "Bouncing Bomb". A trolley was used to carry the bomb down the track, then on impact with buffers at the far end, project it into the air. But the trolley travelled so fast that it burst into flames, crashed through the buffers, and took the whole lot over the cliff!
An "Expedible Noise-Maker" was another weird weapon. This was designed to destroy enemy acoustic torpedoes by emitting rhythmic detonations. However, at one trial, the rocket turned inland, exploded and landed in a nearby chicken run - from where the irate farmer emerged!
The original armament of the battery consisted of seven gun emplacements, each with a muzzle-loading seven inch gun weighing several tons. With a three mile range, these guns were sufficient to defend the channel between Brean Down and the batteries on Steep Holm.
But advances in gun and naval technonology meant that in the early years of the 20th century, the guns were scrapped.
Brean Down can be reached from the north end of Brean Sands where there is a car park. The walk to the fort involves a steep climb from beach level and a moderate amount of walking. For more information click here to visit the National Trust website, and for a map of the area, click here.
