West Blockhouse Fort

West Blockhouse Fort
Dale, Pembrokeshire in Wales
A view of the barracks from the terreplein or gun platform at West Blockhouse Fort.
Coordinates	51°41′18″N 5°09′29″W / 51.6883°N 5.1580°W / 51.6883; -5.1580Coordinates: 51°41′18″N 5°09′29″W / 51.6883°N 5.1580°W / 51.6883; -5.1580
Type	Coastal artillery fort
Site information
Owner	Landmark Trust
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	1857-1858

West Blockhouse Fort is a mid-19th century coastal artillery fort at West Blockhouse Point, a rocky headland near Dale, Pembrokeshire, to the west of Milford Haven in Wales.

The site of the present fort was previously occupied by a disused blockhouse which had been built by order of King Henry VIII as part of a national fortification programme initiated in 1539. It was called West Blockhouse; a corresponding but uncompleted gun tower on the other side of the Milford Haven Waterway near Angle was called East Blockhouse. West Blockhouse was demolished in preparation for the construction of the present fort and there are no visible remains.

The present fort was planned in the early 1850s in response to a perceived threat from the Emperor Napoleon III of France, who had come to power following a coup d'etat in December 1851. It was intended to protect the anchorage at the mouth of the Milford Haven Waterway by means of interlocking fire with nearby Thorn Island Fort and Dale Fort which were constructed at the around the same time. A date of 1857 is inscribed over the main entrance, and it had been completed by 1858. Although there were various proposals to either rearm the fort's increasingly obsolete six 68-pounder muzzle-loading guns or to abandon it altogether, it was not until 1893 that it was reduced to the status of a "practice battery" and was finally disarmed in 1900. However, in 1901, the terreplein or gun platform was rebuilt to take four 5 inch gun breech-loading guns and a further two 3 pounder quick-firing guns were installed on the roof of the barrack block. By 1907, the nearby West Blockhouse Battery having been completed, all of the guns at the fort had been removed, but it continued in use for storage and accommodation. During the Second World War, the fort became the headquarters of the Haven's searchlight defences and two searchlight positions were built close by.