# Hilpsford Fort Walney, Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria



## shatters (Jan 24, 2009)

Hilpsford Fort was constructed during 1914 as a WWI emergency battery, and was dismantled in the 1920's, providing a source of much-needed labour to this employment-starved area. The artillery was reinstated in 1940, with new construction work undertaken. A 14-day job by the Royal Engineers actually took 19 days, due to 'bad ground'. Six-inch hand-loaded guns were employed, upon which the gunners of the Workington 406th Coast-Battery Home-Guard volunteers (amongst others) undertook several training courses, including firing common-point shells weighing 100lbs!

Gun holdfasts 6 in total

















Coastal Artillery Searchlight Emplacement











Another now serving as a base for a bird watching hide






Underground bunkers (magazines ?)
















Couple of unidentified surface structures











Phil


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## Foxylady (Jan 24, 2009)

Nice find, Phil. I like the use for a bird hide.  Such a shame it's all crumbling away now, though.
I'm wondering if the last structure was the generator room. Did you manage to look inside there at all?
Cheers.


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## shatters (Jan 24, 2009)

Foxylady said:


> Nice find, Phil. I like the use for a bird hide.  Such a shame it's all crumbling away now, though.
> I'm wondering if the last structure was the generator room. Did you manage to look inside there at all?
> Cheers.



Hi Foxy,

There's 2 on site but they're so full of junk that I couldn't tell if any bases remain

Phil


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## Foxylady (Jan 24, 2009)

shatters said:


> There's 2 on site but they're so full of junk that I couldn't tell if any bases remain
> l



Ah, I wondered if that might be the case.


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