South West Gun Tower (Fort Road)
The Fort Road, or South West tower was built in 1848-51 simultaneously with the Front Street tower and could contain a garrison of 24 men.
The gun tower’s main armament was a 32lb smoothbore cannon mounted on a cast iron platform on the roof. Internally there were four bronze 12lb howitzers - two on each floor - and also on each floor was a rack for 16 rifles. The fort was cleverly situated so that it not only guarded the Milford Haven approach to the dockyard, but on the landward side it commanded a field of fire along the entire length of the southern dockyard wall, from the sea to the market hall.
With the Front Street gun tower commanding the eastern wall along Commercial Row, any enemy force attempting to attack the dockyard from the landward side would be raked with gunfire from the two forts.
Both were obsolete for military purposes by the end of the 19th century, although in WWII, two Lewis light anti-aircraft machine guns were positioned on top of the tower. The Fort Road tower was later utilised for storage and is now privately owned.
