The Explorer Within
Exploring the United Kingdom
East Weare Batteries - DISTEX
Isle of Portland, Dorset.
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East Weare Battery is a derelict Victorian gun battery located within the East Weares area of the island, overlooking Portland Harbour which it was built to protect, and sits below the cliff to the east of the Verne Citadel. The battery has sections from A to F, with the overall condition varying from poor to good. In May 1993 the site became Grade II Listed. In addition to this, the 'E' section of the battery has become a scheduled monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance.
The battery area also features the DISTEX site (Disaster Relief Exercise), which is often referred to as Forbidden City locally. This part is built within the battery, for the use of the Royal Navy to conduct training. Above part of the battery, and the DISTEX site, isEast Weare Camp, which was built in the 1880s as detention barracks, and was then converted to coastguard use in 1914. It is also Grade II Listed. The battery, DISTEX site and the camp remain on the private property of Portland Port Ltd, and have not been opened to the public. - Paragraph sourced from the website of Portland history
Concidering how big this site is you would think that it is easy to find, however, that proved harder than you might think.
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It is a long walk through a tihin, bramble covered path. Once you get to the end of this 'path' you will find a big metal fence and a sign that says 'trespassers will be electricuted' where someone has spray painted it on and misspelt it.
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On the way down the hill to the 'Forbidden City' as it's known locally on Portland, we noticed there were several cameras and workers on the industrial part next to the batteries. It became clear to us that they didn't want visitors... Probably because of health and safety reasons.
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The area smelt quite bad and you could see it was often visited. It was a great place to explore and we were genuinley surprised with what we kept finding. We found hundreds of bullet casings from a type of ammunition known as simu-rounds which are used to make exercises as realistic as possible, decoy grenades and many more exercise items like that.
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An update on the history of the site will soon be added to the website.
Pictures from inside the grounds.
Any questions on the explore or if you have any history you want to share, feel free to contact us through the contact us page.
East Weare Batteries - DISTEX Gallery
