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Popton Fort

Forts in PembrokeshireGrade II* listed buildings in PembrokeshireGrade II* listed fortsHistory of PembrokeshirePalmerston Forts
Scheduled monuments in PembrokeshireWelsh building and structure stubs
Popton Fort geograph.org.uk 1262954
Popton Fort geograph.org.uk 1262954

Popton Fort, a Grade II* Listed Building, is a Palmerston fort completed in 1864 as part of the inner line of defence of Milford Haven together with Fort Hubberstone on the opposite bank. Work commenced in 1859, only completed in 1864 at a cost of £76,000. It has tapering hexagonal ramparts with pentagonal bastions at the angles. It is surrounded by a large clear area of sloping ground to the front, and a ditch on the south side. It contained eleven 9-inch 12 ton rifled muzzle loaded guns in casemates, and ten guns in open emplacements. The barracks located at the rear could house ten officers, five staff sergeants and 158 other ranks. Facilities included a canteen, wash rooms and a hospital. It comprises two batteries, Moncrieff Battery on the west side and Open Battery on the north. Abandoned at the start of the 20th century it was used again during the Second World War. Bought in 1957 by BP to be used as an oil terminal it was renovated but was closed to the public. It is now part of Valero's Angle Bay Refinery. The fort was Grade II* listed in 1996 and is currently a private property.

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

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.693 ° E -5.048 °
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Fort Popton

Bullwell Road
SA71 5SJ , Angle
Wales, United Kingdom
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linkWikiData (Q7229652)
linkOpenStreetMap (1078017472)

Popton Fort geograph.org.uk 1262954
Popton Fort geograph.org.uk 1262954
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Nearby Places

Fort Hubberstone
Fort Hubberstone

Fort Hubberstone, on the west side of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, is a Grade II* Listed Building which belongs to a series of forts built as part of the inner line of defence of the Haven following the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom. Together with Popton Fort on the opposite shore, it provided an interlocking field of fire, and represented the last layer of defence before reaching the Royal Naval dockyard at Pembroke Dock. Construction began in 1860 and was completed in 1863 at a cost of £55,000. It is a large battery, with eleven guns in casemates, eight in an open battery above, with another nine in an open flank battery, and a large barracks to the rear. It is a D-shaped structure, with a bomb-proof roof which protected the barracks and other buildings from mortar projectiles. On its landward side, it was protected by a deep ditch, and on the seaward side by a counter-scarp gallery. The associated casemate battery is located further down the headland and separated from the fort. The barracks had capacity for 250 men, sourced from the Royal Pembrokeshire Artillery and the 24th Regiment of Foot. Recruitment however was frequently constrained by the isolation of the fort, lacking the appeal of more urban stations. The fort was often required to fire live practice rounds, and in 1894 participated in experiments to illuminate targets with searchlights so they could be engaged at night. Notoriously, in 1875 Lieutenant Walter of the militia was murdered by a Doctor Alder in a drunken brawl. The fort was abandoned after World War I as a consequence of the Haldane Reforms. A 1919 proposal to convert the structure into social housing came to nothing. World War II saw the fort once again in active use, when it was used as an air raid shelter and army camp for American military personnel. On a good site, the fort has fallen into disrepair. Under the ownership of Milford Haven Port Authority, there were various unsuccessful plans to restore the structure. The site is not currently open to the public, and has been the scene of non-fatal injuries to trespassers. In 2011 it was named as the fifth most endangered archaeological site in the UK by British Archaeology, which prompted a campaign to seek a long-term sustainable use of the site. In 2019, plans were announced to convert the site into a military-based residential camp for former service men and women. These plans were subsequently dropped due to a media scandal involving Camp Valour. In September 2020, the site was purchased by Guy Anderson, a private investor and local councillor, who announced it would be open it to the public as a ‘living ruin’. In 2021 it featured on the BBC television programme Hidden Wales: Last Chance to Save.[1].

Milford Haven
Milford Haven

Milford Haven (Welsh: Aberdaugleddau, lit. 'mouth of the two rivers Cleddau' ) is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was founded in 1790 by Sir William Hamilton, who designed a grid street pattern. He intended it to be a whaling centre, but by 1800 it was developing as a Royal Navy dockyard which it remained until the dockyard was transferred to Pembroke in 1814. It then became a commercial dock, with the focus moving in the 1960s, after the construction of an oil refinery built by Esso, to logistics for fuel oil and liquid gas. By 2010, the town's port had become the fourth largest in the United Kingdom in terms of tonnage, and continues its important role in the United Kingdom's energy sector with several oil refineries and one of the biggest LNG terminals in the world. Milford Haven is the most populous community in the county, with a population of 13,907 within the community boundary at the 2011 census. When measured in terms of urban area the population was 13,582, making it the second largest urban area in the county after Haverfordwest (where the urban area extends beyond its community boundary). The natural harbour of the Haven was known as a safe port and was exploited for several historical military operations throughout the second millennium. Campaigns conducted from the Haven included part of the invasion of Ireland in 1171 by Henry II and by Cromwell in 1649. Forces which have disembarked at the point include Jean II de Rieux's 1405 reinforcement of the Glyndŵr Rising. In 1485, the future Henry VII landed close to his birthplace in Mill Bay before marching on to England.