Watch House Battery is a former 19th-century gun battery, built as one of a number of batteries to defend the Eastern approaches to Plymouth Sound, for the defence of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport.
The battery was originally built as a small pentagonal redoubt with emplacements for five guns. By 1893 it was armed with two 64 Pounder Rifled Muzzle Loading Guns. In 1901 the battery was reconstructed for two 6-inch Mark VII breech loading guns with the work being completed in 1903.Maps and Plans, Watch House Battery 1904-40, The National Archives, WO78/5058 During the First World War the battery was manned by the Devonshire Royal Garrison Artillery.Col K W Maurice-Jones, 1959. The History of Coast Artillery in the British Army, Royal Artillery Institution, London, p187
After the Second World War the battery remained armed until the dissolution of coast artillery in the United Kingdom in 1956 when it was disarmed.Fort Record book, Watch House Battery 1901-53, The National Archives, WO192/292 It was released by the military and subsequently used as a children's activity centre for some years. It was Grade II listed in 1969.
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Bibliography
External sources Victorian Forts data sheet on Watch House Battery