After the Truce of 1802 the Treaty of Amiens, collapsed Napoleon assembled at Boulogne his Army of England ready to invade consisting of 130,000 men and 200 shallow draught ships. There was concern in Britain of the threat of invasion and a number of senior officers both in the Army and Navy remembered the battle and tower at Mortella Point and it was decided in 1803 to build a number of circular bomb proof towers with guns on a platform along the vulnerable parts of the South and East coasts.  The name Martello may be a corruption of the place name Mortella or, the local watch towers against pirates in the Mediterranean which were called Torrio di Martello, due to the fact that the alarm was given by hitting a bell with a hammer (martello)

The East Coast towers were built after the South coast towers and are a development in that they mounted three guns compared with the single gun of the South Coast towers. The guns were a long 24 pounder and two 5.5" howitzers or carronades all on wooden traversing carriages. The towers were of "Tri-lobular" shape to provide the platform for the three guns The towers were built of brick (700,000) and were bonded with lime mortar consisting of lime, ash and tallow which set very hard. The top of the gun platform, door and windows were faced with stone. The towers were faced with stucco to keep out the damp. The materials for construction were sent in by sea in most cases.

The towers were similar and labeled A to Z and then AA, BB & CC making a total of 29 towers. Tower CC was different as it mounted four guns and was of "Quadrafoil" shape. The towers ranged from St. Osyth in Essex, Tower A to Slaughden (Aldburgh) in Suffolk, Tower CC. A number of the towers supported batteries and some had dry moats. Where the coast was vulnerable the towers were built about half a mile apart so that the fields of fire overlapped.

The towers were entered at the second or accommodation floor by either an external stairway or a bridge across the moat. When a bridge was used there was usually a small drawbridge. There was accommodation for an officer and 24 to 30 men with two fireplaces and a pump drawing water from a rainwater cistern in the base of the tower. There were two stairways in the thickness of the wall to give access from the accommodation floor to the gun platform. There were recesses in the wall of the gun platform as expense magazines. The ground floor was for stores, food and the magazine. The magazine had a capacity of 112 barrels of gun powder and had a cartridge store and lamp passage. The cistern was below this floor. There was a wooden staircase leading from the accommodation to the ground floor.

The towers were not manned permanently and in Essex barracks were built inland as it was thought that men could be affected by "ague" (malaria) which was prevalent in the Essex marshes. A number of towers have been lost due to coastal erosion and some demolished as being unsafe.

© 1999,2007 Alan Lockwood.

 Tower 'P' and Coastguard cottages today

Also depicted in the watercolour, below, painted when
it was in use as a Royal Navy Wireless Signals Station

This old map shows location of towers in north Felixstowe and Bawdsey