Blatchinton Battery

[Kevsussex]

On 22nd October 1759 John Peter Desmaretz ( a foreigner of unknown origin who had entered the British service in 1709 and who rose to become the Architect of Ordnance)  was ordered by the Board of Ordnance to construct new batteries at Littlehampton, Brighton, Seaford, Hastings and Rye (as well as Hythe and Folkestone)

Each site was allocated 30 wheelbarrows, 4 handbarrows, 60 shovels, 4 spades, 30 pickaxes, 6 ballast baskets, 2 handsaws and 2 handbills. Seaford had a double allocation as two batteries were to be built one "On the beach opposite Seaford" and one "on the ground rising upwards at Blatchington"

The work at Seaford was allocated to an engineer called Durnford and on 31st March 1760 he reported that work was going well at Seaford Battery but had not yet begun at Blatchington.  He also reported " If guns were sent down now they would be of some use as the privateers have lately come within a half gunshot of the battery"

The Seaford Battery was finished by 1st July 1760 but had not started at Blatchington because the owner of the land was abroad. The Blatchington Fort appears to have been finished by Spring the following year. The final bill was £1,042 for Seaford and £1,040 for Blatchington. The two forts were finished and armed by 1762 as they were mentioned in the diary of Thomas Turner of East Hoathly.

The architect Demaretz died in 1768 aged 82 and is buried at the Royal Garrison Church in portsmouth.

I will post further information about Blatchington Fort later.

[Pete]

Langridge Estate Map, and an 1813 OS one inch map