Gibraltar Northern Defences frame

<body text="white" link="yellow" vlink="yellow"> <font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">The panorama opposite has been photographed at a junction where Castle Communication tunnel meets Lower Communication leading up to Lower Union Gallery. The open ground adjacent to the tall ventilation tower was Hanover Battery. Hanover Battery was built on an old Spanish site and lies at the southern end of Prince's Lines. The photograph below shows the magazine cut into the rock behind.</font> <div align="left"> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">During the Spanish War of 1762 Hanover Battery mounted two 24-pdrs, and the adjoining line had two 6-pdrs, In 1770 William Green, the chief engineer, said it formed a good covered way to the north front of the Moorish Castle as a protection against a sudden attack, In 1859 it mounted four guns, two 24-pdrs, and two 24-pdr. carronades.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">Passing through Hanover Battery leads us into Princess Lines which consists of a long entrenchment with parapets to the side overlooking Spain. These lines run above King's and Queen's Lines. Work was undertaken and finished by 1720 and in the siege of 1726-27 they mounted two cannon and a number of swivel guns which were very accurate and caused heavy casualties among the enemy.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">King's Lines occupy part of much older Moorish or Spanish Lines already in use during the siege of 1704. They are clearly shown on maps of 1627. The Lines were named soon after the 1704 occupation after the Archduke Charles of Austria otherwise known as Charles III, King of Spain. It was . It was on his behalf that Gibraltar was captured by the allied forces in 1704.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">This is part of a series of batteries built on the Moorish and Spanish lines that zigzagged up the hill of the Moorish Castle to the Tower of Homage. Seven of these batteries were formed along the walls. The photograph below shows the layout.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">In the photograph above, Grand Battery appears at the bottom right, above Grand Battery is a tall section of wall which houses Crutchets Battery. This was on the site of part of the Moorish and Spanish city wall, it was also called No. 6 and No.7 Castle Batteries. The name is possibly derived from the crushetts or lime kilns that stood nearby. The photograph below shows the complex of batteries adjacent to Crutchets which link through to Kings Lines, these are; Hesses Demi Bastion, Kings Lines Battery and Bombproof Battery.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">There are underground brick vaulted casemates under Crutchets Battery, details of these can be seen in the photographs below.</font></p> <p><font face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">The photograph below shows the archaeological dig which uncovered the foundations of a gateway from the Moorish period. This dig started in 2005 and is still in progress.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">The panorama opposite shows a junction where Princess Gallery cuts through the rock providing communication with the Princess Lines to the south, the opposite end is shown in the photograph below.</font></p> </div> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">In the panorama you will see double steel doors leading into one of several magazines built into the rock in this area, these are firmly sealed up, you will also see the steel door with the number 20 written on it, behind this lies a tunnel leading down into Star Chamber below.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">William Green arrived in 1761 as chief engineer and began improvements to the Lines. Banquets and parapets were repaired and the ditches made smooth with mortar. Dry rubble walls were built behind the Lines to try to stop shells and rubble rolling onto them. Bombproof guardrooms were built. Another job was to clear the glacis, the ground in front of the ramparts of boulders and fill all the crevices so that no enemy soldiers could find cover.</font></p> <div align="left"> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">In this century the parapet of the Lines was raised to provide loopholes for rifles and a second wall was added behind to form a passageway, and the space roofed over with concrete.</font></p> </div> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">Bombproof guardrooms were built, in the panorama opposite you will see the Bombproof Barracks and Cookhouse, the photographs below show the interior of the barracks with its thick walls.</font></p> <div align="left"> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">Below you can see a bombproof magazine with the inscription "Princes 205 Magazine" still visible above the doorway.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">The photograph below shows the beautiful double curvature staircase leading up to the Entrenchment wall which follows an old fortified line, probably Moorish and certainly used by the Spanish. The wall had a ditch about fifteen feet wide, a parapet and firing steps, all of which is extremely overgrown and no longer passable.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">This complex group of fortifications is located at the end of Princes Lines and was named after Lt. George Forbes RN, ADC to Prince George of Hesse Darmstadt, third Earl of Granard (1685-1765) who took part as a midshipman in the attack of 1704 and who fought on shore in the siege of 1727.</font></p> </div> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">In 1727 the battery mounted two 6-pdr guns. In 1761 the British constructed Upper and Lower Forbes' Batteries.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">Upper Forbes' Battery has two fine magazines, one brick and one stone, built against the cliff wall. Above the two batteries is Forbes' Lookout. During the Second World War a 40-mm Mark 3 gun on a mobile mounting was placed in Upper Forbes Battery in 1942 and remained there until December 1944. A Second World War iron cupola cantilevered out from the rock face housed a searchlight. It has sliding iron doors as can be seen in the photograph below.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">Lower Forbes' consists of two barrel vaulted chambers each for smooth bore guns. The left vault housed a searchlight, the turntable is still in place today as can be seen in the photograph below. Vandalism is evident everywhere.</font></p> <div align="left"> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">The cylindrical casing of the searchlight is lying in an alcove behind a WW2 anti-tank gun position below Lower Forbes. This emplacement is actually at Queens Lines. The gun at this position still survives today as can be seen in the photograph below.</font></p> <p><font color="white" face="Geneva,Arial" size="2">Queens Lines overlook Laguna Estate. They were commenced during the Great Siege in 1788 and were joined to the end of the King's Lines. Today this area is extremely overgrown and impassable.</font></div> </body>