Timeline All Destination Landguard

1543-88

Henry VIII’s Landguard Fort

Circular moated earthwork - 2 block houses - guns from Tower of London. Rebuilt (1588) in hexagonal form.

1625-28

Square Fort & Corner Bastions

Built of earth, faced with stout wood, designed by Simon Van Cranfeld. Charles II adds brick walling around fort (1666).

1667

The Dutch ‘Invasion’

First land battle of Royal Marines. 1,500 Dutch marines under Admiral de Ruyter raid fort. Captain Darell repels the assault.

1717-33

Brick Battery & Barracks

New brick fort and 2 storey barrack range (another storey added 1733) constructed to the south-west.

1779-83

A Significant Defended Camp

New earthworks, 2 further wing batteries with wet ditches (South & North Redoubts), plus square Redoubt to north east.

1871-80

Yellow Bricks & 7 Huge Guns

Remodeled with London bricks and gun casemate battery facing the river. Concrete parapet added to curtain walls.

1878

Submarine Mining Establishment

North-east of Fort, included test and observation rooms, plus (surviving) Ravelin Block.

1889-1918

Rapid Tech Advances

Left Battery ('disappearing' guns), Darell’s Battery, Fire Command Post erected. Main building now barracks and control hub.

1914-18

World War I

Royal Navy War Anchorage at Harwich Haven. Extensive land defences, anti-aircraft guns, and Port War Signal Station.

1939-42

Concrete Towers & More

Control and position-finding towers at Darell’s Battery, 3 searchlight and extra gun houses, shelters and stores built.

1939-45

World War II

Landguard vital to Dunkirk evacuation / Operation Overlord. Extra anti-aircraft defences. Fort is Fire Command HQ.

HMS Beehive’s Story

All about our coastal forces’ most successful wartime base located at Landguard Felixstowe.

Read More

1945-1956

Defences on Stand-by

Defences downscaled, Landguard site and fort retained for training purposes through 1950s and into the mid-1960s.

1971

Landguard’s Military Use Ceases

Range of military relics left on site, including 4 concrete-set iron rings - final remains of Victorian practice gun battery emplacement.

1983

Bird Observatory Arrives

The Bird Observatory is set up in the disused military buildings of Right Battery, overlooking Landguard Nature Reserve.