Calshot Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Calshot Castle

Calshot Castle is a castle on Calshot Spit , an elongated sand island near the village of Calshot in the English county of Hampshire , which King Henry VIII had built as an artillery fort in 1539/1540. Calshot Castle was one of a series of forts the king had built on England's south coast to fend off feared attacks from France and the Holy Roman Empire . It protected Southampton Water where it meets the Solent . The castle has a donjon in the middle, which is surrounded by a curtain wall and a moat . The castle was initially heavily armed; it had a garrison of 16 men and 36 cannons. It was used for many years, survived the English Civil War unscathed and was completely modernized in the 1770s. In the 19th century, Calshot Castle served the Coast Guard as a base in the fight against smugglers. In 1894, however, new fears of a French invasion led to renewed use as an artillery site: a large coastal cannon was set up next to the old castle and a chain of ports was built over Southampton Water, which was controlled from the fort.

During the First World War , Calshot Castle served mainly as a base for seaplanes that were used against submarines in the English Channel . The cannons were removed before the end of the war, presumably for use in France. The air force base called RAF Calshot was expanded in the interwar years; the Schneider Trophy flight competitions were also held there. With the outbreak of the Second World War , Calshot Castle was armed again for fear of a possible German invasion . After the war, the station continued to be used, but since seaplanes were no longer needed, it was finally closed in 1961. After brief use by the Coast Guard, the castle was opened to the public by English Heritage in the 1980s . Calshot Castle has been restored to its pre-1914 state and in 2010 it received 5751 visitors. Historic England sees Calshot Castle as a "well-preserved example" of a Henry VIII artillery fort.

history

16th Century

An illustration of the fort from 1539

Calshot Castle was built as a result of international tensions between England, the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire during the final years of Henry VIII's reign. Traditionally, the crown had left the coastal defenses to the local nobles and municipalities and only played a subordinate role in the construction and maintenance of fortresses. There were repeated attacks from sea during the dispute with France and Germany, but an invasion of England appeared unlikely. Modest defenses around simple log houses and towers existed in the southwest and along the Sussex coast , as were a few more impressive defenses in the north of England, but generally the fortresses were limited in size.

In 1533 King Heinrich fell out with Pope Paul III. because of the annulment of his long marriage to Catherine of Aragon . Catherine was the aunt of King Charles V of Spain , ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, who viewed the annulment as a personal affront. Therefore France and Spain allied against King Henry in 1538 and the Pope encouraged the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England was considered certain. In response to this, King Heinrich issued an order (English: "Device") in 1539 and gave instructions for the "defense of the empire in times of invasion" and the construction of forts along the English coastline.

Calshot Castle was meant to protect the Solent, a water area from the English Channel to the Naval Base Portsmouth and Southampton Water, the important port of Southampton , leads. The castle was one of four forts that William FitzWilliam , the Lord High Admiral and William Paulet decided to build to improve the defenses along the Solent. The others were East Cowes Castle , West Cowes Castle, and Hurst Castle . Calshot Castle was built on the narrow Calshot Spit , from where one could monitor the deep water canal that runs through to Southampton. Temporary earthworks and cannon batteries were built as an interim measure, but the castle itself was also built quickly and was completed by the end of 1540. It is believed that building blocks and roofing from Beaulieu Abbey and Netley Abbey were reused in the construction. Both abbeys had been closed during the dissolution of the English monasteries .

The castle was initially equipped with a garrison of eight riflemen, five soldiers and one lieutenant, all under the command of a captain. At the end of the 1540s, it was heavily armed with 36 guns for the time. In the 1580s the castle caught fire and 127 trees were needed to repair the wooden parts, which were sent from the New Forest . The work was carried out in 1584, hastened by fears of a Spanish invasion, but at that time the garrison was only eight people.

17th to 19th century

Plan of the castle and the gun battery (illustration from 1901): A - Castle from the 16th century and the port chain; B - Castle Yacht Club; C - officers' mess; D - gun battery from 1895; E - Coast Guard Station

In the early 1600s, England had made peace with France and Spain and the coastal fortresses were poorly maintained. During the English Civil War of the 1640s, Calshot Castle was held by the Roundheads against the troops of King Charles I and was garrisoned by 15 men at an annual cost of £ 107. Parliament considered the fortress important and continued to supply it with ammunition. Unlike many other forts in the area, Parliament kept Calshot Castle operational, presumably because of its important role in protecting Southampton Water. During the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, it was armed with 25 cannons.

The castle was modernized in the 1770s with a new parapet around the central donjon, changes to the cannon loopholes along the outer wall and an extension of the gatehouse to include an additional number of rooms for the captain. Improvements were probably made at the beginning of the wars of the French Revolution (1792–1802), but in 1809 the geographer James Playfair described the castle as "a log cabin with a garrison". In 1804 the castle was used to store ammunition for the Sea Fencibles , fishing boats that were used as military boats in voluntary service to counter the threat of a French invasion. Seven guns were added to the castle's arsenal to protect against a French attack.

With the end of the coalition wars in 1815, the coast guard took possession of the castle and used it as a base in the fight against smugglers, using the bay behind the Calshot Spit as a good place where their service boats waited for the smugglers' boats. In the middle of this century two officers and 42 men were stationed there. In the 1850s there was renewed military interest in the castle and there were several proposals to equip it with up to 32 guns. However, the plans were never realized and it was noticed that the stone donjon from the 16th century would crumble into dangerous ruins in the event of enemy fire. The Castle Yacht Club was founded in 1887 and settled right next to the castle, along the Spit.

In the 1880s, concerns arose that Southampton might be exposed to French attacks with small ships armed with torpedoes . Therefore, in 1894 , the War Office took the castle back from the Coast Guard and built a chain of ports across Southampton Water that was moved with three gunboats . The 16th century castle was too small to house a battery of guns to protect the port chain, so a larger battery was built south of the old castle in 1895, with two 120 mm guns and four 12 pounder rapid-fire guns and three Searchlights were fitted on the old castle walls. The chain of ports was controlled by two towers called "Dolphins", one next to the castle and one on the opposite side of Southampton Water, each equipped with a 12 pounder rapid fire gun. The construction of these defenses forced the yacht club to move to the southern end of the Spit.

1900-1945

Soldiers' quarters on the first floor of the donjon, restored to the state of 1910.

In the early years of the 20th century, Calshot Castle continued to be a defensive structure. The keep of the castle was rebuilt in 1907 so that two rapid-fire cannons could be placed on the roof. A new, lighter "ladder" port chain was also stretched across Southampton Water in 1907, but only two years later this facility was replaced by a plan to create a port chain of drifting Hulks . In 1910 there was a plan to garrison the castle with a garrison of 10 officers and 154 men in wartime, 75 of whom would be housed near the fort and not in it. Additional naval personnel would have been needed to manned the supply ships for the port chain. In 1913, a Royal Naval Air Station was built next to the castle to accommodate 12 experimental seaplanes to support the Royal Navy fleet in its work in the English Channel. Calshot Castle was particularly suitable for seaplanes as the surrounding sea areas were relatively calm.

The First World War broke out in 1914 when the military opinions had changed significantly over the usefulness of Calshot Castle. It was decided to rely mainly on the gun batteries at the two entrances to the Solent rather than on Calshot Castle and Southampton Water. At the beginning of the war, the port chain was removed and replaced by network locks further up the coast. Two of Calshot Castle's gun batteries were relocated the following year to protect the new nets. The naval aviation base was used for training purposes until 1916 and then took up anti -submarine patrols that were deployed across the English Channel, where German attacks caused critical damage. Nearly 3,500 hours of flight hours were completed on the aircraft stationed at Calshot Castle, over 3,500 in 1917 and over 9,000 in just 3 months in 1918. Subordinate naval aviation bases were established in Bembridge , Newhaven , Polegate and Portland . A hut was built on the roof of the donjon from which flight operations were monitored, the Castle Yacht Club was taken over as the officers' mess and the naval aviation base spread over the entire Calshot Spit, including the gun battery from 1895. The remaining gun batteries from Calshot Castle were dismantled and probably relocated to the front in France.

Seaplane Gloster VI , no. N249, on Calshot Castle in preparation for the Schneider Trophy 1929

In the interwar years Calshot Castle was from the Royal Air Force accepted and thus became RAF Calshot . The castle served from 1918 as the School for Naval Co-operation and Aerial Navigation and from 1931 the Seaplane Training Squadron ( seaplane training department ) was stationed there. The gun battery from 1895 was dismantled to make room for the growing base and a narrow gauge railway was built along the Calshot Spit. Parts of the moat were sealed with concrete and used as a parking space for aircraft. Calshot Castle hosted the Schneider Trophy over the Solent twice , the last two in a series of popular international events aimed at promoting the development of new high-speed aircraft. The Empire Air Days were also held at Calshot Castle and in 1935 attracted about 1,000 visitors.

During World War II , Calshot Castle was initially defended by troops from the Royal Hampshire Regiment and a barge that was equipped with two 3 " anti-aircraft guns and a 40 mm Bofors gun . Air raid shelters were built in the moat ; five air base ships took part in Operation Dynamo . The danger of a German invasion of England increased, and the defensive positions were reinforced in 1940 by two 12-pounder rapid-fire guns on the roof of the donjon, supported by searchlights . Two additional, subordinate batteries in Bungalow and Stonepoint , on the opposite side of Southampton Water and further southwest on the coast, were installed the following year. The castle was not damaged in the war and was converted into a "repair and overhaul base" in 1943, which served as a stopover for overflying aircraft.

1945-21. century

12 pounder rapid fire gun on top of the donjon, view over Southampton Water .

After the war, Calshot Castle was again operated as an active air force base, on which two squadrons of Sunderland flying boats were stationed, which also took part in the Berlin Airlift in 1948 . In 1953 the base was passed on to the RAF Maintenance Command . The Southampton Harbor Board had a Coast Guard watchtower built in 1952 and a signaling station, complete with radar and radio equipment, opened in 1958 on the Donjon. At the time, military seaplanes were obsolete and the RAF finally closed the base in 1961.

The Hampshire County Council leased the property to Crown Estates in 1964 . The castle itself passed into state administration and the hangars were used as an event center. A station of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution opened next to the castle in 1971 and two years later a new 40 meter high tower was built for the Coast Guard.

English Heritage took over management of the castle in 1983 and removed the twentieth century changes so it can be presented in the state it was in 1914. The old signal station tower was also torn down. The property is now open to the public and in 2010 it had 5751 visitors. The castle is a historical building II *. Grade listed and protected as a Scheduled Monument . The former hangars of the air force base are still used today by the county administration as a recreation center.

architecture

Calshot Castle is a three-story, circular fortress consisting of a donjon, gatehouse and curtain wall. It is mainly from Portland - stone built. When it was built in the 16th century, it was intended for three rows of artillery: two on the second floor and the roof of the central donjon and the third in the outer curtain wall. Historic England describes the castle as a "well-preserved example" of Henry VIII's artillery fort.

Ground plan of the castle in the 21st century: A - moat; B - cooking house; C - gatehouse exit; D - donjon; E - location of the searchlight

The castle is surrounded by a water-filled, 16-sided moat that is 8.8 meters wide. It is accessed via a 20th century bridge that leads into the gatehouse, an 18th century structure based on a simpler 16th century original. The gatehouse was expanded in 1896 to include brick additions in the south. They probably wanted to create more living space for the garrison. The path leads through the gatehouse to the originally 16-sided castle courtyard with 15 artillery slits around the curtain wall. The wall was reduced to its current height in the 1770s and today a concrete building from 1896 for the searchlights extends along the south side of the castle.

In the middle of the castle is the donjon with an outer diameter of 16 meters, an octagonal basement and circular walls on the upper floors. Originally the quarters for the captain and the garrison were housed there, but it was fundamentally rebuilt in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its outer walls have eight recesses on the ground floor, which were originally used to store ammunition for the castle's cannons. The basement of the donjon was rebuilt in the 1890s when generators were installed there, protected by a new, thicker concrete ceiling. This ceiling may originally have had a stone vault, similar to that in nearby Hurst Castle.

The first floor of the donjon was restored in the style of the early 20th century as a crew quarters. The second floor has been restored in the style of the late 19th century and forms another team headquarters, where the ceiling with early 20th century bar was reinforced and concrete, to support the artillery battery about it. Two 12-pounder gun bases with their original gun fortifications have been set up on the roof of the donjon. You can see a 12 pounder gun there that was originally used on a Royal Navy ship. The donjon roof was originally flat and crenellated for artillery, but both the roof and the crenellations were removed in the 1770s.

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ a b c d Calshot Castle: A 16th Century Artillery Castle . Historic England.
  2. ^ MW Thompson: The Decline of the Castle . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987. ISBN 1-854226-08-8 . P. 111.
  3. ^ A b J. R. Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . P. 63.
  4. ^ DJ Cathcart King: The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History . Routledge Press, London 1991. ISBN 978-0-415003-50-6 , pp. 176-177.
  5. ^ A b B. M. Morley: Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defense . Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1976. ISBN 0-116707-77-1 . P. 7.
  6. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 5.
  7. ↑ JR Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . Pp. 63-64.
  8. ↑ JR Hale: Renaissance War Studies . Hambledon Press, London 1983. ISBN 0-907628-17-6 . P. 66.
  9. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 6.
  10. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 11.
  11. ^ Steven A. Walton: State Building Through Building for the State: Foreign and Domestic Expertise in Tudor Fortification in Osiris . Issue 25, number 1, 2010. p. 70.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 11.
  13. ↑ a b c Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 12.
  14. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. p. 105.
  15. ^ Peter Harrington: The Castles of Henry VIII . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007. ISBN 978-1-472803-80-1 . P. 49.
  16. ^ Andrew Saunders: Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland . Beaufort, Liphook 1989. ISBN 1-855120-00-3 . Pp. 70-71.
  17. ↑ George Nelson Godwin: The Civil War in Hampshire (1642-45) and the Story of Basing House . Henry March Gilbert and Son, Southampton 1904. p. 6.
  18. ↑ It is difficult to compare 17th century costs and prices with today's costs and prices. £ 107 out of 1642 could amount to between £ 17,000 and £ 4.5m in 2014, depending on the price comparison used.
  19. ↑ Lawrence H. Officer, Samuel H. Williamson: Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present . MeasuringWorth. 2014. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
  20. ^ George Nelson Godwin: The Civil War in Hampshire (1642-45) and the Story of Basing House . Henry March Gilbert and Son, Southampton 1904. p. 30.
  21. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 14.
  22. ↑ James Playfair: A System of Geography . Volume II. Peter Hill, Edinburgh 1809. p. 26.
  23. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. p. 106.
  24. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 17.
  25. ^ A b c Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. pp. 106-107.
  26. ^ A b Anonymous: Castle Yacht Club . National Maritime Museum, Cornwall. 1907.
  27. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. p. 109.
  28. ^ A b c Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. pp. 109-110.
  29. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 18.
  30. ↑ a b c Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 19.
  31. ↑ a b c d e f Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. p. 110.
  32. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 20.
  33. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . Pp. 20-22.
  34. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. pp. 110, 112.
  35. ↑ a b c d e f Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 22.
  36. ↑ a b c d e f g Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. p. 112.
  37. ^ A b c Jonathan Sutherland, Dianne Canwell: The RAF Air Sea Rescue Service, 1915-1986 . Pen and Sword, Barnsley 2010. ISBN 978-1-848843-03-5 . P. 226.
  38. ↑ a b Calshot Seaplane Base . Transport Trust.
  39. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. pp. 112-113.
  40. ↑ Jonathan Sutherland, Dianne Canwell: The RAF Air Sea Rescue Service, 1915–1986 . Pen and Sword, Barnsley 2010. ISBN 978-1-848843-03-5 . P. 227.
  41. ^ A b c Jonathan Sutherland, Dianne Canwell: The RAF Air Sea Rescue Service, 1915-1986 . Pen and Sword, Barnsley 2010. ISBN 978-1-848843-03-5 . P. 228.
  42. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . Pp. 22, 24.
  43. ↑ a b c d e Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 24.
  44. ↑ a b c d e f Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: The Later History of a Tudor Fortress, 1793-1945 in The English Heritage Historical Review . Issue 1, 2006. p. 113.
  45. ↑ a b c Southampton Port Operations . Southampton Branch, World Ship Society. Archived from the original on October 10, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 11, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sotonwss.org.uk
  46. ^ Nick Chapple: A History of the National Collection . Volume 7: 1953-1970 . English Heritage, London 2014. ISSN 2046-9799. P. 77.
  47. ^ Restored Watchtower Looking for Sea Loving Volunteers . Southern Daily Echo. January 19, 2010.
  48. ↑ a b c Calshot Castle . Historic England.
  49. ↑ BDRC Continental: Visitor Attractions, trends in England 2010 . Visit England. 2011. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 11, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.visitengland.com
  50. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 9.
  51. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 4.
  52. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 8.
  53. ↑ a b c d e Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 5.
  54. ↑ Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 7.
  55. ^ A b Jonathan Coad: Calshot Castle: Hampshire . Revised edition. English Heritage, London 2013. ISBN 978-1-850741-02-2 . P. 6.

Web links

Commons : Calshot Castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 49'12 "  N , 1 ° 18'27"  W.