Discovering Fortifications From the Tudors to the Cold War

Much has been written about the decline and fall of the feudal fortress: much less has been written about the British fortifications that were built in the age of artillery. From the early and dangerous days of gunpowder to the threat of nuclear annihilation the state has responded to the threat of invasion or attack by building strongholds. The fortifications of Henry VIII resembled and were still called castles, but new influences from the Continent brought in the angled bastion and the age of the great forts such as Fort George in Scotland. As artillery and explosives became more effective fortress builders had to respond. The introduction of concrete revolutionised nineteenth- and twentieth-century fortifications. The book also describes: *the fortifications that were built to contain insurrection in Scotland in the eighteenth century, and also in Ireland in the twentieth century; *how London, in the fear of invasion, was ringed by a chain of fortifications in the nineteenth century; *how in 1940 Britain put its faith in the pillbox; *the secret structures built for defence in the Cold War. Bernard Lowry has a lifelong interest in military architecture. He is a founder member of the Offa's Dyke Association and the Castle Studies Group and for seven years was Honorary Secretary of the Fortress Study Group.