Charles Hill Battery

This spigot mortar emplacement is situated close to the cliff-edge on the E side of the peninsula and 43m N of the building that overlies the Monk’s Cave. The emplacement includes a mount that comprises a steel pin set into the top of a concrete base. The pin measures 100mm high and 50mm in diameter at its top but it splays out to a diameter of 75mm at its base, where it rests on top of a flat steel plate 300mm in diameter. The top of this steel plate would have originally lain flush with the upper surface of the concrete foundation which held the pin secure, but the surface of this has been lost revealing steel reinforcing rods that radiate out from the centre. This concrete foundation comprises an octagonal block measuring 1.08m from side to side and at least 0.4m in height, though it is likely that most of the block lies buried. The emplacement also included an area measuring about 3m in diameter around the mount which has been excavated to a depth of at least 0.5m. It is likely that the emplacement would have originally also been equipped with a low wall of sandbags secured by angle-irons (one of which survives) and wire.

Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (J. Sherriff; A. McCaig) 25 July 2022.