The southern entrance to Forder Valley(Image: AECOM)

Plymouth's lost Forder Valley tramline holds wartime secret

by · PlymouthLive

Certain areas of Plymouth boast a rich military heritage, with previously undiscovered historical features still coming to light. A walking route now follows a disused railway line in the Forder Valley, where troops once stood guard against a potential French invasion.

Plans for Derriford Community Park, encompassing the Bircham, Seaton and Forder valleys across 147 hectares of open space in northern Plymouth, were first conceived in 2005, with a masterplan gaining approval in 2012.

The woodland trail in the Forder Valley runs alongside the Forder Stream, utilising the existing trackbed of a former tramway now serving as a footpath.

This is the story of Plymouth's forgotten tramline that conceals a wartime secret.

This article was first published in May 2020

Two military structures, the scheduled ancient monuments of Bowden Battery, now the site of the Plymouth Garden Centre, and Fort Austin, overlook Forder Valley from the edge of Eggbuckland. Another gun emplacement nearby, Forder Battery, was linked to Fort Austin.
The structures are part of a network of defences known as the Palmerston Forts, built to defend the north-east approach to the city from attack when there were fears of an invasion by the French led by Napoleon.
The defences were set up by the Royal Commission on National Defence in 1859. A ring of 18 forts and batteries were built around Plymouth, designed to defend Devonport Dockyard. They were named after the prime minister who backed the scheme, Lord Palmerston, and completed by 1872.
There was no invasion and the Palmerston forts became obsolete by the early 1900s, but they were used during both World Wars as recruiting stations, observation posts, munitions storage and logistical support.
Fort Austin was built between 1863 and 1868 and is located at the eastern end of the northern defensive line to command the Forder Valley. It operated alongside Bowden Battery, Eggbuckland Keep and Forder Battery to the north-west, and Fort Efford, Laira Battery and Laira Emplacement to the south-east.
The fort is approached from a military road which runs alongside the gorge wall and continues southwards towards the defences at Efford and Laira. The road was defended by an earthwork bank 10m wide and up to 4m high designed to protect troops moving along the road. The section running south-west from the fort is one of the best preserved and is protected as part of its designation as an ancient monument.
Bowden Battery is linked to Fort Austin and was designed for 12 guns, but only eight were installed along with two of the planned three mortars. It retains many of its original features including its main gate with drawbridge pulleys and chains, guardroom, gun emplacements, magazines, access tunnels and one of the mortar batteries.
Forder Battery is a simple earth battery to the north of Fort Austin Avenue, the former military road. It was completed after 1868 and was part of the northern defensive line.(Image: Plymouth City Council)
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The battery, north-east of Eggbuckland Keep, has a crescent-shaped rampart to the north with a ditch to the north-east, which has been filled in. The ramparts once housed 16 guns with magazines between them.
Between 1984 and 1992 the guardhouse at Fort Austin was used as the Plymouth City Emergency Centre for Civil Defence, and is now a council depot. There are records in the area of at least six boundary stones in the valleys, thought to be linked to military sites.
When the area was visited in January 2020, two War Department boundary stones could not be found in Seaton Valley, probably due to becoming overgrown by vegetation.
But the visit uncovered previously unrecorded features associated with the Plymouth and Dartmoor Tramway, which ran through the valley. There were two iron posts found near woodland in Seaton Valley, and another in Forder Valley.(Image: Google)
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Also in Forder Valley, large limestone blocks which formed the setting of the tramway can be seen alongside the route where the new track will run. Some blocks have been removed for use as a barrier at the side of the path, and a previously unrecorded limestone marker post was found in the centre of the valley.
Records of settlements in this part of Plymouth date back almost 1,000 years to the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The Domesday Book of 1086, a record of holdings compiled for William the Conqueror, reported a small settlement at Chillington, called Cedelintone, meaning ‘estate associated with a man called Ceadela’. It was recorded as two households, in the area of the slope down from Bowden Battery on the south side of Seaton Valley.
The Domesday book says this land was waste when acquired by Iudhael of Totnes in 1086 and may have been waste prior to the Conquest.(Image: AECOM)
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