Fort On Blyth Links

BLYTH LINKS ROAD NZ 37 NW (EAST SIDE) 5/120 Fort on Blyth Links GV II Coastal defence fort. Late C19 in origin, remodelled 1914-18; some altera- tions 1939-45. Reinforced concrete; brick. The fort, built on and partly into a sand-dune hill, consists of a pair of gun emplacements facing seawards, a magazine and shell store built into the landward face of the dune, a shelter block to the south, and a Defence Electric Light director station and blockhouse to the north. The gun emplacements are each fronted by a sloping apron of reinforced concrete, and are linked by a wall backed by a lower-level, flat-roofed shelter block; in the internal wall face at each end of the shelter are cupboards with heavy iron doors. The flat-roofed superstructure of each emplacement is a 1939-45 addition. Facing the internal wall of the shelter is the detached R.A. store with a boarded door, 2 small windows and a flat felted roof. The officers' and men's shelter (now a public convenience) is a flat-roofed rectangular building with a door and 4 windows on the south. The magazine and shell store have a front wall facing west, with 2 doorways, a boarded window and a barred 4-pane sash; two low openings above and a narrow opening on the right into the blast space surround. The director station is a 2-storey 6-sided tower with a metal-sheeted rangefinder housing on the flat top; on the west is an iron stair up to a balcony on cantilever brackets. The 5-sided blockhouse has a door and 2 boarded hatches; flat concrete roof. Between the director station and the blockhouse is a 1939-45 lookout tower.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Originally known as Fort Coulson after the Royal Engineer Captain responsible for its construction, the Link House Battery carried two 6-inch guns in World War 1. Later disused, it was returned to Blyth Corporation in 1925, but re-commissioned in World War II. Rare survival of a World War 1 coastal defence complex.

Listing NGR: NZ3209779310