Fog Signal Battery

LUNDY

SS14SW BATTERY POINT 1938-0/2/10 Fog Signal Battery

II

Fog signal battery. Circa 1861 for Trinity House. Dressed granite, gable-ended, now roofless. Small single cell rectangular building on platform projecting from cliffs.

Exterior: One storey. Gable end facing sea has square splayed gun- port and granite raking buttresses at the corners. Sides each have a small square window, splayed on the inside, and the side facing the cliff has a wide doorway. All openings have granite lintels.

Interior: All openings in walls have wooden frames. Floor is paved in brick and has granite tracks sloping down to gun-port for gun-carriages. The 2 George IV 18-pounder cannons are now situated outside flanking the battery on iron carriages.

Note: The Old Lighthouse (qv) is situated at 470 feet above sea level and was often obscured by fog. In an attempt to solve the problem a fog signal battery was built in circa 1861 on cliffs below. The installation included cottages for the gunners (Battery Cottages qv) and a Magazine and Privies (qv). In 1878 Trinity House substituted guncotton rockets for the guns and in 1881 it was even considered that the lower lights of the Old Lighthouse should be moved to the Battery. Bells, hooters and whistles were also experimented with but The Old Lighthouse and Battery were eventually abandoned in 1897 when the North and South Lundy Lighthouses (qv) were built. (Lighthouses, their Architecture, History and Archaeology:D B Hague and R. Christie; Lundy:A and M Langham).

Listing NGR: SS1275844880