This page will help to illustrate the history of the site at battery gardens, Brixham which has for many hundreds of years been utilised by the military. test

It is known that as far back as 1586 a gun platform was established in battery grounds against the threat of attack from Spain. This was maintained until 1664.

During the period 1776 - 1890 the battery was known variously as Furzdon, Furzeham, Furzham, Furzedown and Fishcombe point. During the end of the eighteenth century Brixham was the revictuling station for the western approach of the Royal Navy, and as such was a very necessary port for the Navy, especially during the American Civil War of Independence.

When France joined America in 1778 and Spain in 1779, the Board of Ordnance decided that, along with other naval stations along the south coast of England, Brixham was to be protected by gun emplacements.

Battery gardens was to be the most westerly battery covering the harbour. The militia were to prepare the positions, and the guns, 24 Pdrs, arrived in May 1780 at the same time as the Berry Head guns (the site of a Napoleonic fort a little along from battery gardens). The land being commendeered, compensation being paid in 1783 at the end of hostilities.

At the start of the French wars the land was purchased and the guns returned. Again the guns were removed at the end of hostilities. The battery was still a military station in a report of 2nd June 1862 and was manned by the 11th Devon Artillery Volunteers, Royal Garrison Artillery.

In a naval return of 13th March 1891 there had been a 64 Pdr MLR (Muzzle Loading Rifled) cannon at Furzham on 1st April 1889. This was mounted on gun racers about where number five gun had been eighty years before.

Although the majority of emplacements that exist within Brixham battery grounds today are WW2-era, the nineteenth century stone altitude marker and iron cannon racers still remain.

The photograph to the left is of the altitude marker as it looks today. Upon closer inspection one can see there are inscriptions upon the pillar (best made out where the sunlight is hitting the top of the marker).

For a number of years the inscriptions on the pillar remained a mystery. Thanks to the aid of English Heritage and a can of shavng foam we were able to read what they said:

Line 1 - RANGE TO DATUM POINT 1100 Yds
Line 2 - DOOR ON MOLE
Line 3 - TRAINING
Line 4 - Ht OF INSt ABOVE M.S.L. 120.3 Ft
Line 5 - RISE AND FALL OF THE TIDE 10 Ft
Line 6 - Ht ABOVE RACERS 32 Ft

Line 1. This information would be needed to calibrate the range finder.

Line 2 and 3. The information is incomplete and so the relevance is lost. However they probably referred to bearings so that the means of obtaining the bearing to a target, possibly a bearing ring on top of the pillar, could be calibrated.

Lines 4, 5 & 6 would be needed to calculate the elevation the gun would be required to be set at to achieve the range to the target.

In 1889 the observer would have controlled the gun from along side the pillar. The permanent information on the pillar would save each practising unit from having to work it out themselves, and would enable firing results to be compared on a standard basis.

During WWII the principle of obtaining gun data, bearing and range, would have been the same, a range finder and a method of reading the bearing.

Below is a photgraph of the existing cannon racers.