Flat Holm Island - Part 2 - The Forts - June 2010

Following on from The Foghorn Station the next bit of flat holm to take up the vast majority of my time on the island was the forts. In reality there wasn't enough time to even take in half of them.

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Flat holm island has had two military occupations. First in the 1860’s and again in 1940 during world war 2.

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In the 1850’s, Queen Victoria & Prince Albert visited france where they became concerned about the strength of the French Navy. The Royal Commission of 1860, under the direction of Lord Palmerston recommended fortification of the coast. Flat Holm formed part of a strategic costal defence system, a number of fortresses built across the Bristol Channel to protect the ports of Newport, Cardiff & Bristol.

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Flat Holm was re-fortified after 1940 despite the heaviest raids on Cardiff being over. 350 men were stationed on the island and in addition to new building being built, existing buildings were adapted for use. The Cholera Hospital was turned into a NAAFI, cinema & concert hall, where films were shown fornightly and concerts laid on monthly. The farmhouse was used as the officer’s mess.

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Some more...
http://www.whateversleft.co.uk/index...t-holm-island/

Part 3 to follow :)

very nice

This is great! That's a lot of RML 64 pounder 64 cwt guns dotted around the place. :D

Omfg, I like this lots, nice job :thumb

This is very nice indeed. It looks like that was once a very nice house too. Good pictures as well. I do like seeing something different. :thumb