In the Line of Defence

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Nash Point

The coast under attack

Everybody knows what happened with the Spanish Armada, don't they? Perhaps not - Michael Portillo takes us in search of the Armadas we've forgotten.

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Bill Purdue outlines the story of the defence of Britain, from the Roman invasion to the Normandy landings.

That Britain was not invaded in 1940-41 was due to the Royal Navy and the RAF which maintained command of the sea and enough command of the air so that any attempt at invasion would have been a desperate venture. The coastline of Britain bears witness, however, to the great effort that went into coastal defences: all those thousands of pill boxes (the Martello Towers of the twentieth century), tank traps, trenches and gun emplacements. The past provided more than a back-drop for World War II defences often incorporated or utilised those of previous centuries:

"One pill box suitably camouflaged was built into the Roman walls of Pevensey Castle. The LDV [Home Guard] patrolled the walls of Southsea Castle, built by Henry VIII to keep out the French. There were troops stationed at Landguard Fort, which in 1667 had beaten off the Dutch." - Norman Longmate, Island Fortress

A pill box [Image: maclomhair - CC-BY-NC-SA licence] A pill box [Image: Mrs Logic - CC-BY licence]

Blyth in North East England demonstrates both continuity and change in preparations for coastal defence. During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, thirteen regiments of artillery were stationed along the Northumberland coast. The small port of Blyth bears the imprint of successive gun installations: a battery was established there to meet the threat of invasion from French Revolutionary, and then Napoleonic, forces. It was abandoned after Waterloo but when, in the late 1850s, France appeared a threat once more it was decided to re-establish the old battery and build a new one. In 1916 new defences consisting of search lights and a gun battery were erected. Demolished after the First World War, the battery was recommissioned and extended in 1939 and 1940. Decommissioned in 1949, the gun emplacements survive, much as they were when abandoned. Blyth is far from an extraordinary example for all around Britain the defences of the island over the centuries sit on top of each other.

Further Reading:
Clements, Bill, Towers of Strength: the Story of Martello Towers (1999)
Hogg, Ian V. Coast Defences of England and Wales, 1856-1956 (1974)
Longmate, Norman, Defending the Island: from Caesar to the Armada (1989) and Island Fortress (1991)

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Content last updated: 08/07/2005

About the writer

Bill Purdue is Reader in British History at the Open University and Staff Tutor in Arts for the Open University in the North. He lives at Allendale in Northumberland. He has been with the Open University since 1976 having previously lectured at Newcastle Polytechnic and before that been an Instructor Lieutenant in the Royal Navy.

His publications include The Second World War (1999), and his study of the survival of monarchies in the modern world, Long to Reign?, has just been published.

He and his history department colleague, James Chapman, an expert in the history of film, are the authors of the OU Study Pack The People’s War?