The Harwich blockhouses were a set of three Device Forts in Harwich, Essex, England. Built in 1543, the sites saw only brief service and have since been lost, probably to coastal erosion.
History
In 1533, King Henry VIII broke with Pope Paul III in order to annul the long-standing marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and remarry. Catherine was the aunt of King Charles V of Spain, who took the annulment as a personal insult. As a consequence, France and the Empire declared an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraged the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England now appeared certain; that summer Henry made a personal inspection of some of his coastal defences, which had recently been mapped and surveyed: he appeared determined to make substantial, urgent improvements.
Henry VIII gave instructions through Parliament in 1539 that new defences were to be built along the coasts of England, beginning a major programme of work that would continue until 1547. The order was known as a “device”, which meant a documented plan, instruction or schema, leading to the fortifications later becoming known as the “Device Forts”. The initial instructions for the “defence of the realm in time of invasion” concerned building forts along the southern coastline of England, as well as making improvements to the defences of the towns of Calais and Guisnes in France, then controlled by Henry’s forces. Commissioners were also to be sent out across south-west and south-east England to inspect the current defences and to propose sites for new ones. After the initial invasion scare, Henry moved back onto the offensive in Europe in 1543, allying himself with Spain against France once again.
As a result, three blockhouses were constructed to protect the port of Harwich in 1543, Tower House, Middle House and the House-upon-the-Hill. Each had garrisons of two officers and between six and nine men. The Middle House, in the town itself, was probably an earthwork defence, revetted with gabions. The three blockhouses were decommissioned in 1552, and, by 1588, two of them had been pulled down by a local citizen. The site of House-upon-the-Hill has since been lost to coastal erosion.
Bibliography
- Colvin, H. M.; Ransome, D. R.; Summerson (1982). The History of the King’s Works, Volume 4: 1485-1660, Part 2. London, UK: HMSO. ISBN 0116708328.
- Essex County Council. (2006) Extensive Urban Survey – Essex: Historic Towns Assessment Report. Essex, UK: Essex County Council.
- Hale, John R. (1983). Renaissance War Studies. London, UK: Hambledon Press. ISBN 0907628176.
- Harrington, Peter (2007). The Castles of Henry VIII. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781472803801.
- Morley, B. M. (1976). Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defence. London, UK: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. ISBN 0116707771.
Attribution
The text of this page is licensed under under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photographs on this page are drawn from the Wikimedia websites, as of 9 August 2018, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Colne Estuary“, author Simon Huguet, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.
