Fort Gilkicker

Fort Gilkicker is a historic Palmerston fort built at the eastern end of Stokes Bay, Gosport, Hampshire to dominate the key anchorage of Spithead. It was erected between 1863 and 1871 as a semi-circular arc with 22 casemates, to be armed with 5 12" guns, 17 10" guns and 5 9" guns. The actual installed armament rather differed from this. In 1902 the RML guns were replaced by 2 9.2" and 2 6" BL guns, and before the First World War the walls were further strengthened with substantial earthwork embankments.

The First Fort on Gilkicker Point was constructed as an auxiliary battery to Fort Monckton and consisted of an earthen rampart for eleven guns firing through embrasures cut through the parapets. The battery was a distorted quadrilateral in shape with a long gorge (or rear) a short sea facing rampart with two flanking faces. The front faces were protected by a ditch which was flanked by musketry caponiers at the angles. The rear was closed off by a brick wall with a barrack for officers at its centre. The battery was heavily criticised by James Fergusson, who eventually became the Treasury representative on the Royal Commission in to the defences of the United Kingdom, set up in 1859. In his paper ‘The Peril of Portsmouth’ he stated that the battery was in danger of collapse under the weight of its own guns and could easily be captured by a small force landing in the bay as it could offer little resistance. As a result, the Defence Committee proposed a new work to replace it.

The current Fort Gilkicker was constructed between the years 1863 and 1869 at Stokes Bay, Gosport. Its purpose was to defend the deep water anchorage at Spithead and to protect the western approach to Portsmouth harbour. The fort was begun by a contractor who failed in November 1863 early in the stages of the construction and a renowned civil engineer, John Towlerton Leather who was already involved in the construction of the great sea forts at nearby Spithead, was asked to complete the Fort at Gilkicker. His yard was nearby at Stokes Bay, the site of which eventually became the Stokes Bay Submarine Mining Establishment. The new Fort Gilkicker was conceived as a curvilinier fort for twenty six guns on one level firing through armoured embrasures with a barrack closing the rear. It faced in a more easterly direction that its predecessor and its principal role was to direct fire on Sturbridge Shoal and to the flanks were to bear upon Spithead and Stokes Bay. The design for the fort was altered slightly and it was completed in 1871 for twenty two guns in casemates with five heavier guns in open positions on the roof.The estimated cost of Fort Gilkicker in 1869 was £61,395, the actual cost on completion being £58,766.

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