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Calshot Spit

Landforms of HampshireSpits of England
Hants 050103 45 calshot
Hants 050103 45 calshot

Calshot Spit is a one-mile long sand and shingle bank, near the village of Calshot, located on the southern bank of the open end of Southampton Water, on the south coast of England.At the end of the spit are Calshot Castle (built by King Henry VIII), an RNLI lifeboat, an NCI station, several slipways, a former Royal Navy and Royal Air Force flying boat station and Calshot Activities Centre. The neck of the spit is owned by New Forest District Council while the end of the spit is owned by the Crown Estate which leases it to Hampshire County Council.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Calshot Spit (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Calshot Spit
Jack Maynard Road, New Forest Fawley

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Wikipedia: Calshot SpitContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.816272 ° E -1.306495 °
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Calshot

Jack Maynard Road
SO45 1BR New Forest, Fawley
England, United Kingdom
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Hants 050103 45 calshot
Hants 050103 45 calshot
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Calshot Castle
Calshot Castle

Calshot Castle is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII on the Calshot Spit, Hampshire, England, between 1539 and 1540. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire and defend Southampton Water as it met the Solent. The castle had a keep at its centre, surrounded by a curtain wall and a moat. Initially heavily armed, it had a garrison of 16 men and as many as 36 artillery guns. The castle continued in use for many years, surviving the English Civil War intact and being extensively modernised in the 1770s. During the 19th century, Calshot Castle was used by the coastguard as a base for combating smuggling. In 1894, however, fresh fears of a French invasion led to it being brought back into use as an artillery fort: a large coastal battery was constructed alongside the older castle and a boom built across Southampton Water, controlled from the castle. During the First World War, Calshot Castle was primarily used as a base for seaplanes, deployed on anti-submarine patrols in the English Channel; its guns were removed before the end of the war, probably for use in France. The air base, by then called RAF Calshot, grew in size during the inter-war years, hosting the Schneider Trophy air races. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Calshot was re-armed in the face of a possible German invasion. The station continued in use after the war, but as military seaplanes became obsolete, it was finally closed in 1961. After a short period of use by the coastguard, the castle was opened to the public by English Heritage in the 1980s. Restored to its pre-1914 appearance, the castle received 5,751 visitors in 2010. Historic England considers Calshot a "well-preserved example" of King Henry's Device Forts.