|
Farlington Redoubt was to have been fitted with
barracks and a magazine, together with substantial underground works to
protect the ditches and to permit counter-mining (the process by which you
defeat an enemies attempt to dig under your fortifications by tunnelling,
or mining, towards their tunnels). Rising costs of the other forts caused
the plans to be drastically cut back and although the ditches and gun
emplacements were provided, little else was done.
Shortly before World War II, the War Office
decided to dispose of the Redoubt and it was duly acquired and put on the
market. Seeing the convenience of the position and the huge potential
supply of chalk that would arise from quarrying away the central dumpling
within the moat, and with a view to the causeway construction of a large
part of the Eastern Road (A2030), Fraser & White purchased the
Redoubt. A strip of land was also purchased from the War Department so
that a new northern access route from Portsdown Hill Road could be
constructed - the original access to the Redoubt was from the west. This
accounts for the state of the site today.
It was believed that Farlington Redoubt was
linked to Fort Purbrook by a tunnel, but no evidence has been found for
this at the Purbrook end, where logically it should appear at the end of
the Musketry Gallery at the eastern angle, nor is such a tunnel shown on
any plan.
|
