North Fort, Liverpool

'The entrance to the [Mersey] harbour is guarded by the North fort on the Liverpool side, and by the New Brighton fort on the Cheshire side.

The North fort stands on the shore adjacent to the N end of Huskisson dock; is massively constructed of stone; bears, at its entrance, the inscription within a lozenge, V. R. 1854; and, at its seaward base, is washed by the tide to a depth of 30 feet. The entrance is on the E side, with projecting wings and battlemented towers; the doorway is approached over moat and drawbridge, and is arched; the centre of the fort is a square court-yard, on three sides of which are guard-houses, officers' rooms, stables, and other buildings; the bastions are semicircular sweeps of great thickness of wall, flanked by towers for heavy guns; the entrance to each tower is by a strong stone staircase, containing a casemate and artillery store; the aggregate outline of the fort seaward has the form of an arc of a circle; and the interior is always provided with ready-piled shells, and the hot-shot apparatus.'

(Extract: John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/2121510



Illustration, 1865 (below)
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Illustrated London News, 16 June, 1888 (B&W) illustration (below)
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Maps, 1864 (below)
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