Historic fortress could go to auction

Owner decides not to reopen visitor attraction

HULL: Yorkshire’s only remaining Napoleonic Fortress could end up going up for auction if a buyer is not found.

It comes after its owners announced that they would not be reopening Fort Paull, seven miles from Hull, to visitors this year. For centuries the fortress, established by Henry VIII, has guarded the River Humber.

YORKSHIRE’S ONLY remaining Napoleonic Fortress could end up going up for auction if a buyer is not found.

It comes after its owners announced that they would not be reopening Fort Paull, seven miles from Hull, to visitors this year.

For centuries the fortress, established by Henry VIII, has guarded the mouth of the River Humber.

A stronghold for Charles I, shots fired on it signalled the start of the English Civil War.

It also guarded Hull from attack by Zeppelins during the Second World War.

Owner Brian Rushworth, inset, took over in 1989, by which time the fort and its 15 acres, were overgrown by trees and vegetation.

It took a decade just to dig out by hand the thousands of tonnes of sand which had been used to block up the labyrinth of tunnels underneath the fort.

With the help of of trainees and volunteers, tableaux depicting momentous events in its history were set up in a mile of underground tunnels, before opening in 2000 as the Fort Paull Visitors Centre and Armouries, backed by the Royal Armouries, Tussauds and English Heritage.

Since then it has welcomed around 50,000 visitors a year for re-enactments and car rallies, among other events.

The management say their core team is dwindling and a bereavement in September was the “final straw”.

“People have been speculating that it’s financial or we have gone bust – that is total rubbish,” said a spokesman for the fort, which is run as a not-for-profit body.

A new operator would “either have to have vast funds so they could delegate or be terribly dedicated to do what we have done”, he said.

If no buyer comes forward the fort will be put up for sale at auction.

He said they felt proud of achieving what the naysayers said was impossible, including taking a giant Blackburn Beverley XB259 aircraft to bits, bringing it by road from Beverley to Paull close to where it trundled to a halt after its last flight in 1974, and putting it back together again. He said the only shame is that many locals don’t appreciate how rich in history the fort is, thinking it dates back to the Second World War.

He said: “Charles I made it his Royal stronghold, it’s where his forces were when they besieged Hull.

“He had his cannons on the fortress to stop the ships relieving Hull.

“Queen Victoria built on top of it all. Most of what we see is Napoleonic.

“They called it Palmerston Fort as Lord Palmerston ordered a series of forts to be built because of the threat from Napoleon’s nephew Louis Napoleon III, who had steel-hulled ships which were impervious to cannon.”