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Whitsand Bay practice battery is a Second World War coastal defence installation located on the Cornish coast near Portwrinkle. The battery comprises gun emplacements and associated structures constructed as part of Britain's anti-invasion preparations during the early 1940s. It served as a practice facility for training artillery crews in coastal defence operations rather than as a front-line combat position. The site remains a significant example of the extensive network of fortifications built along the Cornish coastline during wartime.
Whitsand Bay practice battery is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1490828. View the official record →
Whitsand Bay practice battery is a Second World War coastal defence installation located on the Cornish coast near Portwrinkle. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1490828.
Whitsand Bay practice battery is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1490828.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Whitsand Bay Battery (0.2 km), Royal Commission Fortification: unfinished battery at Knatterbury (2 km), Inswork Chapel (2.3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Whitsand Bay practice battery's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Whitsand Bay practice battery stands on Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.