South Sutor

This staircase and slide, which led down the steep NNE-facing slope from a gap in the low stone parapet bordering the N side of the military road (NH86NW 11.33), formed part of the infrastructure of the battery introduced by the Admiralty during the First World War. A concrete threshold on the crest of the parapet, marking the location of the staircase immediately west of the slide, measures 1.22m in breadth, while putlogs in the revetment wall below the parapet originally supported its timber superstructure. Further putlogs immediately to the SE and 0.5m below the parapet mark the location of the accompanying timber slide, which was the same width as the staircase. Deciduous trees now interrupt their former course down the steep incline to the buildings below, but a straight line of rush-grown, rectangular concrete blocks on which both of their foundations rested are spaced at irregular intervals on the slope. These blocks measure 2.6m in breadth, 0.4m in thickness and at least 0.8m in height, but where they cease to carry the staircase, they reduce to 1.37m in breadth. The summits of some exhibit two different heights, but where this occurs the variation is always on the W where it is associated with the staircase, as the slide falls at a consistent gradient down to the engine house (NH86NW 11.19). After an unusually wide gap at this point, two further concrete blocks continue the line of the staircase down to the path that leads E past the cookhouse and store (NH86NW 11.37) to the gun emplacements (NH86NW 11.8).

The staircase and the slide are shown on a plan of the battery in the Fort Record Book held in the National Archives at Kew (WO 78.5912 15/19). In addition, four photographs taken on 29 August 1913 illustrate various sections. One (SC1116233) shows the WNW end of the military road, the revetment wall to its NNE and the point where this is breached by the slide and the staircase. The concrete pillars supporting the two structures are visible, while the latter is shown to have had a handrail on the E. A second (SC1116246), facing in the opposite direction and taken from the end of the road, not only illustrates the staircase and the slide in greater detail, but also shows that the latter was a simple structure with a shallow, rectangular cross-section. A third photograph (SC1116235) taken from a path to the W of the barracks shows the staircase and the landing providing access to the path leading E to the Officer’s hut; while a fourth photograph (SE893188) shows the staircase passing the SE elevation of the barracks, with landings bridging the gaps to the doorways in the gable ends of each of the tiered compartments. The steps in this section still seem to be under construction.

Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, AKK), 20 February 2020.