Flat Horn Island - The Forts - June 2010

[tumbles]

Following on from [ame="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=16970"]The Foghorn Station[/ame] the next bit of flat holm to take up the vast majority of my time on the island was the forts. In reality there wasn't enough time to even take in half of them.

Flat holm island has had two military occupations. First in the 1860’s and again in 1940 during world war 2.

In the 1850’s, Queen Victoria & Prince Albert visited france where they became concerned about the strength of the French Navy. The Royal Commission of 1860, under the direction of Lord Palmerston recommended fortification of the coast. Flat Holm formed part of a strategic costal defence system, a number of fortresses built across the Bristol Channel to protect the ports of Newport, Cardiff & Bristol.

Flat Holm was re-fortified after 1940 despite the heaviest raids on Cardiff being over. 350 men were stationed on the island and in addition to new building being built, existing buildings were adapted for use. The Cholera Hospital was turned into a NAAFI, cinema & concert hall, where films were shown fornightly and concerts laid on monthly. The farmhouse was used as the officer’s mess.

Some more on my website...
http://www.whateversleft.co.uk/index.php/the-forts-flat-holm-island/

 

[krela]

Flat Holm was re-fortified after 1940 despite the heaviest raids on Cardiff being over. 350 men were stationed on the island and in addition to new building being built, existing buildings were adapted for use. The Cholera Hospital was turned into a NAAFI, cinema & concert hall, where films were shown fornightly and concerts laid on monthly. The farmhouse was used as the officer’s mess.

Lovely stuff!

The WW2 era forts were naval forts with naval guns and formed a string of defences against German naval invasion taking in Brean Down Fort, Steepholm, Flatholm and Lavernock Point in Wales. They also served as observation posts looking out for the mines which were regularly dropped into the estuary by the germans throughout the war.

If I remember correctly the forts suffered quite badly with falling shrapnell from the AA guns also based at Lavernock point... fun!

 

[Munchh]

Quality post, thanks for this. I've not been here before, looking forward to seeing more I have to say.

 

[Foxylady]

Wonderful! Great seeing so many gun remains, which I'm guessing would be a leetle difficult to remove thanks to being on an island...thankfully for us.
Nice one, Tumbles.