Penlee Steps, Rame SE Cornwall, Part of Penlee Battery - May 09
Slightly different to your usual Explores. This site is open to the savages of the Seas, tho it has stood up very well considering how old it is. Parts of the Area were underwater, so needed underwater photographic equipment and me to don my wetsuit and snorkel gear!
Bit about it
Penlee Steps were originally built to aid the arming of Penlee battery which is situated much further up the Coastal slope giving an ideal position to see anything attemping to enter Plymouth Sound and attack the Dockyard.
The Battery itself was designed to be armed with two 6 inch BL Guns and one 13.5 inch BL Gun. The 6inch guns were mounted in 1892. The 13.5 inch due to its size and it weighing 67 tons! was floated from Plymouth on a barge to the massive steps you see in the Pics.
The Barrel of the Gun was landed on the steps in 1882 where it sat for a year. It then took a week to be hauled up the hill using 40 horses and over 200 men! The Gun was of an Elswick dissappearing design, which ment that the Gun was raised to be fired. It was then lowered hidden from enemy view where it could be reloaded then raised to be fired again. It was thelargest disappearing gun in the country. The Gun was finally mounted at Penlee battery in 1894 where apparently on its virgin firing it cracked its foundations.
The steps as viewed from the sea
View out across the sound, Fort Picklecombe can be seen just along the coast
You can see my mate in the background, just shows how big the steps actually are!
Rusting Anchor point for the lifting gear to land and lift the Gun. Not bad for 117 odd years being batterd by the sea
Tho this one hasn't done so well
Amazing this is the remains of a wooden post, with fragment of wood still visable
Post completly gone
One of many Holes
Base of the Pillar seen in above photos
Metal Pole pokeing out of the base of pillar
Anchor point and shackel.
The Local wildlife... A spider crab
Part of the route the Gun would have been hauled up
Unclimbable fince that surrounds Penlee battery (now a nature reserve)
Slightly different to your usual Explores. This site is open to the savages of the Seas, tho it has stood up very well considering how old it is. Parts of the Area were underwater, so needed underwater photographic equipment and me to don my wetsuit and snorkel gear!
Bit about it
Penlee Steps were originally built to aid the arming of Penlee battery which is situated much further up the Coastal slope giving an ideal position to see anything attemping to enter Plymouth Sound and attack the Dockyard.
The Battery itself was designed to be armed with two 6 inch BL Guns and one 13.5 inch BL Gun. The 6inch guns were mounted in 1892. The 13.5 inch due to its size and it weighing 67 tons! was floated from Plymouth on a barge to the massive steps you see in the Pics.
The Barrel of the Gun was landed on the steps in 1882 where it sat for a year. It then took a week to be hauled up the hill using 40 horses and over 200 men! The Gun was of an Elswick dissappearing design, which ment that the Gun was raised to be fired. It was then lowered hidden from enemy view where it could be reloaded then raised to be fired again. It was thelargest disappearing gun in the country. The Gun was finally mounted at Penlee battery in 1894 where apparently on its virgin firing it cracked its foundations.
The steps as viewed from the sea
View out across the sound, Fort Picklecombe can be seen just along the coast
You can see my mate in the background, just shows how big the steps actually are!
Rusting Anchor point for the lifting gear to land and lift the Gun. Not bad for 117 odd years being batterd by the sea
Tho this one hasn't done so well
Amazing this is the remains of a wooden post, with fragment of wood still visable
Post completly gone
One of many Holes
Base of the Pillar seen in above photos
Metal Pole pokeing out of the base of pillar
Anchor point and shackel.
The Local wildlife... A spider crab
Part of the route the Gun would have been hauled up
Unclimbable fince that surrounds Penlee battery (now a nature reserve)
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Thankyou
