text: hurst castle not to be confused with hearst castle , a resort built in the us by wealthy newspaper magnate , william randolph hearst . hurst castle is an artillery fort established by henry viii on the hurst spit in hampshire , between 1541 and 1544 . it formed part of the king 's device programme to protect against invasion from france and the holy roman empire , and defended the western entrance to the solent waterway . the early castle had a central keep and three bastions , and in 1547 was equipped with 26 guns . it was expensive to operate due to its size , but it formed one of the most powerful forts along the coast . during the english civil war of the 1640s , hurst was held by parliament and was used briefly to detain king charles i before his execution in 1648 . it continued in use during the 18th century but fell into disrepair , the spit being frequented by smugglers . repairs were made during the revolutionary and napoleonic wars with france , and the castle was modernised to enable it hold 24 - pounder ( 10 . 8 kg ) guns . fresh fears of invasion followed in the 1850s , leading to heavier , 32 - pounder ( 14 . 5 kg ) armament being installed and new gun batteries being laid out on both sides of the castle . technological developments rapidly made these defences obsolete , however , and a fresh phase of work between 1861 and 1874 created sixty - one gun positions in two long , granite - faced batteries alongside the older castle . these held very heavy weapons , including massive 12 . 5 inch , 38 ton ( 317 mm , 39 , 000 kg ) rifled muzzle - loading guns . as the century progressed , these too became outdated and lighter , quick - firing guns were installed at the castle to replace them . the castle formed part of a network of defences around the entrance to the solent during the first world war , and was re - armed again during the second world war . the military decommissioned the fort in 1956 and it passed into the control of the ministry of works . in the 21st century , it is run jointly by english heritage and the friends of hurst castle as a tourist attraction , receiving around 40 , 000 visitors during 2015 . coastal erosion has become a growing problem despite government intervention to protecting the spit . four lighthouses have been built at hurst from the 18th century onwards , one of which , a high lighthouse first opened in 1867 , remains in active service . history 16th century hurst castle was built as a consequence of international tensions between england , france and the holy roman empire in the final years of the reign of king henry viii . traditionally the crown had left coastal defences to local lords and communities , only taking a modest role in building and maintaining fortifications , and while france and the empire remained in conflict , maritime raids were common but an actual invasion of england seemed unlikely . modest defences based around simple blockhouses and towers existed in the south - west and along the sussex coast , with a few more impressive works in the north of england , but in general the fortifications were limited in scale . worsley 's tower , for example , built opposite the future site of hurst castle in the 1520s , was too small to hold powerful artillery and considered by surveyors in 1539 to be " one of the worst devised things " they had seen . in 1533 , henry broke with pope paul iii over the annulment of his long - standing marriage to catherine of aragon . catherine was the aunt of charles v , the holy roman emperor , who took the annulment as a personal insult . this resulted in france and the empire declaring an alliance against henry in 1538 , and the pope encouraging the two countries to attack england . an invasion of england appeared certain . in response , henry issued an order , called a " device " , in 1539 , giving instructions for the " defence of the realm in time of invasion " and the construction of forts along the english coastline . hurst castle was designed to protect the western entrance to the solent , a body of water that led from the english channel to the naval base at portsmouth and , through southampton water , to the important port of southampton . the castle was one of four fortifications that william fitzwilliam , the lord admiral , and william paulet recommended building to strengthen the defences along the solent ; the others were at east and west cowes , and calshot . it was positioned on the hurst spit , a strip of shingle sheltering saltmarsh and mud flats , only 0 . 75 miles ( 1 . 21 km ) across the water from the isle of wight . temporary earthwork fortifications were erected on the site and , after the other three castles had been completed , work then began on hurst in 1541 under the direction of john mille , the financial controller , and probably thomas bertie , a master mason . bertie was appointed as the castle 's captain in 1542 and the work was completed by january 1544 , at a cost of over £ 3 , 200 . the result was a stone artillery fort with a central keep and three bastions , surrounded by a moat , capable of holding up to 71 guns . in 1547 , however , hurst was equipped with 26 artillery pieces – four made of brass and the remainder iron – comprising a two sakers , a culverin , a demi - cannon , a cannon , two demi - culverins , six portpieces , four slings , two quarter - slings , and seven bases , three of them inoperable . a 1559 survey commented that hurst castle was essential for sending reinforcements from the mainland to the island , and noted that it was equipped with eleven brass and iron guns , with nine further broken guns , along with handguns , bows and arrows , pikes and bills . the survey observed that the castle was vulnerable to attack because it lacked flanking protection and had rounded walls , and that it was expensive to garrison because of its size , requiring a captain , his deputy , twelve gunners , nine soldiers and a porter . the historian john kenyon notes , however , that its considerable armament made it one of the most powerful forts in the south , even if it was equipped with lighter guns than would have been ideal for its " ship - killing " role . meanwhile , the invasion threat from france had passed and a lasting peace was made in 1558 ; government concerns shifted away from the south coast towards the spanish threat to the south - west of england . by 1569 , when thomas carew was serving as hurst 's captain , there were less than ten guns but the same size of garrison to that seven years before . his son , sir thomas gorges , became captain in turn , and in 1593 he reported that the castle 's gun platforms were in serious need of repair . 17th century in the early 1600s , england was at peace with france and spain , and the country 's coastal defences received little attention . the gorges family continued as captains at hurst , with sir edward gorges taking up the post in 1610 , but the castle was neglected . in 1628 , the castle was unable to prevent flemish ships from passing along the solent , as only four or five of the castle 's twenty - seven guns were functional , and the fort had no ammunition or powder for them . the government replaced all the brass ordnance in the castle , which were preferred , particularly on ships , as they could fire faster and more safely , with iron guns in 1635 . at the beginning of the english civil war in 1642 between the supporters of charles i and parliament , the castle was occupied by captain richard swanley , a supporter of parliament . in december 1648 it was briefly used to detain the king before his trial and execution . during the , it remained in use under the command of colonel thomas eyre and was reinforced in 1650 to deal with the threat of a royalist invasion . after charles ii was restored to the throne in 1660 , eyre was dismissed and replaced by edward strange . the future of the castle was uncertain ; charles gave orders to demobilise the garrison and briefly considered having the fortress demolished altogether . instead of maintaining a regular garrison , in 1666 it was decided to staff the castle using soldiers deployed from the isle of wight instead , from a unit belonging to sir robert holmes , the island 's governor . hurst had meanwhile fallen into disrepair , delaying the plans to deploy holmes ' men until 1671 . repairs were carried out and , by 1675 , a conventional garrison and almost thirty guns were stationed at hurst . 18th century hurst castle continued to be used as a military base in the 18th century , but was also used to hold a franciscan confessor , father paul atkinson . amid concerns over the moral condition of england and a perceived threat to the established church , an act for " further preventing the growth of popery " was passed in 1700 ; hurst was chosen by the privy council to house any priests convicted under this law . atkinson was probably the only person detained in this way , and he was held for 29 years from 1700 onwards , before finally dying at the castle . there had been reported problems with smuggling around hurst castle since the 1670s , and these continued into the 18th century . in 1729 , the revenue service hired the hurst , a wide , heavy yacht , to assist in anti - smuggling operations out of southampton , arming its crew with muskets , pistols and swords . the problems persisted and , later in the century , the site was used as a rendezvous for smugglers led by a notorious criminal called john streeter . the castle fell into neglect , and reports from the 1770s through into the early 1790s noted extensive problems , complaining that the fort 's guns could no longer be mounted on the dilapidated bastions and that water was seeping through the decaying walls . by 1793 , the castle was considered to be " in the worst condition " of all the forts along the coast , and all its guns were unusable . repairs were authorised , but little was actually done . the spit around the castle began to be used by civilians , including fishermen and gardeners ; a lighthouse , called the hurst tower , was built there in 1786 , and the shipwright 's arms inn was established alongside the castle . the revolutionary war with france broke out in 1793 , leading to the extensive modernisation of the castle . repairs were carried out in 1794 at a cost of £ 647 , followed by a review of the defences the next year by the master - general of the ordnance . the 16th - century castle was still strongly fortified by the standards of the time , but it could not support the heavier guns or batteries of artillery required to tackle enemy warships . instead , two new gun batteries , each armed with five 36 - pounder ( 16 . 3 kg ) guns , were built alongside the castle in 1795 , with a further eighteen 9 - pounder ( 4 kg ) guns mounted in the old fort ; the guns concerned had all been captured from the french . 19th century 1800 – 58 in 1803 , war with france appeared imminent once again . after some discussions , it was agreed to adapt the 16th - century keep to enable it to hold six 24 - pounder ( 10 . 8 kg ) guns ; the roof was vaulted and a central stone pillar was installed to run up through the building , work estimated at the time to be likely to cost cost £ 4 , 122 . the historian andrew saunders likens the resulting building to the various martello towers being constructed along the south coast at this time . it was proposed to build two temporary gun batteries to replace the 1795 emplacements , which had suffered from the salt air and decayed , but the plan was turned down in order to focus attention on the redevelopment of the keep . the work was carried out by a mixture of soldiers and civilian contractors and was completed by the end of 1806 . the remodelled castle did not play an active part in the napoleonic wars , although it was used in 1809 as a hospital for injured soldiers returning from the peninsula campaign in spain . a second lighthouse , known as the high lighthouse , was constructed alongside the castle in 1812 . official interest in hurst castle increased again in the 1840s , as the introduction of shell guns and steam ships created a new risk that the french might successfully attack along the south coast . previously , sailing ships had been only able to pass the castle slowly when moving against the tide , making them vulnerable to its guns ; steam ships threatened to cruise past at speed . military estimates and surveys in 1850 and 1851 suggested that the armament should therefore be significantly increased , to include more and much heavier guns . improvements were carried out between 1852 and 1856 at a cost of over £ 6 , 725 . the keep was adapted to support 32 - pounder ( 14 . 5 kg ) guns , the seaward - facing bastions and curtain walls were reinforced with brick casemates and new gun positions , and the moat was deepened to protect against any surprise attack . two batteries were built to the west and east of the castle , protected by shingle and earth and linked to the old castle by covered passageways called caponiers ; a defensible barrack block was built beside the western battery , to provide further protection against any attack from the land . the result was that hurst was re - established as a powerful fortification , equipped with fourteen 32 - pounder guns , fifteen 8 - inch ( 203 mm ) shell guns and two 32 - pounder carronades ; in wartime , these required a team of 440 men , with a peacetime garrison of 105 soldiers . fort albert was built across the water on the isle of wight to provide supporting fire . the old inn was first reused as the garrison canteen and then demolished . the 1852 , the isle of wight electric company laid a specially - armoured telegraph cable to link the castle with on the mainland and sconce point on the island ; two years later , the electric telegraph company linked the castle to southampton . hurst used flags to pass on telegraphic messages to and from shipping entering the solent . 1859 – 99 rapid advances in military technology made the new defences became obsolete before the end of the decade . the introduction of rifled breech - loading guns , capable of firing explosive shells , and the construction of armour - plated warships left hurst 's guns and fortifications inadequate . fears grew in 1859 that france might invade england , potentially in a surprise attack . a 1859 royal commission recommended that hurst , as one of the key forts protecting portsmouth , should be upgraded as a matter of priority . hurst was equipped with new heavy , rml guns in heavily protected casemated positions . these weapons were slow to reload , so to ensure that the castle would have a good chance of hitting enemy ships passing at speed , two long batteries of weapons were built onto either side of the old castle , a west wing with 37 gun positions and an east wing with 24 positions . these were built on top of the two gun batteries constructed there a few years before and also required the castle 's moat to be filled in . as work progressed , the decision was taken to reinforce the batteries with additional iron shields . the work eventually cost £ 211 , 000 ; it began in 1861 , with the majority of the work being completed by 1870 and the additional iron shielding by 1874 . in peacetime , the castle held around 131 officers and men but it would have needed to be substantially reinforced during wartime if all the weapons were to be manned . although the fort never received its full complement of guns , by 1881 it had ten 12 . 5 inch , 38 ton ( 317 mm , 39 , 000 kg ) rifled muzzle - loading ( rml ) guns , fifteen 10 inch , 18 ton ( 254 mm , 18 , 000 kg ) rml guns , five 9 inch , 12 ton ( 228 mm , 12 , 000 kg ) rml guns , and 3 64 - pounders ( 29 kg ) , together forming a powerful arsenal . two new lighthouses were constructed in the 1860s . the first was the " low light " built into the rear wall of the west wing of the castle . the second lighthouse was the " high light " – the free standing hurst point lighthouse built on the end of hurst spit between 1865 and 1867 . a new public house , the castle inn , was established on the north end of the spit . a narrow - gauge railway was constructed in the 1880s to move supplies into the castle . by the 1880s and 1890s , both the power of naval artillery and the speed of warships had further increased , leading to further investment in the castle between 1888 and 1893 . the keep 's magazine , which could hold up to 2 , 250 shells , was reinforced with concrete and the south bastion of the old castle was filled in with shingle and concrete for additional protection . new 6 - pounder ( 2 . 7 kg ) quick - firing guns were installed in a battery on the end of the east wing , supported by machine guns , to enable them to target fast moving vessels , particularly the new torpedo boats . further emplacements for 12 - pounder ( 5 . 4 kg ) guns followed , including one on the top of the keep . 20th - 21st centuries by the first world war , the guns installed at hurst castle in the 1870s were obsolete . the castle retained seventeen of them , as historian coad states , wired up together " like a collection of elderly blunderbusses " , but the fort depended on its newer quick - firing weapons . during the war , hurst 's armament was controlled from needles battery , where a fire command post , equipped with telegraphy , had been established . after the war , the guns were removed from the 16th - century part of the castle , which was passed into the national collection of the ministry of works in 1933 , although some modernisation of the rest of the fortification took place in the 1930s . the " low light " was replaced by a new iron lighthouse in 1911 . during the second world war , hurst was re - armed in 1940 with two 12 - pounder ( 5 . 4 kg ) guns and a unit of the isle of wight rifles was stationed there , controlled from the fire control needles . searchlights and two more 6 - pounder ( 5 . 4 kg ) guns followed the next year , when the 37 - strong detachment was retitled the 129 coastal battery royal artillery , followed by the installation of bofors anti - aircraft guns . a tower , called the director tower , was built along the west wing . as the war progressed , the weapons were stood down and the battery finally closed in july 1945 , with most of the weapons being removed after the war . in 1956 the whole of hurst castle was transferred to the guardianship of the ministry of works . during the 1970s , the additional concrete protection added to the south bastion in the 1880s was removed . when the government agency english heritage was formed in 1983 , it took over the control of the castle . in 1996 the friends of hurst castle took on the day - to - day management of the castle , with english heritage continuing to run other aspects of the site . as of 2015 , the castle received around 40 , 000 visitors a year . the castle is protected under uk law as an ancient monument . the high lighthouse built in 1867 continues in use , and is protected as a grade ii listed building . the spit is subject to coastal erosion which has gradually pushed the spit towards the shore , a process which has eaten away at the remnants of the 1852 west wing battery and barracks , and has exposed the foundations of the later fortress on occasions . this erosion has increased significantly since the 1940s , due to the construction of groyne barriers at nearby bournemouth and christchurch which prevented the natural renewing of the spit with pebbles washed from local cliffs . erosion caused fresh damage to the eastern end of the castle in early 2013 , leading to renewed concerns . government efforts began in the 1960s to try to stabilise the spit in its current position , both to protect the castle and neighbouring towns , with over 900 , 000 tonnes ( 990 , 000 tons ) of gravel being laid down in the 1990s , and is continuing in the 21st century . the spit and the adjoining coastline is protected as an sssi . architecture central castle the central castle was originally constructed in the 16th century , but heavily redeveloped in the early and middle years of the 19th century . it comprises a central tower with three bastions to its north - west , north - east and south , approximately 52 metres ( 171 ft ) across . a curtain wall with gun positions originally linked the three bastions , but this was substantially altered with the addition of walls and chambers to produce a deeper structure . the central castle forms the entrance to the rest of the fortification and is accessed through a gateway dating from 1873 . the 16th - century moat that protected the castle was filled in during the 1860s . the twelve - sided central tower , or keep , is approximately 20 metres ( 66 ft ) across ; it has two storeys and a basement . the inside of the tower is circular , with a spiral staircase running up through a central pillar . the ground floor and first floor rooms would have originally been sub - divided to form living quarters for the garrison , but are now open spaces . both have eight embrasure windows , suitable for holding lighter weaponry ; the first floor room was sufficiently elevated to have potentially fired out over the external walls . the roof has the remains of gun positions dating from the 1850s , and was originally topped by a look - out tower , removed in 1805 . when first built , the keep was linked by three bridges to the outer bastions . the two - storied north - west bastion protected the castle against attack along the spit from the mainland , and housed the castle 's original portcullis as well as providing accommodation for the garrison . it had three levels of gun positions on its ground floor , first floor and roof , which were adapted in the 19th century to house heavier weapons and shelter riflemen . the bastion links to an external caponier , a covered walkway with rifle loops for close defence , built in 1852 . the north - east and south - east bastions are only one storey tall , originally holding two levels of gun positions on the ground floor and roofs , again both adapted to support heavier guns in the 19th century . west and east wings the west and east wing date from the 1860s and are built from brick and stone . they had a lines of gun positions , each designed to hold a heavy gun and a crew of up to 12 men . the positions were protected by granite - fronted casemates and wrought - iron shields , and , with removable window screens , doubled as living accommodation for the crews . small magazines were positioned behind the lines of casemates . the west wing is approximately 215 metres ( 705 ft ) long , and has 37 heavy gun positions and two main magazines , along with various auxiliary buildings , including canteens , stores and detention facilities . it also has two of the castle 's lighthouses , an 1865 tower , now disused , and an iron , gas - lit tower , still in use . the garden is a recreation of the garden in the second world war . the late - 19th century and early - 20th guns at the castle were predominantly added to the west wing , and it roof supports emplacements for 12- and 6 - pounder ( 5 . 4 and 2 . 7 kg ) quick - firing guns , a bofors gun and associated directing positions . a small theatrical theatre , built by gunners in the second world war , survives in one of the gun positions , along with various wall paintings , possibly used in performances . the east wing is relatively unaltered since its construction . it is approximately 150 metres ( 490 ft ) long , with 24 heavy gun positions and two main magazines ; on the roof is the original gun directing position and a bofors gun position added during the second world war . it is reached through a gateway in the north - east bastion . just beyond the east wing are three 6 - pounder quick - firing gun emplacements from 1893 , which were fed ammunition from the wing through a hole in the outer wall .