Summary

Two military boundary stones and two lengths of railings marking the west boundary of the parcel of land associated with Martello Tower P between around 1890 and 1900.

Description

Two military boundary stones and two lengths of railings marking the west boundary of the parcel of land associated with Martello Tower P between around 1890 and 1900.

MATERIALS: the boundary stones are of cut stone, and the railings are of wrought iron.

PLAN: the boundary stones are both square on plan and around 50cm wide. The railings run north and south of Old Fort Road, each length measuring around 55m.

DESCRIPTION: The two boundary stones stand to the north and south of Old Fort Road at the former boundary of the four-acre parcel of land associated with Martello Tower P. Both boundary stones stand around 1m high and are around 50cm wide. They are carved on their west face (so that they are visible approaching the tower from the west); the north stone reads ‘WD / No 5’ and the south stone reads ‘WD / No 8’ and both bear a broad arrow symbol between the letters W and D. The boundary stones were probably erected around 1890 when the former coastguard station and cottages were erected (demolished in 2008).

Two lengths of wrought-iron fence run north and south from Old Fort Road, each around measuring around 55m in length, marking the western boundary of the four-acre parcel of land associated with Martello Tower P. The fence is composed of sections of vertical spiked rails connected by a horizontal top rail, supported by posts at around 2m intervals. It is likely the fence was erected around 1897 when Martello Tower P became a wireless telegraph station.

History

Martello towers are a series of small coastal artillery forts, built on the south and east coasts of England to counter the threat of invasion from France in the Napoleonic era (roughly 1799 to 1815). Between 1796 and 1815, 194 towers were built in Britain and its dependencies as a result of the British being at war with both France and the United States of America. 74 towers were built along the south coast from Folkestone in Kent to Seaford in Sussex between 1805 and 1808 and were identified by numbers (1-74). 29 towers were constructed along the east coast of Essex and Suffolk between 1808 and 1812; these were identified by letters of the alphabet, starting with Martello ‘A’ at St Osyth, and ending with ‘CC’ at Slaughden just south of Aldeburgh (having started again at AA once they passed Z). Of the 29 towers built along the east coast, 18 survive. Most of the east coast towers had a forward battery, some of which were constructed in the 1790s when the threat of French invasion seemed real. Dry moats were built around some of the towers; they are typically 16.5ft (5m) deep and 33ft (10m) wide and were formed of a brick lining with compacted soil piled against it to form an external slope. Some towers were also constructed with a defensive sloping bank known as a glacis. All of the east coast towers have an associated parcel of land, sometimes as large as four acres (1.62 ha), which in most cases was defined by boundary marker stones and in some places also by a boundary ditch and bank.

Martello Tower P was built between 1808 and 1812 overlooking the North Sea, supporting Landguard Fort (1.4km south-west) and Martello Tower Q (1.3km north-east). Defensive requirements were diminished following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This swift obsolescence meant that as early as 1819 the War Office sold some towers for building materials, and some were adapted for other uses; Martello Tower P was occupied by a caretaker and his family and the Coastguards from 1831. A view of Martello Tower P at Walton Beach, drawn by Henry Davy in 1837, shows the tower from the south with a timber lifeboat house between the tower and the sea. By the 1850s developments in artillery meant the towers were not strong enough to withstand an attack, and all the Martello towers in the area had their guns removed, except Landguard Fort and Harwich Redoubt which remained armed. In the second half of the C19 Martello Tower P and other nearby towers were re-armed to enhance the defences of Harwich. A survey of the site undertaken in 1864 for the War Office and published in 1866 records Martello Tower P standing near the centre of a square parcel of land, measuring 4 acres in area, with a boundary stone (BS) to each corner of the land parcel, and a wooden ‘Lifeboat House’ and ‘Gun Shed (Volunteer Artillery)’ between the tower and the sea.

Military boundary stones were used to delineate the boundaries of military sites in the UK. The War Department (WD) was responsible for erecting these stones following the disbanding of the Board of Ordnance (BO) in 1855. Boundary stones were required where their omission might result in encroachments on War Department property. The surviving boundary stones west of Martello Tower P are inscribed ‘WD’ with a broad arrow symbol and the number of the stone (No 5 and No 8). The boundary stones are not shown on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey (OS) maps published in 1881. They were most likely erected around 1890 when a coastguard station and cottages were constructed in the north-west quadrant of the parcel of land known as Wireless Green, with a central entrance along the west side (shown on the 1903 OS map). Old Fort Road was layed out in the early C21, but the boundary stones are clearly shown in their current location on the 1926 OS map.

In 1897, wireless telegraphy was introduced to the Royal Navy by Guglielmo Marconi and Captain HB Jackson, RN and Martello Tower P was chosen as one of Britain’s first Type ‘C’ shore stations. Two tall transmitter aerials were erected on the roof of the tower, held in place by four cemented iron anchors, after which the parcel of land became known as Wireless Green. It is likely the surviving railings west of the tower were erected at that time for the security of the site. During the First World War (1914-18) the wireless station played a vital role in naval intelligence, intercepting messages between enemy warships operating in the North Sea. During the Second World War (1939-45) Martello Tower P continued its coastguard duties and became a post for the Observer Corps, (which became the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) in 1941). Their task was to plot the number, height, speed, and heading of enemy aircraft and V-1 Flying bombs passing overhead using a Micklethwaite Height Corrector, situated on the former gun platform. During the Cold War an underground ROC post was constructed north of the tower on Wireless Green, designed to protect ROC volunteers from nuclear attacks and allow them to monitor radioactive fallout in the event of nuclear attack. The former coastguard station and cottages in the north-west quadrant of Wireless Green were demolished in 2008. A housing scheme was built along the south and west sides of Wireless Green around 2015 and the railings form the west boundary of this development.

Reasons for Listing

The two boundary stones and lengths of railings erected west of Martello Tower P between around 1890 and 1900 are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:
* as the remaining boundary markers for the parcel of military land associated with Martello Tower P;
* for the rich military history of Martello Tower P and Wireless Green throughout the C19 and C20, operating as a coastguard station, wireless telegraphy station, and observation posts during the First World War, Second World War and Cold War.

Group value:
* they form an important historic group with Martello Tower P (listed at Grade II) and the scheduled military site of Martello Tower P and Wireless Green.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)