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