World War II Emergency Coastal Battery and remains of a Victorian practice battery, at Battery Gardens

Scheduled area

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History & significance

Battery Gardens is a scheduled ancient monument comprising the substantial remains of a Victorian practice battery together with a Second World War emergency coastal defence installation. The Victorian battery, constructed in the nineteenth century, reflects the period's investment in coastal fortification and serves as evidence of artillery training practices of that era. The World War II structures represent the rapid militarisation of the Devon coast during the threat of invasion, incorporating typical emergency defences hastily erected following the fall of France in 1940. The site thus demonstrates two distinct phases of military engineering separated by some seventy years, preserving the archaeological record of both Victorian-era coastal defence strategy and mid-twentieth-century emergency preparedness.

World War II Emergency Coastal Battery and remains of a Victorian practice battery, at Battery Gardens is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1020411. View the official record →

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