Paull Point Battery (Fort)

The battery replaced Hull Citadel (sold 1863) and consists of an earthwork battery (or fort) of an irregular pentagonal trace, its longest face running parallel to The Humber for some 600ft, and the two flanking faces each 300ft long. These faces consist of earth ramparts with a carnot wall . It has a dry ditch 12ft. wide flanked by two-storeyed caponiers and a defensible gorge wall, against which is built the barrack accommodation. This has a bastion at its centre with demi-caponiers at each end. The whole work is surrounded by an unclimbable fence. The entrance at the gorge is closed by steel gates. The armament of nineteen 64pr. RMLS was mounted on the terreplein of the south and west faces, behind brick embrasures with magazines below, protected by the ramparts.
None of the original RML emplacements or their magazines survive and they were probably removed to make way for the later gun positions.
In 1866 a submarine mining Establishment and pier were built to the north of the fort. In 1899 the fort was armed with three 6-inch guns and two 4.7-inch guns to defend the Humber Commercial Port. The 1905 Owen Committee declared the 4.7-inch guns superfluous.

Circa 1907 three Electric Light Emplacements were built. Of these No.1 survives several hundred metres south of the fort. The engine house was within the fort. In 1912 an Electric Light Director and battery Command Post were added to the fort. In 1915 the 6-inch guns were removed as Sunk Island and Stallingborough Batteries became operational, but Paull Point remained the H.Q. for Humber Fire Command. In the 1920s two 6-inch guns were re-fitted for practice and were used by the T.A. In WWII the fort was used to store Anti-Aircraft ammunition. It was sold to a private owner in 1961. It is now actively being conserved by the Fort Paull Heritage Organisation who intend to open it in July 2000 as the 'Fort Paull Visitors Centre and Armouries'. This will include a restaurant, tea rooms, gift shop, assault course (adjacent to the second firing range), craft units (barracks), museum (guardroom), six underground magazines (under gun emplacements), two underground tunnels, each leading to a single caponiere and a double (to the south), and the remaining degaussing range facilities (also underground). As with everything else, the parade ground has been entirely cleared of the wild overgrowing weeds and is ready for re-enactments. there is a parking lot on Battery Road, and the fort has brought together a diverse number of military vehicles and guns.