Monument record FEX 073 - Martello Tower N; Waltonferry; Felixstowe Container Port (PMed)

`Martello Tower N' and `battery' marked on OS 1st edition map (S1).
1938: Mead records that this tower was already in ruin but that the ditch was around 70ft wide with a 20ft wide cunette , a subsidiary trench containing water inside the main ditch (S7)
Curtain walls of battery still shown standing on prominant mound on 1972 1:10000 map (S2). Still shown on 1973 AP (S3). Built 1810-1812. Now part of container port, present condition unknown. Photographs etc held by the Felixstowe Museum.
The earthwork bank and ditch that surrounded the 19th century Martello Tower 'N' are clearly visible on aerial photographs taken from the 1940s onwards. The structures visible within the earthwork bank may be the remains of the battery mentioned in (S6), although the site was later reused during World War II (see FEX 073). (S4) (S5) In Peter Kent's Fortifications of East Anglia he describes how, "The tower itself was demolished in the early years of this [20th] century and the surrounding battery disappeared under the dock extensions in 1980." (S6)
From an early 19th century plan of Martello Towand Battery N: the Tower is surrounded by concentric ditches (and walls?) for security and an iron bridge links the tower to the land around it. There is a staff building and draw bridge on the outside of the tower. The battery magazine is flush to the ditches and the battery is flush to the beach. There are four cannon emplacements. There are shells stores between cannons. To one side of the battery there is a sluice chamber.

A photograph, posibly taken in the early 20th century, shows the tower partialy demolished.