The Western approach to the Solent, the water separating the West Wight from the mainland, is very narrow, very treacherous, but to an experienced seaman, vulnerable to a fleet sailing into the Solent to attack Portsmouth Harbour.

Natural Defences

The western Solent is well defended by nature, by both the Needles rocks and the hidden danger of the Shingles - a three-mile-long shoal of pebbles just beneath the waves that periodically shift position and shape, with the entrance, known as 'The Bridge', to the Solent only 1,500 yards wide. There is also the mixed blessing the Solent's fast, five knot tidal. The Solent also has a unique double tide with two high waters approximately an hour apart, which an attacking force could use in conjunction with the strong prevailing westerly wind to sail into the Solent quickly, passing the narrow western end, which is only a mile wide near Hurst Spit.

The French were well aware of how to take advantage of this, having invaded in 1377 when they attacked and all-but destroyed the Island's old capital of Newtown in the West Wight, and to prevent this from reoccurring a beacon system was maintained on the west Wight¹. This passage is often referred to as the Solent's 'Back Door'.

The West Wight and Freshwater Peninsula

On the West Wight lies the river Yar², which flows from close to Freshwater Bay on the south of the western tip of the Island out to the Solent at Yarmouth on the northern coast of the Island. This river all but isolates the Freshwater peninsula from the rest of the Island. With the exception of the small Freshwater Bay, the whole of this peninsula is surrounded by sheer chalk or clay cliffs, making it easily defended and hard to invade. In Victorian times it was decided to take full advantage of this by constructing fortifications on the peninsula to defend the Needles channel and western Solent from enemy ships where the Solent was at its narrowest and where the forts themselves could be best defended.

Until 1860, the only access to the Freshwater Peninsula, also known as the Freshwater Isle, was either by boat or by a small strip of land at Freshwater Bay, known as Freshwater Gate. Because of this it was considered that it would be easy to defend the Freshwater Peninsula in the event of an enemy infantry invasion.

The peninsula covers only about an eighth of the Island's total width and is roughly triangular in shape, forming a point at the Needles and widening to where the West Yar flows south to almost reach Freshwater Bay.

Early Forts

Before the Victorian era, numerous attempts had been made to fortify the Freshwater peninsula, especially in Tudor times.

Worsley's Tower

The earliest known defensive structure on the West Wight was Worsley's Tower, named after Sir James Worsley³, and built around 1525. This was an octagonal stone tower 26 feet wide built east of Cliff End, at what is now known as Round Tower Point in its honour. It was built on the shoreline with its guns on the roof, but because it was built on the shoreline it was vulnerable to attack from the overlooking high ground. In 1539 when the Earl of Southampton did a reconnaissance on the Island as part of Henry VIII's Device Henrician castle construction, which led to the construction of Hurst Castle on the Hurst Spit on the mainland, he described it as 'one of the worst devised things [ever seen].'

Worsley's Tower was replaced by Yarmouth Castle in 1547 and abandoned by 1570. It no longer exists.

Yarmouth Castle

Built in 1547. For more information, see the article on Yarmouth Castle.

Sharpnode Blockhouse and Carey's Sconce

In 1545 the French had invaded the Isle of Wight, and as a consequence Henry VIII ordered the construction of Yarmouth Castle in 1547, made out of stone, and supporting it, Sharpnode Blockhouse. This was an earth coastal blockhouse⁴, diamond shaped with two triangular tails on the southern and eastern points to form bastions⁵ facing inland to defend the earth fort from a landward attack from higher ground further inland. From eastern bastion point to west it was 60 feet wide.

Despite being small and rather basic in design, it was the third fort in Britain to have angle bastions, after Sandown Castle and Yarmouth Castle, both on the Isle of Wight.

In 1559 it was described with the words

'It is a massy platform only walled with plank, without any ditch about it. This bulwark up about 37 foot square and 8 foot high to the seawards, and hath two flankers with a higher wall to the landwards whereby they may flanker the piece with hercubusses that else might beat them from the hill at their backs.'

In 1589, after the threat of the Spanish Armada, Sharpnode Blockhouse was rebuilt. Although still an earth and wood structure, its shape was now a five-pointed star-shaped fort and it was renamed Carey's Sconce. This was named after the Island's governor, Sir George Carey⁶. This was later abandoned too, with no trace remaining except the name Sconce Point where once it stood.

Pre-Civil War

In the time leading up to the Civil War Sir John Oglander, Sheriff of Hampshire, Deputy-Governor of Portsmouth, and Deputy-Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight 1596-1648, fiercely campaigned for the defences of the Isle of Wight to be strengthened. In particular he was a strong proponent of defending the Freshwater Peninsula and having it, as well as Yarmouth, as a last line of defence should the Isle of Wight be invaded. He wrote in his memoirs:

'In January, 1629, the gentlemen of our Island concluded to go to London, to petition his Majesty for moneys to have our castles and forts some amended, others where most need required, new erected; and also for to have 2 places of retreat, if so we should be beaten. ...Freshwater for our cattle, and ye main body of our companies; and Yarmouth for ye better sort of people, where they might by boat have intercourse one with ye other. The fortifying of which places of retreat might be done by cutting of Freshwater Gate; and Yarmouth by ye cutting of ye nick of land between ye 2 seas, with drawbridges ...to secure ye passages.

...We showed them our desires to have Yarmouth [Castle], and Worseley's tower repaired, and Freshwater and Yarmouth to be fortified. They approved it, and demanded the estimate of ye charge, which wee told them would come to. ...£100 for Yarmouth Castle, £300 for Worseley's Tower and Carey's Sconce; for ye fortifying of Yarmouth to make it a place retrayte with cutting ye sea, making a drawbridge... £250; ye like for Freshwater, £250. My Lord Treasurer told me that on his honour we should have moneys very shortly.'

Alas the Lord Treasurer was not an honourable man, this was not done. As a consequence the 'better sort of people' were forced to remain as defenceless as the cattle and the rest of the Isle of Wight's population.

The Napoleonic Wars

After the Spanish Armada, west Solent's defences were Yarmouth Castle on the Island and Hurst Castle at the end of Hurst Spit on the mainland. In 1626 the Freshwater and Brooke militia had 62 musketeers, 36 pikemen, 18 officers and other ranks and two field cannon. In 1629 it was proposed that a defensive ditch should be dug across the peninsula to effectively isolate it from the rest of the Island, a plan never carried out.

Then in 1793 war with France erupted as a consequence of the 1789 French Revolution. Between 1795 and 1803 five earth batteries were constructed on the Island side of the western Solent in the area of the Freshwater peninsula, including at Sconce Point, Freshwater Bay and one at Cliff End, both armed with three 18 pounder cannon. In addition there were infantry barracks at Colwell Bay on the north of the Freshwater peninsula, and at Compton Chine and Grange Chine, both of which are near Freshwater Bay on the Island's south-west coast, but outside the peninsula area to help defend the west Wight as a whole. 150 men were stationed in Colwell and Compton Chine and 50 in Freshwater.

These were all disarmed and abandoned in 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo.

Defences of the West Wight

Unsurprisingly the population of the Freshwater peninsula increased dramatically after the construction of the coastal forts in the 1850s-60s. This was due not only to the number of soldiers stationed there but also to those involved in providing the services the forts needed.

Reason Behind Location Of Forts

The nine Victorian forts of the Freshwater Peninsula were built with different aims in mind. Freshwater Redoubt was built to defend Freshwater Bay's beach, the most vulnerable landing place on the south of the Freshwater peninsula. Golden Hill Fort served as the keep for the outlying batteries, and was intended to be both barracks and place of refuge in case of attack. Its main role would be to defend the access to the Freshwater peninsula by enemy troops from elsewhere on the Island, at least until reinforcements could be brought over from Hurst Spit on the Mainland.

For the batteries, although the Old and New Needles Batteries were placed on the solid chalk spine of the Island, in a position where they could fire down on passing ships, the other batteries had less than ideal positions. Most of the coast of the Freshwater peninsula is blue slipper clay, a subsiding substance that cannot be reliably built on. Although sea-level batteries would be ideal for attacking passing ships, they would be constructed beneath the clay cliffs and vulnerable to any enemy troops holding the high ground.

Military Road

In order to help defend the rest of the West Wight from foreign invaders, a new road, the Military Road, was constructed that led from the barracks at Freshwater Redoubt along the western coast of the Island to Chale. Any attempt to land troops along any of the beaches on the Western shore, where a enemy could ascend up the clay cliffs at one of the Chines, could be quickly met and dealt with.

Freshwater Peninsula And West Wight Forts From West to East

• Needles Old Battery (1861-3)
• New Needles Battery (1893-5)
• Hatherwood Point Battery (1865-9)
• Warden Point Battery (1862-3)
• Fort Albert (1854-6)
• Cliff End Battery (1859-77)
• Worsley's Tower (1535)
• Sharpnode Blockhouse (1547)
• Carey's Sconce (1589)
• Golden Hill Fort (1863-8)
• Fort Victoria (1852-5)
• Freshwater Redoubt (1855-6)
• Yarmouth Castle (1547)
• Bouldnor Battery (1941)

These forts for over a century were at the forefront of military development, seeing the testing of new weapons technology. They pioneered the use of searchlights, anti-aircraft guns, steam-powered guided missiles, radio development, underwater mines and intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear bomb to the other side of the world or taking a satellite into space.

Yar Stop Line

In the Second World War an idea first proposed by Sir John Oglander in the 1620s was finally implemented – the fortifying the Freshwater Peninsula to prevent its capture should the rest of the Isle of Wight be invaded. This idea, known as the Yar Stop Line, was a heavily fortified defensive stop line that made use of the water obstacles of the River Yar and Afton Marshes, reinforced with bunks, earthworks, barbed wire, roadblocks and pillboxes. A pillbox survives to this day on the Yar Causeway.

Inspiring Role In Literature?

Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson moved to Farringford House in Freshwater in 1853. During his time there he wrote many of his most famous poems, including The Charge of the Light Brigade, first published 9 December, 1854. During the time he wrote it he saw his peaceful village being turned into a military garrison, and by time he wrote his famous poem, three works, Fort Albert, Fort Victoria and Freshwater Redoubt, were being constructed within a short walk from his home. He no doubt regularly experienced

'Cannon to right of him,

Cannon to left of him,

Cannon behind him

Volley'd and thunder'd;

Storm'd at with shot and shell

...Plunged in the battery-smoke.'

There is a Walk The Forts walking route around the West Wight forts. This passes all the forts except Bouldnor Battery and also includes Yarmouth Castle and a Second World War pillbox.