Blacknor Fort

Blacknor Fort is a fort on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The fort is situated on the cliff edge within Blacknor area of the island, nearby to Hallelujah Bay and Mutton Cove. It is also found close to the estate of the Weston village and West Weares.

History
Built around 1902, the Victorian Fortress was built as a coastal defence against enemy vessels on the west side of the island. The fort sits in a commanding position overlooking Lyme Bay. The fort was built by local builders Jesty and Baker, who handed over the fort in January 1902 to the war department. The department then applied to divert the footpath on West Cliff "as it did not appear desirable that people should walk in front of a six inch gun". This request was refused, and the path remained public. The fort's stronghold was re-equipped during both World Wars. Four 9.2 inch guns were installed during The First World War. Today, the remaining gun emplacements and experimental anti-aircraft rocket pads can be seen from the top of the cliff.

When the possibility of another war began to be taken seriously around 1935, local people had become accustomed to heavy gunning practice from ships and Blacknor Fort, bombing on the new West Bay range, and mock battles around the coast. In 1937-39, anti-aircraft rockets, using 3-inch tubular charges produced by the Royal Naval Cordite Factory, Holton Heath, were tested at the fort by the Explosives Research Department of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. Gun-laying predictors monitored the fall of shot in an extended series of successful proving trials. These were discontinued and moved to Aberporth, Wales, when it became clear that Blacknor Fort would be needed by the army for the duration of the emergency that was developing into the Second World War. The rockets went into production with a 25-lb shell, both for anti-aircraft salvoes of 19 rockets in a cluster, and for air to ground anti-ship purposes. An improvised version had a 60-lb warhead for use against tanks, railway locomotives and other land targets. The rockets were also used for assisting aircraft to take off from merchant ships. In the outbreak of the second World War, the local Home Guard units were issued with uniforms and automatic weapons by 1940, and they took spells manning the 9.2" Blacknor Fort guns and the East Weares Batteries.

Blacknor Fort saw one of Portland's most remarkable pieces of aerial combat in the Battle of Britain. Beside it, on "The Castles" as Portland locals call the flat top of the 275-feet cliffs, Flying Officer Strickland, in a Hurricane of 213 Squadron from Exeter, bagged a German bomber in style on the afternoon of 11 August 1940. His Hurricane Fighter crippled the Junkers Ju.88 which then made an almost perfectly landing, but for the fact it snagged the fort's line of telephone wires, which retracted the undercarriage. The pilot was injured but his three comrades had only superficial knocks and the aircraft flopped down just about intact.

During World War 2 on the night of the 27 April 1944, the gunners of the fort witnessed The Slapton Sands Massacre. The fort's gunners were ordered not to open fire for fear of friendly fire when Nazi E-Boats attacked tank landing crafts carrying many American soldiers who were on exercise in Lyme Bay. The massacre saw more than 600 American soldiers and seamen drowned by the end of the night, where many were pulled down by the weight of their own equipment.

In Stuart Morris' 1990 book Portland Camera, a 1909 photograph showing a 9.2 inch gun in the Underhill village of Fortuneswell revealed that it took a major operation in order to get the gun up to Blacknor Fort.

Today the fort remains private property, where many "Private - Keep Out" signs surround the fort.

Land dispute
In 2004, a land dispute between the two owners of adjacent bungalows at the fort made national news.

According to a BBC news article, originally Edwin Hoskins and Graham Vranch became neighbours after they bought adjacent bungalows at Blacknor Fort. During 1978, the pair drew up a legal agreement which stated that if either men decided to sell their land, the other must be given first refusal for one month. Hoskins, who had worked as a building instructor for inmates in the prison service, decided to sell in January 2004, and Vranch made an offer to buy his property for £55,000, which was an offer much lower than expected. On 22 February, Hoskins decided to invite Vranch to his house, where he shot him with a gun. Vranch survived the shooting and Hoskins was imprisoned in July 2004, at Salisbury Crown Court. In 2006, Hoskins, serving his seven-year sentence at HMP Guys Marsh in Dorset, was found dead in his cell, after hanging himself from the window bars.

Private refurbishment
In 2008, a scheme to transform the fort into a state of the art new home was suggested.

The Channel 4 programme Grand Designs, presented by Kevin McCloud, was reported to be interested in featuring the project being tackled by Paul and Debbie Care (and their children Katie, Max, Zac and Lucy who has Down's syndrome), where the proposal was to see most of the home sitting on top of the emplacement's 62 ft-diameter circular concrete surround. The programme originally waited for full planning permission, which was granted by the end of the year. Paul Care, for the Dorset Echo, stated "A programme representative came down and visited us recently for interviews and pictures and we have now heard that they are very keen to do a programme on us and are just waiting for final confirmation." The Grand Designs programme began filming the project in December 2008, although the programme was never shown, where Debbie Care later stated in a 2011 View from Publishing online article "We hit design delays and we couldn't complete building in time to be used on the show."

The buying family had originally wanted somewhere to buy and refurbish, and Paul Care had become keen on the idea after seeing the fort views in an estate agent's window. Reportedly the fort had already sold, but the sale fell through and the family then purchased the property. The fort's cost of £250,000 was from the family's budget of £400,000, where the rest was to be used on refurbishment of the property. In the Dorset Echo article, Debbie Care revealed "We had been heading for Bournemouth to spend £250 on toys but we reached a decision, turned round and ended up spending £250,000 to buy the emplacement." Paul Care also added "We do have a budget of about £400,000 for the new build and one feature we know we want for the lower dining area is a glass wall along the east wall." The refurbished design ideas for the fort included a glass wall along the east wall for the dining area, whilst the upper part of the scheme would include the main living arrangements, with most of the rooms having a wedge shape. On top of this, the roof was to be covered in grass with solar panels and cells on the south face, whilst a central roof window would provide a skylight to the central part of the new home, as well as the creation of a two-car garage and an annexe on the site of the existing bungalow and magazine area.

In April 2011, the project was completed and the fort turned into a modern home. The area of where the gun shells used to come up remained untouched along with the hoist, whilst the sergeants' cookhouse and all the underground magazine levels were left untouched, although the cookhouse had plans of restoration.