The Ladyboy and the 12 pounder

I've just had a very good weekend doing some research into the 12 pounder Quickfiring Naval Gun at Newhaven Fort. The fort is a well preserved Palmerston era fortification designed to protect the harbour at Newhaven from the French. It was designed to make use of the contours of the hill it was on. It made sense from a construction point of view, but it did leave them the only sloping parade ground of that era. Parading on a hill must have made square bashing difficult.

It never fired a shot in anger against the French, but did against German aircraft during the Second World War. After the war the fort was used by the Royal Observer Corps, and the abandoned. It was sold to property developers who tried to bulldoze it, but found that the fort was simply to strong for them. They sold it on to another group that restored it to it's current state as a historical attraction. Unfortunately it was a historical attraction in Newhaven and despite being a very interesting site with plenty to do they could not make it a viable business, so it eventually ended up in the hands of Lewis County Council.

The staff at Newhaven Fort were very helpful not just letting me take measurements from their gun, they also let me read and copy some of the books in their archive which I will be digitising later.

As for the Ladyboy in my blog title? To get to Newhaven with enough time to do anything useful I knew that I was going to have to stay over somewhere. I could have found somewhere in Newhaven itself, except that ... well ... it was Newhaven. Instead just down the road are the bright lights of Brighton. Just opposite Brighton Pavillion a new show in town "The Ladyboy's of Bangkok", and when in Brighton do as the Brightonians do. It was great fun, and considerably less vulgar than you might think.