“Berry Head is one of the most complete of the surviving examples of purpose-built Napoleonic fortifications in south-west England”.
(A.R.Pye & W.D.Slater 1990 Berry Head Fort, Brixham. An Archaeological Survey Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Report No. 90.10, p. 30)
During the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic war (1793-1815), the carboniferous limestone headland known as Berry Head formed a vital strategic location on the south-western approaches to the important Torbay naval anchorage.
To safeguard the Royal Naval western squadron, when anchored in Torbay for reprovisioning and taking on water (supplied by the Brixham reservoir), a powerful gun-battery of twelve 42 pounders was deployed at the end of this headland. While the gun-battery with its natural defences provided by the flanking precipitous 200-foot high cliffs was secure from an attack by sea, it was still vulnerable to an overland assault; a situation remedied, when, in 1795, the Ordnance Board built a defensive works designated as Fort 3 (today known as the “northern fort”). The original plans for this fort were drawn up by Lt.Col. Mercer, Commanding Engineer, Devonport.
Accommodation for the artillerymen serving the guns and the fort’s garrison of 300 militiamen was provided by four wooden hutments. The North Devon Militia regiment formed the first garrison in 1795, followed by the Berkshire Militia 1796-97, the Royal Cornwall Militia in 1798, and the 1st (East) Devon Militia 1798-1800.
Above: Royal Cornwall Militia Button
Above: 1st Devon Regiment
Military campaigns in the Mediterranean, the Netherlands (1799), Egypt (1801) , involving the British Army began to take their toll on many regiments, as heavy casualties resulted from fierce-fought battles. These often severe losses prompted construction of a network of recruiting/training barracks throughout Britain in order to replenish the depleted regiments. Berry Head, already fortified, was an obvious choice for one of these. Accordingly, in 1805, four additional single-storey, prefabricated, wooden quadrangle barracks were erected in the fort for the accommodation of up to 750 regular infantrymen while training prior to active service overseas. Contemporary records of marriages and baptisms performed in St. Mary’s Parish Church, Brixham, reveal soldiers wives and children also lived in the barracks - whose presence would have given the fort an air of a mini-village. Two years after the combined British and Prussian forces decisively defeat Napoleon’s Grand Armee at Waterloo, 18th June 1815, the Berry Head fortifications were decommissioned, the gun-battery removed and the barrack buildings dismantled; and placed on a care and maintenance basis, in the charge of a retired soldier living in the old guardhouse.
Summary details of the above investigations may be found in the following reports:
- A.R.Pye 1989 Berry Head Fort, Brixham. An Archaeological Assessment. Exeter Museum Archaeological Field Unit Report No. 89.04.
- A.R.Pye & W.D.Slater 1990 Berry Head Fort, Brixham. An Archaeological Survey. Exter Museums Archaeological Field Report No. 90.10.
In November 1998, the Berry Head Country Park Ranger (Torbay Council) invited Brixham Heritage Museum’s Field Research Team (Project Director: Dr. Philip L. Armitage) to carry out an archaeological “watching brief” outside the presumed line of the southern perimeter (musketry wall) of the main (northern fort: Fort 3), in an area being cleared of unwanted, encroaching blackthorn scrub. The high yield of artefacts recovered during the early stages of the “watching brief” prompted development of the project into a more systematic research-oriented survey and excavation the following year (1999).
In order to minimize the impact of the archaeological investigation - which was being conducted in an area then designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (upgraded in 2000 to the status of a National Nature Reserve) - it was decided to employ metal detectors to precisely locate artefacts for recovery and distribution-plotting. Invasive, hand-trowelled trenching was confined to the immediate vicinity of an unidentified and undated, now ruined, stone-built rectangular structure (not included in any of the original fort plans drawn up by the Ordnance Board !) - in an attempt to resolve its date of construction and purpose (still under consideration).
As a result of the investigations, sheet-refuse deposits dating from the time of the military occupation of the headland were located and mapped; the earliest of these was associated with the 3rd (East Kent), 62nd (Wiltshire)and 51st (2nd Yorkshire) Regiments of Foot (covering the period 1808-1810), and another associated with the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot whose 2nd Battalion on recruiting duty was stationed in the fort between 1811-1813. Buttons from these regiments are below:
Above: 3rd East Kent Reg.t Foot (the Buffs)
Above: 62nd Reg.t Foot (Wiltshire)
Above: 51st (2nd Yorkshire, West Riding) Reg.t Foot
Above: 28th (North Gloucestershire) Reg.t Foot
The 2nd/28th Regiment when it abandoned the fort, left behind a perfectly preserved - and rare - shako-plate of their Drum Major (arguably the most spectacular of the archaeological finds from this particular site!). Also recovered was an intact shako-plate of the 3rd Lancashire Militia. Uniform buttons formed the bulk of the recovered metal small-finds, representing over sixty regular and militia infantry regiments ( including several never before documented Irish Militia buttons) and (unexpectedly in an infantry barracks !) examples of cavalry regiments - among these is a tunic button of the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons (Scots Greys), perhaps from a trooper on detachment for anti-smuggling patrol duties along the coast.
Insight into the everyday life in the fort is provided by a variety of other small finds, including: furniture mounts, upholstery tacks, a brass candle snuffer, nit comb, pocket watch keys, a “Jew’s harp”, bone dominoes, clay tobacco pipes, wine-glasses, beer bottles, sugar-cane cutters and medicine vials. Clay marbles and a bone whistle are probably children’s toys, while the presence of women is attested by several shoe pattens and embroidery scissors.
Unanticipated finds include a Dutch East India Company copper coin (dated 1789), a French soldier’s tunic button (37th Line Regiment), and an assemblage of twelve kittiwake skeletons.
Post-excavation processing is now well underway, with the identification of the uniform buttons almost completed. The assistance of the National Army Museum and the British Button Society in this is acknowledged with gratitude. Selected examples of button types of the different regiments represented were drawn by Gerry Mos and are available for viewing on this website. Site plans showing the distribution of the buttons located during the metal detector searches and during excavation are also included on this website. Site plans as follows:
Assessment of the several thousand animal bones (discarded food debris) by Armitage has revealed a diet comprising mainly beef, mutton and hake. Surprisingly, very little pork or chicken was eaten.
In August this year (2000) Mrs. Jackie Pearce of the Museum of London’s Specialist Services Department visited Brixham Heritage Museum in order to carry out an analysis of the excavated ceramics (this work funded by grant-aid from Torbay Council).
A teacher’s information and resource pack was produced. During the summer 1999 excavation season, several groups of local primary school children participated directly in the field work, working alongside the museum team members, gaining hands-on-experience. For the weekend of 24th and 25th July 1999, open days at the excavation site were organised for young people as a contribution to National Archaeology Weekend promoted by the Young Archaeologists Club, British Council for Archaeology.
Table 1: Summary counts of identified military buttons. Fort 3, 1998/99 watching brief, survey and excavation.
| Regiments | Numbers of buttons | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Metal (copper alloy) | Pewter | Totals | |
1) Regular infantry |
|||
| 6 | 14 | 20 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 5 | 6 |
|
2 | 1 | 3 |
| 25 | 10 | 45 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
2 | 1 | 3 |
|
3 | 3 | |
| 1 | 1 | ||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
|
2 | 3 | 5 |
|
1 | 1 | |
2) Regular Cavalry |
|||
| 1 | 1 | ||
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
3) Specialist |
|||
|
10 | 10 | |
|
1 | 1 | 2 |
4) Militia infantry |
|||
| 3 | 3 | ||
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
2 | 2 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 3 | 4 |
|
1 | 1 | 2 |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
16 | 16 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
2 | 2 | |
|
1 | 1 | 2 |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
3 | 3 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
3 | 2 | 5 |
|
3 | 3 | |
5) Volunteer Infantry |
|||
|
1 | 1 | |
|
1 | 1 | |
|
3 | 3 | |
| Totals | 80 | 87 | 167 |
 |
 |
