Spitbank fort Portsmouth solent
The four Solent forts were built for the protection of Portsmouth and it's harbour from sea attack and bombardment. The most likely "enemy" was the French. At the same time, land forts in Gosport and Portsdown were also built to counteract any other land or sea attack. They were never used in anger and have become known locally as "Palmerston's Follies" after the Prime Minister of the time. Horse-Sands, No Mans Land and St Helen's were constructed between 1865-80. Spitbank was started two years later in 1867. Another fort, on Ryde Sand, was abandoned after construction had started due to unstable foundations. In 1848 Louis Napoleon, nephew of Bonaparte, became President of the French Second Republic. In 1852, he seized complete power and declared himself Emperor Napoleon III. His ambitions, including the large army at his disposal, aroused concern in Britain, culminating in general public panic and clamour for the government to do something to protect the country from invasion. However, these initial plans did not materialise and in 1854, Britain joined a temporary alliance with France in war against Russia but suspicions remained about French intentions after the war. The British government set about addressing the situation in the Solent. In 1857, it was proposed that three land forts were to be constructed between the existing Forts Elson and Gomer, the Hilsea Line's fortifications were to be rebuilt at the edge of Portsea Island and additional works along the Southsea coast to be constructed. With the advances in steam propulsion, defence policy of old, where warships could maintain a close blockade on enemy ports, was no longer viable. Additionally, advances in ordnance manufacture had improved range and accuracy, giving an enemy the chance of bombarding coastlines from the sea and out of the range of coast defences. The government set up a Royal Commission into the issues and their conclusions were that a ring of new detached sea forts should be constructed
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Photo credit: © Natrow Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
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Keywords: defence, dock, docks, england, fort, french, german, gun, guns, hampshire, hants, harbour, navy, portsmouth, royal, solent, spitbank, uk, war
