Reigate Fort

Reigate Fort is part of the London Defence Positions designed to protect London from foreign invasion landing on the south coast in the late 19th Century.

The 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom report on Britain's defences believed that London was practically undefended. The defence was the Royal Navy and its ability to prevent an invader landing.

Following a number of proposals by senior military figures based on earthworks for infantry and moveable artillery, the London Defence Scheme was announced in Parliament in March 1889. This was at a time when confidence in the Navy was low and the tensions with France (and her ally Russia) was high.

The London Defence Positions were earthworks to be thrown up in time of war, but backed up with permanent works which acted as stores and magazines, at 5 mile intervals. Reigate Fort and the Fort on Box Hill were some of these.

They were built along the 70-mile line of the North Downs from Guildford to the Darenth valley. Thirteen sites were chosen, at Pewley Hill, Henley Grove, Denbies, Box Hill, Betchworth, Reigate, East Merstham, Fosterdown, Woldingham, Betsoms Hill, Halstead, Farningham and (to the north of London) North Weald.

The design of each site varied, but they are not elaborate, just a magazine and storehouses for the mobilisation of troops, with very limited defences. The idea was that the sites would, in addition to holding ammunition and other supplies, act as strong points in an almost continuous line of field fortifications. The trench lines joining the Defence Positions would be rapidly excavated on the outbreak of war.

This was remarkable strategic decision taken at a time when Continental powers were still constructing steel and concrete forts to defend their frontiers and capitals - think of Antwerp, Verdun, Liege in the First World War. Modern munitions made these first obsolete so a trench line was advanced thinking in the 1890s, although one cannot help thinking that this was defence on the cheap.

However the defences were quickly seen as obsolete, and nearly all were sold off by Haldane in 1907. At this time Britain had launched HMS Dreadnought and confidence in the Royal Navy preventing invasions was high.

During World War I, part of the London Defence Positions scheme was resurrected to form a stop line of trenches, in case of a German invasion.