The
Heugh Gun Battery
The
Heugh (pronounced "y'uff") Battery is
one of the most, if not the most important piece
of modern archaeology we have in the North East
of England. It is one of only two coastal batteries
that have seen action in the UK, and it stands
as a testament to those who fought in both the
First and Second World Wars.
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The
Heugh Gun Battery is a Scheduled Monument whose
importance lies in the fact that it was one of
only two coastal batteries in Britain to engage
enemy ships in World War I, the other being the
Lighthouse Battery which, before it was demolished,
stood immediately to the south of the lighthouse
on Hartlepool Headland.
The
Battery is owned by Hartlepool Borough Council
and is currently on a 25 year lease to the Heugh
Gun Battery Trust, a group of volunteers who’s
main objective is to restore the battery to the
state it was in 1914.
A
map of 1740 shows the outline of a fortification
labelled ‘Southeys Point Battery’, roughly in
the area now occupied by the Heugh Battery. By
1841 this fortification no longer appears on the
town plan, although this plan does show a battery
of simpler outline called ‘East Battery’ just
to the south.
Heugh
Battery was first leased in December 1859 and
by 1864 had four 68 pounder guns. In 1890 it was
rebuilt for three guns, with the Lighthouse Battery
being rebuilt the following year for a single
six inch gun. Between 1899 and 1900 Heugh was
modified again, at a cost of just over £4,000,
to take two quick firing guns. In December 1902
Heugh was armed with two six inch mark VII breach-loading
guns, with a single mark VI gun at Lighthouse
which was upgraded to mark VII by 1914.
It
was with these three guns that three German ships
were engaged on the morning of 16 th December
1914. Battlecruisers ‘Seydlitz’ and ‘Moltke’ and
the heavy armoured cruiser ‘Blucher’ shelled the
batteries and other targets in Hartlepool from
8.15am for nearly 40 minutes, killing over 100
civilians and injuring a further 400. Two shells
exploded between the batteries, killing seven
soldiers but the German ships failed to disable
the British guns.
Contemporary
reports suggest that the ships fired shells with
delayed action fuses which simply bounced off
the concrete aprons of the batteries, exploding
amongst the houses to the rear. The gun at Lighthouse
battery developed a fault and fired only 15 rounds
whilst Heugh dispatched 108 rounds in response
to the 500-1000 rounds fired by the ships. All
three ships suffered minor damage, although sufficient
to cut short the bombardment.
This
was the first and last time that the batteries
engaged the enemy but they continued to act as
a deterrent until September 1944 when further
threat to the coast was deemed unlikely. Heugh
Battery was taken out of service and reduced to
care and maintenance. In August 1947 the two guns
of the original Heugh Battery were selected for
retention as part of the nation’s post-war layout
of coastal defences. The site was decommissioned
at the end of 1956 when coastal artillery was
finally abandoned as part of Britain’s defences.
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