Dummy Battery

This Battery at Grain was originally to be called Grain Battery,but it was renamed Dummy Battery.
It was built to support Grain Fort and it was initially planned to mount 12 x 64 pdr Smooth Bore guns.

The garrison for the Battery was to be provided from Gain Fort,which it was connected to via a causeway across the Marsh.
Around the front of the Battery is a ditch which later became flooded.

The Battery was a proposal of the 1860 Royal Commision but by the second report of 1869 it had encountered construction difficulties due to subsidence and cracking to the Magazine walls.

The 1869 report recommended that the Battery be completed in temporary form only as extra weight from armourmed shields wouldn't be suitable.

The armourment was 2 x 11" Rifled Muzzle Loaders,then later 2 x 4.7" QF (Quick Firing) guns by 1899.
In 1904-05 it was rebuilt and the RML's positions removed and improvements made to the QF positions.

There is no record of the Dummy Battery being armed in WWI or WWII.
In the 1950's the Battery was damaged as most of it's earthworks were removed for Sea wall construction.

Today the site has open access with remains of the QF positions and magazines both visable.
Because most of its earthworks have gone it gives the observer a glimpse of parts of the Battery that would have been hidden under earth cover.

Caution should be taken near the Magazine as there may be asbestos inside due to damage of the walls.

Battery from the rear.

 

Ring of bolts that would have held one of the 4.7" QF guns.

 

View from the front showing the flooded ditch and exposed sections of the Battery. (Grain Power Station chimney above it)