Laboratory Battery is a Grade II listed building in the North Somerset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 May 1983. Military structure.
Laboratory Battery
- WRENN ID
- stubborn-courtyard-solstice
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- North Somerset
- Constituency
- Weston-super-Mare MP: Dan Aldridge (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 19 May 1983
- Type
- Military structure
- Address
- Laboratory Battery, Weston-Super-Mare
- OS grid reference
- ST 230 607
- Coordinates
- 51.34073, -3.10621
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Laboratory Battery on Steepholm Island was built between 1866 and 1868 as part of the Palmerston forts, often referred to as "follies." This double battery features two barbettes and is enclosed by a semi-circular parapet wall made of squared dressed rubble. The outer ramp consists of earth and stone. Each pit contains a racer cannon pivot, which includes the remains of a Georgian III cannon and a displaced 7-ton, 7-inch cannon from the 1860s. At the rear, there are two underground ammunition chambers with a dressed limestone exterior and an interior that features a brick barrel-vaulted roof. For further details, refer to J.M. Barret's work on maritime forts in the Bristol Channel.
Local climate
Laboratory Battery sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,090 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 92% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 17 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 83% of listed buildings. Of these, 6 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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