Newhaven Fort - History

History

The fort proper was originally armed on the Eastern side in the 1870s with two 9-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns on "Moncrieff" disappearing carriages, the only such arrangement in the UK. From about 1906 the armament consisted of two modern 6-inch Mark VII breechloading naval guns, and two modern light QF 12-pounder guns for defence against torpedo boats.

The main 6-inch Mark VII guns were replaced in 1941 by a battery of 6-inch Mark 24 guns (a modern coast-defence version of the Mark VII built during World War II), which were located west of the fort.

The Army vacated the fort in 1962. Restoration began in 1982 following a failed commercial redevelopment venture, and 6-inch Mk VII guns have been re-installed in the fort to approximate the 1906 - 1941 armament. The fort is preserved and maintained by Lewes District Council as Newhaven Fort.

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