Aldeburgh Martello Tower. The fourth side

Although the combined fleets of France and Spain had been defeated at The Battle of Trafalgar, the threat of a French invasion was a very real one to Suffolk’s inhabitants. Napoleon was lord of all Europe and the burghers of Aldeburgh lay quaking in their beds at night.

Although the Royal Navy retained mastery of the world’s oceans, the fear of invasion was unswayable and so builders were summoned and the Martellos were born.

This Martello Tower is essentially four towers joined together and dominates a narrow spit of land just a short walk along the coast between the sea and the river Alde. Made of more than a million bricks, it was built between 1808 and 1812 to keep Napoleon out.