Fort Gillkicker
The sea marks Gillkicker and Kickergill
Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick,
As Parlimentary Admiral to Charles the First (1625-1649), The Earl of Warwick set up two sea marks in 1669 to help assist sailors entering Portsmouth Harbour.
By lining up both sea marks sailors could find the safe water channel and avoid the shallow Warner and Norman Sands. One was on the site of Hasilworth Castle and was known as the Gill-Kicker, the other was at the end of Clayhall Road at Alverstoke and was known as the Kicker-Gill.
...sea mark stood on the side of Hasleworth Castle until the building of Fort Monckton in the late C18 when it was demolished. - Anon
Stokes Bay: A map of 1711 showing the two sea marks at Q.
Section of map circa 1711 with sea marks at Q.
The origins of the names are obscure but the point at 'Hasilworth' seems to have changed to Gillkicker Point after the erection of these marks. Daniel Defoe, writing in 1724 mentions "...the point of land on the side of Gosport which they call Gilkicker and where also they have two batteries". Did Gilkicker Point gain its name from the sea mark or was it the other way round?
Stokes Bay: A map of 1716 showing the Gillkicker and Kickergill sea marks.
A map of 1716 showing the two sea marks
A chart of the Sea Coasts from Arundel to St Albans, by Joseph Avery, 1721
explains how the two sea marks were used to sail into Spithead and into Portsmouth Harbour.
Keep Sandown [Fort] touching with Culver [Cliffe] to clear you of Bembridge Ledge, until the Kickers are in one, and, Ashedown mark touching, you have 3 Fathom Water, then keeping those marks on untill Bembridge Point and Dun Nose is in one you'l have 7 Fathom. then the mark kept on you'l have from Do. to 9, 12, 15, 18 Fathom a Mile to the Eastward of the Warner Buoy, the which will near continue until the Chalkhole upon Post-down be on South Sea Castle. which kept on until the Castle near Gosport be on Blockhouse Point the mark to run into the Harbour. You may Anchor at Spit Head in about 12 or 14 Fathom the Kicker being about 1/4 Mile distant bearing N.W.
A map of 1766 which refers to the sea marks as Upper and Lower 'Gilkiker'.
Stokes Bay: A map of 1766 which refers to the sea marks as Upper and Lower 'Gilkiker'.
Stokes Bay: A Chart of 1783: To sail into or out of Spithead between the Horsesand and the Warner and No Mans, keep Kickergill Tower on with the Magazine at Fort Monckton
A chart of 1783 showing the function of the sea marks
Both marks were triangular in plan and were constructed as columns of stone. They were heightened in the 1800s with the addition of a brick topping.
...Gilkicker tower built in 1669 and heightened in the C18, the original part in stone, the later additions in brick ending in an oddly placed pediment brought out in several delicate orders of moulding. The intermediate part was a most attractive medley of dark red brick and silver stone. The tower was wantonly destroyed in 1965.
(Taken from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight by Pevsner and Lloyd 1967)
Stokes Bay: The Kickergill sea mark in Clayhall Road: An old postcard supplied by Geoffrey Hallett.
A view of the Kickergill with the Broderick Hall -
(Taken from an old Postcard- Picture supplied by Geoff Hallett)
An Admiralty chart of 1890 indicates that the Kickergill was constructed with bands of red and white. The Gillkicker was removed when Fort Monckton was constructed under the recommendations of an engineer, John Archer, who was tasked with reporting on the strength of the Gosport defences as part of the overall defence of Portsmouth Harbour. Archer reported that the mark at Gillkicker should be removed when an attack was imminent and a replacement in wood added so as to lure the enemy ships, using it as a guide, onto the shallows. The tower was removed in 1779 because it stood on the site for the new fort, but not replaced. Luckily Fort Monckton was visible enough from the Solent to be used in conjunction with the remaining sea mark to provide the required safe passage. Admiralty charts show the Kickergill in use with a line bisecting Fort Monckton.
In 1791 John Hamilton Moore explains:
..if I am obliged to into Spithead, I may turn the kickergill on each side of Fort Monckton, and come no nearer the Warner than 12 fathoms, nor to the Dean than 9 or 10 fathoms, nor to Momans' Land than 16 or 18 fathoms...
This is substantiated in a chart surveyed by Captain Sheringham, published by the Admiralty Hydrographic Office in 1848 where notes state that :-
Kickergill in one with the Centre of Fort Monkton N.N.W. leads up to Spithead
Map of 1890 showing the kickergill as 'Landmark' in Clayhall Road, Gosport
Stokes Bay: Map of 1890 showing the 'Landmark'.
Map of 1932 showing the 'Landmark': By this time the Broderick Memorial Hall and the Alverstoke National Childrens' home had been constructed.
Stokes Bay: Map of 1932 showing the 'Landmark'.
The Kicker-gill was demolished by Gosport Council on June 26 1965 'to make way for road widening'. No trace of it remains.
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