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Cliffe Fort
Cliffe Fort is a disused artillery fort built in the 1860s to guard the entrance to the Thames from seaborne attack. Constructed during a period of tension with France, it stands on the south bank of the river at the entrance to Cliffe Creek in the Cliffe marshes on the Hoo Peninsula in North Kent. Its location on marshy ground caused problems from the start and necessitated changes to its design after the structure begin to crack and subside during construction. The fort was equipped with a variety of large-calibre artillery guns which were intended to support two other nearby Thamesside forts. A launcher for the Brennan torpedo—which has been described as the world first practical guided missile—was installed there at the end of the 19th century but was only in active use for a few years.
Cliffe Fort saw about 60 years of usage as an artillery fort, from its completion in 1870 to its disarmament in 1927. It was repurposed during World War II to serve as an anti-aircraft battery on the approaches to London. The fort's military career ended when it was sold off after the war to the owners of a neighbouring aggregates works. Today it lies derelict, overgrown and heavily flooded. It is not accessible to the public and is in a poor and slowly deteriorating condition which has led it to be listed as an "at risk" heritage asset.
==Background==
By the late 1850s, Britain and France were locked in an arms race. A new generation of increasingly accurate and powerful guns had been developed (of the Rifled Muzzle Loader (RML) and Rifled Breech Loader (RBL) types), mounted on fast-moving, manoueuvrable steam-powered ironclad warships such as the French ''La Gloire'' and the British ''HMS Warrior''.〔 Such vessels posed a serious threat to the important naval installations on the Thames, including the victualling yards at Deptford, the armaments works of Woolwich Arsenal, the shipbuilding yards at North Woolwich, and the magazines at Purfleet. It was not possible for large warships to reach central London, as the river was not yet deep enough to take ships of more than 400 tons above Deptford. However, as the American Civil War was soon to show, it was quite possible for the warships of the day to run past forts and attack up coastal rivers.
By this time Britain's coastal defences had not been substantially upgraded since the Napoleonic Wars. A number of forts built between the 16th and late 18th centuries stood in the area around Tilbury and Gravesend, west of Cliffe Fort, but like many other existing fortifications in Britain they were by now largely obsolete.〔 The government's response was to appoint a Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, which published a far-reaching report in 1860. The Royal Commission recommended that a triangle of forts should be established on the lower Thames, east of Gravesend. This would involve replacing the old Coalhouse Fort on the Essex shore with a new fortification, similarly replacing the existing Shornemead Fort and building a wholly new fort at Cliffe, which would replace an 18th century battery at Lower Hope Point about further downriver. The location of the forts would enable interlocking arcs of fire from their guns.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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