Work begins on the Portland breakwater, two walls built onto the seabed which form a safe harbour for merchant ships and the Royal Navy. It takes 22 years to complete. Forts were designed to protect the harbour from attack and French invasion, positioned at The Verne and East Weare on Portland, the end of the Breakwater arms, and at the Nothe.

 

Building of the Nothe Fort begins.

Building work is complete. The Fort is initially left unarmed as there is little threat of attack or invasion.

The fort is armed with 12 muzzle loading coastal defence guns, firing shells of up to 10-Inches in diameter. They are mounted in enclosed gun positions surrounding the Parade Ground called Casemates.

In 1892 seven of the guns are replaced with larger more powerful 12.5-inch muzzle loading guns and the fort magazines are extended.

The 12 muzzle-loading guns are replaced by two 6-inch breech loading guns on the ramparts, which are more accurate had a longer range and faster rate of fire. A third is added in 1908.

World War I

The Nothe Fort guns are taken out of service in 1916, as by then there was little risk of an attack from the sea.

The garrison are redeployed to either the Breakwater Fort or volunteered to serve on the Western Front.

World War II

Two of the three 6-Inch breach loading guns are returned to service. An anti-aircraft (AA) gun is added on a tower by the gatehouse, with four more heavy AA guns just outside the fort in what is now the carpark.

The fort is a key part of the local defences when a German invasion was feared in 1940 and later in the war protected American forces in the build-up to the D-Day Normandy landings. It is also used as an AA ammunition storage and distribution centre for South-West England.

The use of fixed guns for coastal defence is abandoned. Nothe Fort’s guns are scrapped, and the fort is just used for military storage.

 

The military no longer need the fort. Ownership is transferred to Weymouth and Portland Council, but the fort soon becomes derelict.

 

Weymouth Civic Society volunteers begin restoration, and the Nothe Fort Museum of Coastal Defence opens to the public.

 

The Council convert part of the underground magazine area into an emergency Civil Defence Nuclear Bunker.

This is decommissioned in 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Nothe Forts 150th anniversary. After 84 years of military use the fort has been open as a museum for 42 years, welcoming over 2,000,000 visitors.

It has also hosted many special events and exhibitions such as the 2019 Luke Jerram’s art installation ‘Museum of the Moon’