Description

BRIXHAM

SX95NW BERRY HEAD COUNTRY PARK, Berry Head
1946-1/2/9 Ramparts, revetments, N battery
18/10/49 platform, N & S musketry walls of
northern fort
(Formerly Listed as:
BERRY HEAD COMMON
Berry Head Fort, NE Redoubt)

GV II*

Formerly known as: Walls of redoubt NE of Berry Head Common
BERRY HEAD COMMON.
Defences of military redoubt. 1795-1807. Probably designed by
Lt-Col Alexander Mercer. Ramparts and musketry walls of
roughly coursed squared Devonian limestone rubble; gate piers
and gun embrasures of ashlar. Ramparts and battery platform
have granite string courses.
Ramparts cut off the neck of the northern promontary of Berry
Head, protecting the seaward-looking artillery batteries from
landward attack. The ramparts are 3-sided with 18 gun
embrasures; roughly central gateway with long walled passage
behind. Dry moat in front, deepest next to the gate. Adjoining
the northern rampart is a battery platform, protected on its
south-western side by a long musketry wall. A short stretch of
musketry wall has survived on its north-eastern side, but most
has been destroyed by quarrying.
A substantial stretch of the southern musketry wall survives,
approx 140m long, running north-east from the southern end of
the ramparts. It includes a triangular projection or 'redan'
to provide covering fire along the wall face. Ramparts are of
earth with a slightly battered stone revetment wall on the
outside. Inside is a raised terrace with the gun platforms cut
into it; these have stone rubble side walls and some have
floors of granite slabs installed in 1802-09 to replace the
original wooden floors. Gun embrasures are slightly splayed on
the inside and broadly splayed on the outside. Cannon have
been imported into a few of them to give some idea of their
original appearance.
The gateway, now approached by an earthern causeway,
originally had a wooden drawbridge. The recesses and some of
the iron fittings for this are still visible on the inner
faces of the tall gate piers, which have neckings and caps
made from projecting stone courses; the caps have shallowly
chamfered tops with iron spikes for former finials. Half-way
down the passage at either side is a shallow recess in the
stone side walls; these have iron hinges and were presumably
designed to hold a pair of gates folded back.
At the rear the walls slope downwards to match the ramparts,
curving outwards at each end and finished with a round pier;
that to north retains a shallow conical cap of red sandstone.
The higher parts of the walls have flat stone copings; these
have mostly been removed in the lower parts. The counterscarp
revetment wall, which exists only for a short stretch at
either side of the entrance causeway, is of roughly coursed,
squared limestone rubble.
The battery platform has no features, apart from the granite
string course along the top of its front retaining wall and
the musketry walls at either side. Neither these nor the
southern musketry wall has a coping.
(Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Reports: Pye A R:
Berry Head Fort, Brixham: 1990-: 14-17).

Listing NGR: SX9427856521

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17549988

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)