Thames Estuary defences likened to War of the Worlds and Star Wars.
The Maunsell Forts were off-shore anti-aircraft defences constructed during World War II. They were built in 1942-43 to the designs of civil engineer Guy Maunsell.
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The other worldly appearance of the Maunsell Forts has drawn comparison with the alien tripods in HG Wells' The War of the Worlds and the All Terrain Armoured Transport walkers in Star Wars.
Seven of these forts were built in the Thames Estuary and into the North Sea, three for the Army and four for the Navy. This map (source: Wikipedia, public domain) shows their location:
By SnowieLuna1212 - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150574861
The Navy forts were used to deter, and to provide early warning of, air raids and also to prevent enemy aircraft from laying mines.
The more heavily armed, and larger, Army forts were tasked with shooting down incoming enemy aircraft. Collectively, the three Maunsell forts operated by the Army destroyed 22 manned aeroplanes of the German Luftwaffe and 30 unmanned V1 flying bombs.
The Red Sands Fort, known during the war as 'Uncle 6', was erected in the summer of 1943 roughly seven miles offshore from Whitstable, which is on the Kent side of the Estuary. Its towers were built at Gravesend, upstream on the Kent bank of the Thames, then each one was towed out to sea between two bespoke barges and sunk into position.
Red Sands and Shivering Sands forts are both visible on a clear day from Whitstable, but appear as little more than dots on the horizon. Red Sands is the better preserved of the two, while the third Army fort, Nore Sand, was removed in 1959.
As with the other Maunsell Army forts, Red Sands consisted of seven towers. Four were arranged in a semicircle in front of a control centre and an accommodation tower. The seventh was a searchlight tower, located to one side of the gun towers.
Each tower had legs of concrete and steel, on top of which sat steel structures with a concrete base. They were connected by walkways, which are no longer in place.
The designer of the forts, Guy Maunsell, was born in British India in 1884. He was sent to school at Eastbourne College and then studied civil engineering at the City and Guilds Institute in South Kensington. After graduating with a First he initially struggled to find work, so toured the country painting watercolours.
He served with the Royal Engineers in World War I. After the Second World War he set up a business specialising in using pre-stressed concrete for bridges. The Hammersmith Flyover is an early example of his firm's technique.
After the war the Maunsell forts fell into disuse, although Red Sands Fort retained a maintenance crew until 1956, when it was abandoned by the Ministry of Defence. An idea to bring it ashore was mooted in 1959, but the high costs involved were prohibitive.
Red Sands Fort was used by pirate radio stations Radio Invicta, K-I-N-G Radio and Radio 390, from 1964 to 1967. Another pirate radio station, Radio City, broadcast from Shivering Sands Fort at a similar time.
The forts provided a cheaper and more effective broadcasting platform than the ships used by the more successful rival station Radio Caroline. However, the radio stations broadcasting from the forts were closed down by government legislation in 1967.
By contrast, Radio Caroline continued to operate from ships in international waters until 1990, before switching to satellite in 1998. It now broadcasts on the internet and marked its 60th birthday this year.
Red Sands Fort featured in an episode of TV spy series Danger Man in 1966 and in sci-fi series Dr Who in 1968 (when it played the part of a gas drilling platform).
A temporary radio station, Red Sands Radio, was licensed in July 2007 to mark the 40th anniversary of the last broadcast from the fort. However, storm damage forced the station to retreat to Whitstable Harbour to complete its broadcasts in the summer of 2008.
A charity called Project Redsand was established in 2003 to preserve and restore the fort for the nation. Its aims include opening the towers for the public to visit in small groups and for special events.
Progress has been slow. An inspection in 2021 found that the towers had severe structural defects and significant parts had been lost to the sea.
I recently took a boat tour with Whitstable Boat Trips to look at Red Sands Fort up close. You can see a brief (49 second) video summary of my trip on my YouTube channel here.
Time, weather and the sea have taken their toll and its rusty state of decay lends it an eerie air. It is also quite moving to think of the men that once crewed these isolated towers, right on the front line of London's defences.
There is clearly a huge challenge ahead if plans to restore the towers are to be realised.
Whitstable Harbour also offers trips aboard Thames Sailing Barge Greta, one of the oldest examples of this historic kind of boat still operating. For more on its history and some photos, please go to my recent Facebook post here.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks, please click here.
Brilliant post! I can thoroughly recommend the boat trip to see them (and the Wind Farm) from Whitstable.