For sale! The £2m house with a Victorian fort in its back garden

Forces News has paid a visit to a key coastal defence capability from the Victorian era, now up for sale for more than £2m.

Built between 1889-94, Steyne Wood Battery in Bembridge, Isle of Wight, was built as a stop-gap measure to help defend the Solent and join a line of other defences built in the 1860s and 70s – like near neighbour Bembridge Fort.

While the guns had never arrived and the battery was decommissioned in 1898, Tim Cooper has explored how the estate may have been used to defend the Solent and approaches to Portsmouth Harbour.

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