Forder Battery

Forder Battery is a former 19th-century Fort in Devon, England, built as a result of the Royal Commission on National Defence of 1859. It was built to defend the landward approaches to the North East of Plymouth. This was part of an overall scheme for the defence of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport. They were known as Palmerston Forts after the Prime Minister who championed the scheme.

The Fort was connected by a military road to the nearby Fort Austin and Bowden Fort which both provided overlapping fire. It was originally designed to be armed with 16 guns. By 1893 it mounted four 64 Pounder Rifled Muzzle Loading Guns, one 7-inch Rifled Breech Loading (RBL) gun and two 32 Pounder Smooth Bore Breech Loading (SBBL) guns.

By the early 1900s the Fort had become obsolete as a defensive position and was disarmed. It was subsequently disposed of by the War Office with much of the fort being redeveloped for housing. Some of the expense magazines and gun positions survive.

External sources

 * Victorian Forts data sheet on Forder Battery