New Needles Battery – High Down Rocket Test Site
The New Needles Battery was originally completed in 1895 and fully manned until 1918.
It was brought back into action during the Second World War but in 1954 arguably
the most interesting phase of its use began.
By this time Britain had successfully exploded nuclear and thermonuclear (hydrogen, or H-bombs) and was looking for a delivery system by means of an Inter Continental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM. The British ICBM programme was codenamed Blue Streak and a great deal of experimental work needed to be done as rocket science was still relatively new at this time. The rocket that was designed, developed and tested at the High Down Test Site, which was built over the complex of buildings that had previously made up the New Needles Battery, was known as Black Knight.
This facility allowed the Black Knight project to continue in its work of rocket development prior to them being shipped out to Woomera in Australia for further testing.
The success of the Black Knight rockets allowed Britain to expand into the development of space technology and in 1971 Britain’s first (and , so far, only) all-British satellite, Prospero, was launched thanks to the work done at High Down.
High Down Test Site was closed in July 1962 after political support waned and no clear agreement on how to use Black Knight was reached. Today the site is in the care of the National Trust.
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Fortifications In This Area
Fort Albert
Fort Victoria
Cliffe End Fort