Clifford's Fort, Ballard's Smoke House

Mid 19th century military barracks building, later used as the workshop of the Submarine Engineers. Two military boundary stones attached. Converted and extended in the 1920s to form a two-storey smokehouse for herring. Ventilation is by top hung weatherboarded ventilation shutters and a long lourved ridge ventilator with four tall ventilator stacks. Recorded in 2003 in advance of restoration. The south, east and west walls are of brick, mostly late C17 or C18, except for the south wall which is wholly C19 machine-pressed brick dating to the Submarine Mining Depot period c1888. The north wall was brick on a sandstone rubble base. The building had been damaged by fire. The windows were blocked in the late 1920s or 30s when the building was converted for fish processing. On the north wall there were traces of iron piquets set into the top of the wall. These can be equated with barbed wire entanglements and barriers shown on a plan of the Fort in 1941. SCHEDULED ANCIENT MONUMENT AND LISTED GRADE 2