Isometric drawing of Betchworth

Plan of Betchworth

After going down a longish track Betchworth’s caretakers cottages and a welcoming sign appear.

Both are still lived in and obviously cared for.

Another 130 yards further on you come to the Mobilisation Centre itself. The doors and windows  retain their loopholed steel shutters with the loopholed gorge wall to the right.

The loopholes in the gorge wall have inset steel plates to reinforce them.

Inside the owner has been clearing undergrowth revealing the profile of the rampart. To the left is the parapet where the flint revetment has been exposed

as have the magazine vents still complete with their cowls.

In the west courtyard are double doors into the gorge casemates. The window to the right of the door illuminates the lamp room.

Passing through the doors you first come to a door into the gorge casemates.

On the other side of the passage is the lamp room where one of the shelves and the brackets are still in place.

The lamp room window from the inside. Steel bars on the outside can be see through the top panes.

Past the lamp room the passage turns and descends to the magazine passage. At the top of the stairs down is the Small Arms Ammunition (SAA) fuze and tube store.

Inside it is a remarkable survival, a fuze and tube locker. It is sadly in very poor condition due to the damp atmosphere inside the centre.

The view along the magazine passage, the doors at the far end were installed when the casemates at that end were use for accommodation and are part of the centre. Beyond the doors is a second saa fuze and tube store. The open doors for one of the shell stores can be seen in the foreground.

Looking back up the stairs from the magazine passage.

Inside the shell store, one lamp recess can be seen. There is a second shell store on the other side of the store magazine.

Between the two shell stores is the store magazine which contained the cartridges.

The lamp recesses here are in the rear wall.

The magazine passage contained the shifting lobby with barriers each side of the centrally placed store magazine, but all traces of them have been removed. Two further lamp recesses for it can be seen either side of the door way.

These lamp recesses illuminate both the magazine and magazine passage.

Surrounding the three stores is the lamp passage

giving access to the lamp recesses.

Order form here:

Publications

Buy from Amazon.co.uk