Fear Of Invasion

Topic 4: Fear Of Invasion

From 1871 onward, Britain was gripped by a series of public scares concerning possible invasion by foreign powers, terrorists and even Martians.

While these were mostly fictional, not to say fantastical, threats, the unrest caused was sufficient for the British government to undertake a series of reforms and to strengthen the coastal defences of the country. It is around this time that the Stallingbrorough battery was re-activated. An indication of the importance of the defences in the region is in the form of a French map that marks the positions of the railway and major defences, published in 1894, but possibly using out of date information.

1894 French map of the Humber Estuary. (from La défense des côtes d’Europe by Charles Didelot)