"E" Battery, East Weare

[godzilla73]

So, there were some pics posted last year of the bulk of East Weare (which is on the Isle of Portland), which is an interesting Victorian battery just down from the Verne. However, they didn't feature any of "E" battery, which is a bit further inland, and also is the only one of the five original gun batteries that I can find a picture of in its original state.

Anyhoo, this battery is quite overgrown but still has some nice original features. This first building is, I believe the one to the right in the original black and white photo linked to above, and features a powder magazine and lighting passage. It also has a vent shaft on top.

















Behind this building is what we assumed was the orignal guardroom for the battery which has some interesting bits of ironwork left on it.







Now, in the original black and white photo, you can't see the main gun pit, because its obscured by the building behind the above one. This second building is now sealed up, but this is the entrance you can see in the black and white pic:


To the right of this is the original gunpit, which is notable for the inscription about the racer (this was the steel platform that the gun "raced" around the pit on). There's a lot of similarity to this gun pit and the ones at Citadel Battery in Dover, which this is contemporary to.











Thanks for looking
Godzy

 

[Neverwillchange]

Great photos, thanks for sharing.

 

[night crawler]

Looks like an old canon embeded in the concrete in the last few.

 

[flyboys90]

Looks like an old canon embeded in the concrete in the last few.

Thats what I thought too surely not?

 

[flyboys90]

Great pics & report.

 

[RichCooper]

Nice one mate hope to be down there in 3 weeks and thats wet the appetite nicely

 

[MrGruffy]

nice shots

 

[Newage]

Just a few more

Mr Godzilla my boy, your pictures are getting better and better, I cant add many more as we all sort of did the same shots but here goes.

Cheers Newage

 

[godzilla73]

Looks like an old canon embeded in the concrete in the last few.

We had a long discussion about that. The other chaps thought it might have been but I've seen these in other places and I'm not sure they ever were actually canons, even though they might have been cast in the same way. victorianforts.co.uk makes reference to the "central pivot" of this type of battery, but doesn't say that they were original canons or not. If there are any Palmerston boffs on here, they might be able to shed light on the matter!

Godzy