In 1744 a battery of six pieces of cannon, eighteen pounders, was erected at the south end of the town, for protecting ships in the south roads, and guarding the passage of the Stanford. The cannon were given by Government, but the ammunition was furnished by the town.
On the 14th October, 1745, in consequence of the rebellion in Scotland, a subscription was opened in Lowestoft for the defence of his Majesty’s person, the support of the Government and the peace and security of the county; when the sum of £200 was subscribed, advice was received of the victory obtained over the rebels, 16th April, 1746, by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, only £20 of the subscription was paid.
In 1756 a battery of two pieces of canon, eighteen pounders, was erected upon the beach at the north end of the town, near the ness. These pieces were taken from the battery at the south end of the town. They were never of any great service to the town, for vessels belonging to the enemy seldom approach so near to the coast as to come within reach of the guns. On the 7th of April, 1778, Lord Amherst, accompanied by his brother, came to Lowestoft and examined the forts in consequence of the survey they were making by order of the Government, of the state of all the fortifications on the coast.
In 1782, when England was involved in a war with France, Spain, Holland, and America at the same time, was under apprehension that the British Navy was unable to maintain its superiority as mistress of the sea, when threatened by such numerous and powerful enemies, the county of Suffolk held a general meeting at Stowmarket, where it was agreed to open a subscription throughout the county, in order to raise a sum sufficient for building a man-of-war of the line, of seventy-four guns, to be presented to the Government. The town of Lowestoft subscribed £38 6s. 6d. The sum proposed to be raised was £30,000. The utmost efforts were exerted to obtain the money, and weekly accounts were published in the papers of the success that attended it in the several parts of the county; but it appearing, at the close of the year, that the whole subscription amounted to only about £20,000, it was apprehended that the zeal of the county was nearly exhausted, and that the subscription had arrived at almost its utmost limits. In the beginning of the year 1783, the war being terminated in a general peace, a further subscription became unnecessary, and consequently the subscribers were not called on for their subscriptions.
In the beginning of the year 1781, when the war broke out between England and Holland, there were quartered at Lowestoft two companies of the East Suffolk Militia commanded by Col. Goat, which in the May following were succeeded by a party of the 19th Regiment of light horse. Government seemed to have been apprehensive of this war, and also sensible of the necessity of having recourse to such methods as were proper for securing the eastern part of the kingdom against any attacks of the enemy.
On the 31st of July Lord Amherst, Commander-in-chief of his Majesty’s forces in the Kingdom, in his survey of the fortifications on this coast, after being met at Kessingland by a party of light dragoons from Lowestoft, was escorted to Lowestoft, where he surveyed the forts, which were found to be in a very ruinous condition. On the 13th of August the town was alarmed with the appearance of a fleet of large men of war in the offing, steering a direct course for Lowestoft, supposing them to be Dutch ships, but on a nearer approach they were found to be Admiral Parker’s fleet returning from a sharp engagement with a Dutch squadron, commanded by Admiral Zoutman on the Dogger Bank, the 5th August. On the 4th September there arrived in Lowestoft a waggon loaded with powder, shot, &c., guarded by a party of the Huntingdonshire and East Essex Militia, from the camp at Hopton, in order to prove, before General Tryon, four pieces of cannon then lying at the old fort, at the south end of the town, in order to discover whether they were serviceable or not; when, after charging each of them with 16lbs of powder and an 18lb shot, one of them burst, and flying in various directions, part of it struck a boy on the arm, who happily received no material injury. One part of the cannon, weighing between two and three hundred weight, was thrown into a field at a distance of 175 yards. On the 11th October following, Colonel Deibeig proved also the guns lying at the old fort, near the ness, which had laid there since the reign of Queen Anne, when three of them burst. This month the party of the 19th regiment of light horse quartered at this place, left the town, and were succeeded by two companies of the East Suffolk Militia, commanded by Captain Delane, who continued here till the May following.
Government being acquainted with the ruinous condition of the forts at Lowestoft, and the defenceless state of this part of the coast, immediately formed a resolution to erect several new fortifications at this town, and the principal one to be situated at the north end of the town, on the same spot whereon the old fort formerly stood; and also to have it much larger. But the premises on which the fort was designed to be erected being town land, Government was under the necessity of hiring it by a lease for a term of years, and also to purchase of different proprietors about three-quarters of an acre of land to add to it, the former spot not being large enough. Half an acre of this land was purchased of Mr. Robert Reeve, and the other quarter of an acre of Mr. Henry Lucas.
On January 7, 1782, the new fort, at the south end of the town was begun under the direction of Captain Fisher, one of His Majesty’s engineers. About 300 men (including fifty of the East Suffolk militia), were employed in this work. This fort consisted of a ditch about eighteen feet deep, fifteen feet wide, mounted with chevaux de frize. Over this ditch was a drawbridge between four and five feet wide. The inside of the south-west angle measured seventy feet; the width of the other angles were 95, 140, 100, and 249 feet. The terrace before the embrazures was four feet wide. The embrazures were eighteen feet wide and eight high. Next the sea was the glacis, extending about sixty-five yards. There was also a breastwork to defend the bridge, about eighteen feet thick and eight feet high. At the north-west angle of the fort was the magazine, it was thirty feet long and twelve broad; it was sunk beneath the surface of the earth, and was bomb proof, and contained 300 barrels of powder. In the centre of the fort stood the guard house; this was a handsome sashed building, about seventy feet long and twenty-six wide, having a spacious parade in front. At the south-west angle stood the flag staff, fifty-five feet high on which was hoisted an English jack. The battery mounted thirteen pieces of cannon, ten thirty-pounders, and three eighteen-pounders. The whole battery was finished on the 21st December, 1782. The south battery was distant from the north, three quarters of a mile, and from the east battery upon the beach, seven furlongs; and the distance of the north battery, near the distance of the north battery, on the beach three furlongs.
On the 4th April in the same year (1782) the erection of the fort at the north end of the town was commenced about one hundred yards to the north of the light-house. This battery consisted of a breast-work, having four angles, each of them about thirty feet wide. There was a guard house adjoining, about twenty feet long, and sixteen feet broad. Also a magazine, about six feet-square, which was paled round. This battery mounted four eighteen-pounders, and was intended to act with another battery, purposed shortly to be erected upon the Beach near the Ness.
A descent on this coast was so much apprehended about this time that a party of soldiers patrolled through Lowestoft every four hours during the night, in order, if necessary, to give an alarm.