High Angle Battery

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This view shows approximately one-fifth of the structure.

The High Angle Battery is a derelict fort built in 1892 on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The battery was built as part of Britain's Coastal Defences in 1892 and is located in a disused Portland Stone quarry at the northern end of the island. Just to the north, at the top of high cliffs of Portand is the Verne Citadel with which it would have formed part of an impressive defence installation, protecting both merchant and naval shipping using Portland Harbour.

Being down in a quarry the guns were hidden from view of any passing enemy ships, the element of surprise would keep them moving on, minimising a possible threat. The "high angle" that the nine-inch rifle muzzle loaders fired at ensured shells dropped down to inflict maximum damage on the less well protected upper decks of any attacking vessel, the sides of whom were usually rather better armoured.

Positions were built for eight guns but in the event only six were installed. The supply of shells were stored in underground magazines reached by a short rail. Shelters for the men were also to be found here, their main accommodation being in the adjacent Verne buildings.

The pace of maritime warfare increased with the use of smaller craft like torpedo boats, and the big guns would be far less likely to score a hit. As a result, they had been in use for just six years when they were taken out of service in 1898. The Battery was decommisioned in 1906, a short lifespan on the whole. Nevertheless the idea was adopted elsewhere with some enthusiasm, especially in the United States.

The Portland installation is the best preserved Battery of its type in the United Kingdom and is a sheduled ancient monument but remains hidden from view: a short walk across from a tiny car park that serves the nearby Verne will soon reveal its layout in the lower levels of the shallow quarry.