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© Mr Anthony Chapman
IoE Number:
91987
Location:
FOG SIGNAL BATTERY,
LUNDY, TORRIDGE, DEVON
Photographer:
Mr Anthony Chapman
Date Photographed:
03 May 2005
Date listed:
07 October 1991
Date of last amendment:
07 October 1991
Grade
II
The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incorporate subsequent amendments to the list. For the statutory list and information on the current listed status of individual buildings please go to The National Heritage List for England.
LUNDY
SS14SW BATTERY POINT
1938-0/2/10 Fog Signal Battery
II
Fog signal battery. Circa 1861 for Trinity House. Dressed
granite, gable-ended, now roofless. Small single cell
rectangular building on platform projecting from cliffs.
Exterior: One storey. Gable end facing sea has square
splayed gun- port and granite raking buttresses at the
corners. Sides each have a small square window, splayed on
the inside, and the side facing the cliff has a wide doorway.
All openings have granite lintels.
Interior: All openings in walls have wooden frames. Floor is
paved in brick and has granite tracks sloping down to
gun-port for gun-carriages. The 2 George IV 18-pounder
cannons are now situated outside flanking the battery on iron
carriages.
Note: The Old Lighthouse (qv) is situated at 470 feet above
sea level and was often obscured by fog. In an attempt to
solve the problem a fog signal battery was built in circa
1861 on cliffs below. The installation included cottages for
the gunners (Battery Cottages qv) and a Magazine and Privies
(qv). In 1878 Trinity House substituted guncotton rockets
for the guns and in 1881 it was even considered that the
lower lights of the Old Lighthouse should be moved to the
Battery. Bells, hooters and whistles were also experimented
with but The Old Lighthouse and Battery were eventually
abandoned in 1897 when the North and South Lundy Lighthouses
(qv) were built. (Lighthouses, their Architecture, History
and Archaeology:D B Hague and R. Christie; Lundy:A and M
Langham).