East Tilbury gun battery..Essex

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Mikeymutt

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Me and man gone wrong were in the area and we decided to go have a look at this fort.I do like these gun batteries so we were quite pleased to see it was still in good condition.built and finished in 1893 the fort consisted of six guns which could have the rounds lifted to them through lifts in the underground tunnels.used to defend the thames alongside coalhouse fort.it consisted of four six pdr guns and two ten pdrs in the middle.the fort was decommissioned in 1913 and sold to a farmer who used it as an air raid shelter.the fort has casements and barrack rooms.and some other buildings opposite the gun areas.

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Well captured Mikey, went here a good few years back now and I'm glad to see that it hasn't changed much. The place is so massively overgrown that you can only get to about 50 percent of it without a machete and a flame thrower. !!
 
Very nice set of images Mikey. However; putting my 'clever old sod' hat on, one point needs correction - The mechanical lifts did not transport 'rounds' of ammunition, but rather the separate explosive shell (without fuse) from one part of the battery and a canvas bag that contained the cordite or black powder propelling charge from another. The lift carrying the shell went up into the Fusing Room (one of the rooms behind the gun area) and the fuse was screwed in, after removing the transport cap on the nose, then carried to the gun on a cradle or trolley. The cordite charge went up into another room behind the gun, ready to be rammed down the barrel. The original guns were muzzle loaders - to load them they were turned around until the muzzle faced the propellant or shell room and the charge followed by shell were rammed down the barrel. Technically a round consists of a shell or bullet inserted into the mouth of the brass shell/cartridge case at manufacture and the complete ready to fire item is loaded into the breech of the gun barrel - obviously a much superior method of loading a gun. Sadly old muzzle loaders could not take a brass cartridge case, so the propellant was in a canvas bag and the actual shell was rammed separately down the barrel. I was born at a time when aged 'aunts and uncles' still had their homes full of weaponry from the Boar War and WW1. Sadly my three 'aunts' ( mothers of friends of my mother who had died in WW2) had lost their husbands and I never did learn much about the objects first hand.
 
Well captured Mikey, went here a good few years back now and I'm glad to see that it hasn't changed much. The place is so massively overgrown that you can only get to about 50 percent of it without a machete and a flame thrower. !!

Thank you fluffy.it did not seem too over grown.but it was still late winter/early spring.but deffo not lot changed from other pics
 
Very nice set of images Mikey. However; putting my 'clever old sod' hat on, one point needs correction - The mechanical lifts did not transport 'rounds' of ammunition, but rather the separate explosive shell (without fuse) from one part of the battery and a canvas bag that contained the cordite or black powder propelling charge from another. The lift carrying the shell went up into the Fusing Room (one of the rooms behind the gun area) and the fuse was screwed in, after removing the transport cap on the nose, then carried to the gun on a cradle or trolley. The cordite charge went up into another room behind the gun, ready to be rammed down the barrel. The original guns were muzzle loaders - to load them they were turned around until the muzzle faced the propellant or shell room and the charge followed by shell were rammed down the barrel. Technically a round consists of a shell or bullet inserted into the mouth of the brass shell/cartridge case at manufacture and the complete ready to fire item is loaded into the breech of the gun barrel - obviously a much superior method of loading a gun. Sadly old muzzle loaders could not take a brass cartridge case, so the propellant was in a canvas bag and the actual shell was rammed separately down the barrel. I was born at a time when aged 'aunts and uncles' still had their homes full of weaponry from the Boar War and WW1. Sadly my three 'aunts' ( mothers of friends of my mother who had died in WW2) had lost their husbands and I never did learn much about the objects first hand.

Thank you ds.that was quite an ifomative reply.i suppose they could not keep the explosive bits down below maybe for safety reasons.it was quite interesting just below one of the lifts.the tunnel leading to it was very black in sulphur.i guess from the firing of the rounds.i would think you would not like to be in them tunnels too much when the guns are letting loose
 
Damn, I live not far from here, had no idea this was here :/ looks awesome. Shame a Crystal Palace fan has tagged it haha
 

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