Wave Basin Battery
Wave Basin Battery
HER Number
84
District
Sunderland
Site Name
Wave Basin Battery
Place
Sunderland
Map Sheet
NZ45NW
Class
Defence
Site Type: Broad
Coastal Defence Site
Site Type: Specific
Coastal Battery
General Period
POST MEDIEVAL
Specific Period
Victorian 1837 to 1901
Form of Evidence
Structure
Description
The general anxiety about the defences of the UK led to the River Wear Commissioners giving the War Office in 1860 a site for the erection of a battery on the south side of the River Wear, next to the Wave Basin. Its precise date of construction is unknown, but the battery was certainly finished by 1882. It was "entirely constructed of masonry and consisted of a mole projecting into the river, surmounted by four gun emplacements …The main armament consisted of four 80 pounder Rifled Muzzle Loading (RML) Guns", - old 68 pounder smooth bore guns converted by the insertion of rifled liners. Because of the expansion of the port and construction of new piers, the battery was soon obsolete, and was retained only for training until perhaps the beginning of the 20th century. LISTED GRADE 2
Easting
440920
Northing
558140
Grid Reference
NZ440920558140
Sources
<< HER 84 >> Fortress Study Group, 1987, Wave Basin Battery, Sunderland,
Fortress Study Group Conference, 1988, The Defences of Tyneside - Wave Basin Battery, pp. 1-2
Dept. of National Heritage, of Buildings of Special ... Interest, 920-1/9/215
1875, Official plan of Hudson Docks in Sinclair N.T., 1986, Railways of Sunderland, p 60; NMR monument number 956440; Vertical aerial photograph reference number RAF 106G/UK/1585 5006 20-JUN-1946; C.S. Dobinson 2000 Twentieth century fortifications in England. Volume 6.1. Coast Artillery, 1900-1956
6.1 Page(s)106-115; C.S. Dobinson 2000 Twentieth century fortifications in England. Volume 6.2. Coast Artillery, 1900-1956, 6.2 Page(s)227; Michael J. Anderton 2000 Twentieth century military recording project: World War Two Coastal Batteries, page 57
Fortress Study Group Conference, 1988, The Defences of Tyneside - Wave Basin Battery, pp. 1-2
Dept. of National Heritage, of Buildings of Special ... Interest, 920-1/9/215
1875, Official plan of Hudson Docks in Sinclair N.T., 1986, Railways of Sunderland, p 60; NMR monument number 956440; Vertical aerial photograph reference number RAF 106G/UK/1585 5006 20-JUN-1946; C.S. Dobinson 2000 Twentieth century fortifications in England. Volume 6.1. Coast Artillery, 1900-1956
6.1 Page(s)106-115; C.S. Dobinson 2000 Twentieth century fortifications in England. Volume 6.2. Coast Artillery, 1900-1956, 6.2 Page(s)227; Michael J. Anderton 2000 Twentieth century military recording project: World War Two Coastal Batteries, page 57