Haile Sand Fort

An offshore fort constructed between 1915 and 1918, with subsequent alterations and additions. The fort is primarily reinforced concrete and brick, clad with riveted steel armour plating. A timber and steel jetty provides access. The design is circular on plan, featuring a hexagonal base and balcony at sea level with plain iron railings. The fort rises three floors, with an additional brick floor to the south-west section. A basement and magazine are located below sea level, and a central two-storey observation tower rises from the structure. Numerous rows of windows are set into the lower and middle floors, each fitted with pairs of tinted steel shutters. The middle floor incorporates a group of three projecting turrets to the north-east; the central turret is concrete, supported on a cylindrical shaft with a row of shuttered windows beneath a flat roof, while the flanking turrets have conical bases and roofs, and full-width shuttered openings. The roof of the fort includes a central cylindrical ventilation shaft, a rectangular, armour-clad look-out tower with shuttered windows, a single projecting square observation turret to the north-east, a roof balcony, a mast, and radio aerials. Towards the south-west, there is an added brick storey with seven windows containing glazing bars and a pair of steel chimneys. To the north-east, two gun emplacements are visible. Haile Sand Fort, together with its larger companion fort on Bull Sand, 3.75 kilometres to the north-east, originally guarded the approaches to the Humber, employing gun batteries and a steel mesh anti-submarine net stretched between them across the estuary mouth. The fort was fully equipped for a garrison and armed with two six-inch guns, in addition to smaller, rapid-fire weapons. Construction reportedly involved approximately 40,000 tons of concrete and steel, costing £1,500,000. The forts were permanently manned throughout both World Wars, and were frequently subjected to attacks from aircraft and submarines. The army vacated the fort in 1956, and it continued to be manned until the early 1960s, when it was sold to the Humber Conservancy Board.