Battery Cottages

LUNDY

SS14SW BATTERY POINT 1938-0/2/12 Battery Cottages

II

Pair of attached cottages of fog signal gunners. Circa 1861 for Trinity House. Drressed granite with projecting plinth. Now roofless, probably originally slated. Central axial stack with red brick shaft. Double depth plan pair of cottages, each with a front and back zoom heated from a central axial stack and with unheated 2-cell outshuts either side with small room at the back.

Exterior: 1 storey. 1:3:1 bay front. Central granite porch with front window and side doorways, flanked by tall windows to front rooms and with small windows in outshuts set back to left and right. The sides of the outshuts have a doorway and a window. At the rear facing the cliff 2 large windows. All windows have granite lintels and cills, but frames missing.

Interior: gutted. Fireplaces in axial stack have granite lintels.

Note: The Old Lighthuse (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 (qv) was built in 1861 on cliffs below. The installation included these cottages for the gunners and a magazine and integral privies (qv). In 1878 Trinity House substituted guncotton for the guns and in 1881 it was even considered that the lower light 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: SS1279944896