Eastern of two Concrete Second World War 4-inch gun emplacements

Second World War concrete 4-inch Beach Defence gun emplacement. Built probably late 1940 or early 1941. MATERIALS: reinforced concrete with brick semi-circular front walls.

PLAN: broadly rectangular in plan. It consists internally of a hexagonal gun chamber with a wide embrasure on the long south side and machine-gun loopholes in the two sloping side walls. To the rear of the gun chamber is an angled east-west passageway accessed from the gun chamber by a central opening and with external entrances at either end. To the rear of the passage openings give access to a rectangular magazine with three chambers. The passage has an entrance to the west. Compared to the other emplacement to the west, which had entrances at both ends of the passage, the emplacement has a modified plan based on the need to accommodate a mature tree just to the north-east of the gun chamber. The emplacement is therefore extended eastwards and because the tree would have blocked the eastern external entrance, a rear entrance is provided in a further extension of the building to the north. This is reached via a short flight of steps and the entrance corridor has a low concrete bench. A loophole replaces the eastern passage entrance of the western emplacement.

EXTERIOR: the emplacement is constructed of 1m thick reinforced concrete with the marks of the timber shuttering apparent. The roof has a slight ‘deflection chamfer’ and a semi-circular cantilevered canopy, projects over the front of the embrasure; this is partly damaged, exposing a railway rail used in the construction. In front of the embrasures is a low semi-circular brick wall with a central gap. This wall enclosed the gun mounting; the square steel gun-plate remains in situ. The west wall is indented to accommodate a tree used for camouflage. The tree is still (2015) in situ. The eastern wall is obscured by a modern earth bank.

INTERIOR: the roof of the gun chamber is supported by a steel I-beam. The emplacement retains its internal green and brown painted camouflage pattern. On the eastern side-wall of the gun chamber is a faint line drawing of the seashore showing landmarks which would have been used for ranging the gun. Most of the inscriptions are no longer legible. A cement-patched hole in the roof marks the position of an internal tree, providing additional natural camouflage from aerial reconnaissance, which was removed in 1990.

All original fixtures and fittings, including signage and internal and external doors and frames, have been removed.