Lookout Point

Located on the South West Coastal path at Upper Sharpnose Point this lookout station I think dates from WW2, (Cleave Camp is less than a mile away.) A fair hike to get to it, although one of the oldest Pubs in England; The Bush Inn is about a 30 minute walk away. The Pub is pretty remote to start with.

BobClay said:

Located on the South West Coastal path at Upper Sharpnose Point this lookout station I think dates from WW2, (Cleave Camp is less than a mile away.) A fair hike to get to it, although one of the oldest Pubs in England; The Bush Inn is about a 30 minute walk away. The Pub is pretty remote to start with.

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How rather nice.
Thanks for sharing

That's fabulous. It looks like a WW2 Coastal Artillery Search Light Emplacement (C.A.S.L.E), which housed a powerful searchlight for sweeping the sea on the lookout for enemy ships. Different from an ordinary pillbox due to its large windows instead of the usual small embrasures. The only problem is that it doesn't look as if it's overlooking the sea, or is that just the way it looks on the photo? Really nice find as there aren't many left in situ.

This looks like one of the many Coast Guard watch stations dotted round the coast, military structures would not have had big windows. Shipping coming round the Irish south coast heading for Bristol, Cardiff etc comes right past Sharpnose Point with some trick waters round Lundy to negotiate so it was important to keep an eye out for problems. Most of these watch points date from WW1 and earlier, they ceased operation once radar became common and could do the job more efficiently.

Very much a watch house by the size of the windows. What purpose did the two letterbox shape openings serve? The upper one might have been an air vent. But the lower one? Also for air? Or as a drain for any water that might have found its way in? Its flat roof reminds me of the brick-built railway signal boxes of the 1930s, they had horizontal flat concrete slab roofs.

It does have a good view of the Atlantic. Those rocks on the left are a bit deceiving in the pix. It is at the very base of Upper Sharpnose Point and the view as you can see is just a little restricted at the centre by the point. There's a fairly hairy path leading to the point that suggests if you've been to the Bush Inn for a few, best not go this way.

Thanks, Bob Clay. The photo of the headland explains a lot. That the path in the pic is so incised shows it is very popular. Do you have a photo looking back from the tip of the headland? Or did you not try?!

I've done that path many times, and generally took pix from there looking North and South as the coast there is pretty spectacular. I'll root about in my back stored pix files for looking from the other end, not sure if I took one of that. Also took a handheld VHF amateur radio to the point and got a contact with someone in Liskeard, which is fairly good going.

Hayman said:

Very much a watch house by the size of the windows. What purpose did the two letterbox shape openings serve? The upper one might have been an air vent. But the lower one? Also for air? Or as a drain for any water that might have found its way in? Its flat roof reminds me of the brick-built railway signal boxes of the 1930s, they had horizontal flat concrete slab roofs.

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Given the importance of the observations being carried out from these structures; it was important that the windows did not mist up. The upper vent allowed the warm, moist air produced by the observers to escape from the interior. The lower vent had two roles, an inlet point for fresh cold air and a drainage point for any water flooding the building floor. Always remember hot air rises, so once the building was occupied one got a natural flow of fresh air between the lower inlet vent, to the upper exit vent.

Dirus_Strictus said:

Given the importance of the observations being carried out from these structures; it was important that the windows did not mist up. The upper vent allowed the warm, moist air produced by the observers to escape from the interior. The lower vent had two roles, an inlet point for fresh cold air and a drainage point for any water flooding the building floor. Always remember hot air rises, so once the building was occupied one got a natural flow of fresh air between the lower inlet vent, to the upper exit vent.

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Thanks for the confirmation of my thoughts.

what is interesting about this building is the very high quality of the plastering and the materials used.
The corners are bevelled and run in a harder material than the walls. The internal walls are rendered in cement finished very flat and then skimmed with lime about 2mm thick. The corners were run separately and left a little edge for the final skim coat to finish seamlessly on the corners. The plastering is interesting because it must have been done at a point in history when cement was being used but modern gypsum plasters had not. The window frames are oak, the vents are aluminium.

John the lime plasterer said:

what is interesting about this building is the very high quality of the plastering and the materials used.
The corners are bevelled and run in a harder material than the walls. The internal walls are rendered in cement finished very flat and then skimmed with lime about 2mm thick. The corners were run separately and left a little edge for the final skim coat to finish seamlessly on the corners. The plastering is interesting because it must have been done at a point in history when cement was being used but modern gypsum plasters had not. The window frames are oak, the vents are aluminium.

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By chance, yesterday I was talking with someone who mentioned a man he knew who was involved in extracting gypsum by using large diameter coring drills, so that the gyspusm remained a hard solid, rather than as fine material or powder. Would it have been used in its solid state for anything? I have always thought of it being quarried and immediately crushed.

Also yesterday I had a personal underground tour of the Park Lane Bath stone mine at Neston, near Corsham, in Wiltshire. As the manager and I walked through the workings, we came across fragments of the original mine railway: a length of rail, rotted sleepers and rail spikes. Several old headings had been backfilled with rocks in the days when the work was still very much all by hand. In total contrast to the modern stone cutting and transport machinery in use now. I talked with one of the workers who explores the old Bath stone mines and quarries in the area.

At Moonraker stone cutting works in Corsham, I chatted with a workman who, with mates, illicitly explores many of the old underground sites in the area.

I just love the way this sort of discussion developes on this site, I pick up so many gems particularly when people like John TLP suddenly join to make their contribution - thanks Hayman and John!

Roderick said:

I just love the way this sort of discussion developes on this site, I pick up so many gems particularly when people like John TLP suddenly join to make their contribution - thanks Hayman and John!

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Thank you. There was a real pride once in making even the most mundane structure look attractive. Think of how the old pumping stations were designed. Thinking about the present day Moonraker Bath stone works, when Victorian architects were designing the typical houses that abounded in street after street in towns and cities around the country, they would choose the styles for - for example - stone door and door surrounds from catalogues, Various patterns were carved by the thousand, and I'm sure this art was transferred to the era of plaster and concrete finishes. Only today is everything either bland or in brash primary colours. The ideas of detail and delicacy have been lost, even buried.