Ruined Magazine and Blast Wall 1.8 Metres West of Guardhouse, Southern Fort is a Grade II listed building in the Torbay local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 October 1993. Artillery magazine.

Ruined Magazine and Blast Wall 1.8 Metres West of Guardhouse, Southern Fort

WRENN ID
quartered-ashlar-hemlock
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Torbay
Constituency
South Devon MP: Caroline Voaden (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
18 October 1993
Type
Artillery magazine
OS grid reference
SX 941 561
Coordinates
50.39588, -3.49056
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The ruined magazine and blast wall, located 1.8 meters west of the guardhouse at the southern fort in Berry Head Country Park, dates from 1798 to 1802. This artillery magazine is constructed from roughly coursed Devonian limestone rubble, featuring a granite door surround, and its interior is lined with red brick. Although it has no roof, the gable-ends suggest that it once had a pitched roof parallel to the front. The small oblong building has walls approximately 1.2 meters thick and contains a single room with a door in the east wall. Surrounding the building on all four sides is the remains of a blast wall, approximately 2.7 meters away from the magazine. The structure is one storey high and has a plain, square-headed doorway with a lintel made of three large voussoirs, rebated for a door that opens outward. There are two ventilation slits in each of the interior side and rear walls, now blocked, which connect to single slits on the outside. The brick lining of the interior curves inwards at the top, indicating that there may have been a barrel-vault. This magazine is more complete than other ruinous structures on the fort and is a rare survival of a powder magazine.

Local climate

Ruined Magazine and Blast Wall 1.8 Metres West of Guardhouse, Southern Fort receives an average of 900 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 67% 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 5 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 97% of listed buildings. Of these, 2 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°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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