Newhaven Fort is officially listed as an 'ancient monument', but it is a comparatively modern feature in the long history of coastal defense in Britain. There were coastal fortifications near Newhaven a thousand years before William the Conqueror's invasion fleet sailed into Pevensey Bay in 1066. Through the centuries, an awareness of the need for defines persisted, although this did not always translate into positive action. Most of the measures to update, or strengthen, coastal defences were taken when a possibility of invasion - real or imagined - seemed imminent.

Since 1066 Britain has been free from invasion. Historians have pointed out that this could be claimed as a measure of the success of coastal defence measures. It may well be that the deterrent value of the defences was at least partially responsible for the guns staying silent.

Nevertheless, there have been several 'scare' periods when it was believed that the south coast was in danger of assault. In 1588 the Spanish Armada - badly shaken after eight days of almost continuous attack from the English fleet out of Plymouth, but still impressive in size, sailed up the English Channel to within sight, but not gun range, of a newly installed gun battery at Newhaven. The Spanish carried on to Calais, and was later to suffer more English naval attacks and subsequent disasters in heavy seas.

The Armada scare faded away and almost two centuries passed before the next potential invasion danger appeared, with the start of the Seven Years War. France, Russia and Austria combined in opposition to Prussia, which Britain had as an ally. There were widespread military encounters, but never any real danger of British shores being invaded. However, any conflict with France on the opposing side always conjured invasion possibilities.

Improved artillery installations appeared at several locations on the Kent and Sussex coastline, including Newhaven and Seaford. It is interesting to note that these defence arrangements had no direct connection with the two fighting services. Each gun battery had a master gunner, who was a wage earning civilian, assisted by one trained gunner, also a civilian. The rest of the personnel requirements were met by the recruiting and training of local volunteers.

The Palmerston Initiative

The Man Who Built the Fort

Newhaven Fort During WWI

Newhaven Fort During WWII

Invasion Scare

Operation Sea Lion

The Dieppe Raid

The Years of Neglect

The Palmerston Initiative

Ardagh arrived in Sussex to start work in the spring of 1862, using the summer months to prepare plans and layout the site. In addition to his undoubted engineering ability, he also had considerable artistic talent - this was evident by the beautifully executed design drawings produced for the fort.

Ardagh remained personally in charge until 1868, when he left to take up an appointment as secretary to the Committee on Coastal defences. He left one lasting legacy in the design of the drawbridge installed at Newhaven Fort, 'Ardagh's Equilibrium Bridge'. This was a clever cantilever design in which the roadway part would completely cover the doorway when in the raised position.

Ardagh died on September 30th, 1907 at the rank of Major General.

On the welfare side, the troops ablutions had four baths added and a 'recreation room' was established. The troops were regular soldiers of the Royal Garrison Artillery, but use was also made of the fort for training of 'Volunteers', part-time soldiers who became known as Territorials in 1908. Five years before the outbreak of World War 1, the Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery (Territorial Force) prepared for such an eventuality by carrying out a practice mobilisation of its two Brighton companies. All things considered, the practice was a very successful exercise.

When the war started in August 1914, the Territorials took over the fort from the peacetime garrison regulars. In addition to the gunners of the Sussex RGA, there were Territorial Royal Engineers manning searchlights out on the harbour breakwater and an infantry battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, although the latter were not accommodated in the fort, and were encamped a short distance away at Meeching Rise.

Below the fort, Newhaven harbour became the main military supply port for the British Expeditionary Force in France, as well as being a base for naval vessels on escort and other duties in the Channel. With this degree of military importance, the area was well defended. The fort's 6" guns were manned to work in association with a naval examination vessel, operating in the vicinity of the harbour mouth. This vessel's responsibility was to challenge and inspect all shipping approaching the harbour. If its order to stop was ignored, a fort gun would put a shot across the bows of the offender.

Although an assault on the port of Newhaven was always considered as a military possibility, it never became a probability and life for the fort garrison was uneventful. With heavy casualties on the Western Front, fit men were posted away from the fort to more active service. When the war ended, the garrison consisted largely of troops in low medical grades.

With peacetime conditions again prevailing, the fort became almost deserted. A Master Gunner with one NCO and a couple of civilian laborers were required only to keep the place in good order and to service the guns.

But outside the fort, military changes were afoot. The Territorial Force became the Territorial Army and coastal defence became the responsibility of those local, part-time soldiers. In a way, this was something of a reversion to the 'local volunteer' system which had existed at Newhaven a hundred and sixty years before.

It was only a matter of days, however, before Newhaven's lower status as a port was corrected and part of 159 Battery was brought back from Dover to man the fort on much the same strategic principals as were applied in the previous war. The fort's equipment was also practically the same as in 1914-18.

The untroubled calm which had prevailed at Newhaven during the first eight months of the war, vanished abruptly in May 1940, following the success of the German blitzkrieg in Belgium and France. After Dunkirk, it was all too obvious that Britain's new front line was its coasts - and nowhere more so than in Sussex. So, over 70 years after it was first planned to meet an invasion threat which never really existed, Newhaven Fort was at last facing a very real danger of seaborne attack from a formidable enemy.

All along the coast, emergency measures were implemented to strengthen defences, often with elderly guns and equipment. More men were moved into the fort and large numbers of troops took up defensive positions around Seaford Bay.

Real though the threat had been, once again the invasion never came. But the fort and surrounding area received much attention from the Luftwaffe. Bombing, machine gunning and incendiary attacks were almost daily occurrences. In 1942, a stick of bombs, which straddled the fort, came near to hitting an explosive-laden blockship at the harbour mouth. A hit would have meant a huge explosion, which would have put an end to Newhaven's port activities, at least for some considerable time.

In 1957, the remaining guns at the fort were removed for scrap and from then on, the fort was occupied by a small army unit.

After the army left in 1962, many schemes were put forward for the fort's use. In 1967, plans were put up for the fort to be converted into a holiday village, and the bulldozers moved on to the site. All structures above the rampart level were demolished and most of the underground tunnels were filled with spoil.

Houses and flats were constructed on the old battery, and the fort itself was left to decay and become vandalised. In 1981, Lewes District Council, the succeeding owners of the fort, accepted a scheme put forward by a private-sector company, specially created to restore the fort.

Authenticity was paramount in the restoration work, with special attention paid to detail. As an example, glass used in the windows was obtained from redundant Victorian greenhouses and bricks were carefully matched.

In 1982, the fort opened its doors to the public for the first time in its history.

Attempts however, to operate it as a commercial venture did not succeed, and Newhaven Fort is now administered directly by Lewes District Council.

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Newhaven Fort, Newhaven, East Sussex, BN9 9DS, United Kingdom.
Tel: 01273 517622 E-mail: info@newhavenfort.org.uk