The Sea Forts
About a year ago I was going through some old negatives and came across some that I had taken 15 or so years ago. These were of the Sea Forts located in The Thames Estuary off the North Kent coast.
I scanned one of them and posted it to my flickr photosteam. Within a couple of hours it had received about 200 views and some great comments. I had found these strange structures interesting, but didn't think anyone else would! Over the next few months I posted one or two more and they received the same sort of attention.
A lot of the comments asked questions about the Sea Forts, so with UTATAN I thought this would be a great place to tell the story of the Sea Forts. I also thought it would be a good excuse to get back into the estuary and photograph them again.
They were designed by Guy Maunsell in 1942 to house anti-aircraft guns and search lights, to shoot down German bombers in World War Two. Maunsell designed two kinds of sea fort one for the Army and the other one for the Navy. Guy Maunsell also went on to design the concrete mulberry harbours later on in the War for the D Day Landings.
The Army forts are comprised of seven towers, one Bofors tower, a control tower, four gun towers and a searchlight tower. The towers were connected by cat walks. Most of the cat walks have fallen away into the sea now, but one or two pictures show how they used to look.
The War Office located the first of Manusell's forts in the River Mersey near Liverpool. These didn't see much action and were later removed because they started to sink into the sandy sea bed they were sited on. His next batch were made in Gravesend Kent and towed into position in The Thames Estuary. They were the Nore, Red Sands and Shivering Sands. Only two of these remain, the Nore fort was dismantled in 1959 as it was a hazard to shipping moving up the Thames to the Port Of London.
After the War the Red and Shivering Sands forts remained manned as you can see here. During the late 1950's the Army left and the gulls took over, until 1964.
Easter 1964 Radio Caroline took to the air, this station was unlicensed and broadcast from a ship anchored in international waters off Felixstowe on the east coast of England. The arrival of Radio Caroline started the offshore radio boom of the 1960's.
Caroline was followed by Atlantis, London and Scotland to name a few. David Sutch aka pop star Screaming Lord Sutch and his band the Savages, thought it would be a good idea to start their own station to promote their own records, so on 25th May 1964 the band sailed down the Thames. Once in the Thames Estuary they came across the Shivering Sands Fort. They boarded it and set up Radio Sutch.
This station was the first of many to broadcast from the different forts in the Thames Estuary. These stations continued to broadcast until 1967 when they were closed down by the British Government, one by one. These forts were said to be within the three mile limit and the owners were prosecuted under the Wireless and Telegraphy Act 1947.
After the pirates left the gulls moved back in once more. However during the summer of 2005 a group called Project Red Sands put an access platform back on one of the towers, and since then have been steadily restoring it. The plan is to restore one tower at a time and use them for a museum, wedding venue and IT base. This summer has seen a temporary radio station (Red Sands Radio) broadcasting from one of the towers once more, this was to mark the 40th anniversary of the closure of Radio 390 on 28th July 1967.
It also worth noting the other kind of Maunsell forts which were used by the Royal Navy are still standing. One is permanently manned as the Principality Of Sealand. This is a story in itself and more details can be found out here.
I've been photographing the sea forts now for about 15 years. Out of everything I photograph I still find photographing these a challenge, for many reasons. Firstly, the forts are about 7½ miles from the north Kent coast and therefore the only way to get to them is by boat. When I first took a trip in the 1980s it took hours to visit them all in one trip in a fishing boat. Now regular trips leave Herne Bay throughout the summer and Bayblast boats take a minimum of 20 minutes to get to them. This summer I've been out three times to photograph the towers for this project. But due to some very windy days in the estuary this summer I have had to cancel ten times! Two of the trips were also very interesting, as far as sea conditions go, I was taken out by the WASP rescue boat, the skipper of which described the sea as lumpy, I would have said rough!!
Once you arrive at the forts, if it's a bright day, I find the light bounces off the water and it's hard to get a true light reading. It's also hard at times keeping your balance while the boat moves around in the swell. The first time I went this summer I nearly went over the side! So for me the best times I've had have been from the air, which is easy compared to bobbing around in a small boat. Also this summer I've managed to board one of the towers, some of these pictures can be seen here
As you will see after 65 years they are very rusty, but they are slowly being to brought back to life.
If you've never seen the sea forts and find yourself on the north Kent coast and it's a clear day look out to sea, they will be there on the horizon, Shivering Sands is now dwarfed by the new wind farm.
Tim Mitchard