Secondary Ports

During the 19th Century, outside of the main centres, coastal defence was left in the hands of local volunteer units with obsolete artillery. These units had largely vanished by the start of the 20th Century and little serious attention was paid to defending the secondary ports. The main exception to this was Westport as it was an important coaling port for the navy - two 12pdr guns were used there for 1910-1921.

By World War Two, defences for secondary ports were taken much more seriously. A series of gun emplacements was built for 17 different sites. The Marlborough Sounds were a particularly interesting case as the emplacements were built so the sounds could be used as a fleet anchorage. By 1944 though, most of these installations had been put into care and maintenance and were no longer in active service.

Today 11 of the sites are substantially intact, two had no permanent structures, three have been largely demolished and one has fallen into the sea.