The Needles Old Battery

The Needles Battery
The Needles, Isle of Wight, England
The view over the battery
The Needles Battery
Coordinates	50°39′44″N 1°35′02″W / 50.66213°N 1.58399°W / 50.66213; -1.58399
Site information
Owner	National Trust
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	1861–63
In use	1863 onwards
Materials	Brick

The Needles Battery is a military Battery built above the Needles stacks in 1861–63 to guard the West end of the Solent. Its field of fire was from approximately West South West clockwise to Northeast and it was designed to defend against enemy ships.

It was equipped with six 7-inch Armstrong rifled breechloading guns. These were replaced by four 7-inch and two 9-inch rifled muzzle loaders in 1872, and six 9-inch rifled muzzle loaders in 1893. The 9 inch guns took a team of 9 men to load and fire. These guns fired projectiles weighing 256 pounds (116 kg). The 9-inch guns remained in place until 1903 when they were discarded by throwing them over the side of the cliff. These were later recovered and two are on display presently at the Old Battery.

A deep ditch with a retractable bridge was dug into the chalk to protect the facility from ground attack from the island side. In 1885 a tunnel was dug towards the cliff face from the parade grounds. An elevator down to the beach was completed in 1887. Early searchlight experiments were conducted at the site between 1889 and 1892. The present observation post housing a searchlight was built in 1899.

Just to the east of the Old Battery, at Hatherwood Point are the remains of Hatherwood Battery, built to defend the area alongside the Needles Battery.

The Old Battery is a Grade II Listed Building.

A tunnel leads to a searchlight emplacement with good views towards the Needles lighthouse.

Unfortunately, there were subsidence problems and concerns that the concussion from firing the guns was causing the cliffs to crumble. This was solved by building the New Battery higher up the cliff, at a height of 120 metres above sea level. The New Battery was completed in 1895.

Three 9.2-inch Mk IX breech-loading guns were installed at the New Battery : two in 1900 and a third in 1903. A crew of 11 was required to fire one of these guns. Each shell weighed 380 pounds (172 kg). The New Battery guns remained in place until 1954, when they were scrapped.