Knowles Battery

{{Short description|Artillery battery in City of Plymouth, Devon, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox military installation

|name=Knowles Battery

|partof=

|location=

|coordinates = {{coord|50|24|59|N|4|09|52|W|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline,title}}

|image=File:Knowle Battery.jpg

|caption= Rear gorge wall and gateway to Knowles Battery

|image2=

|caption2=

|map_type= Devon

|type=

|code=

|built= 1863-1870

|builder=

|materials= Earth
Masonry

|height=

|used= Now part of a school

|demolished=

|condition= Partially demolished

|ownership=

|open_to_public= No

|controlledby=

|garrison=

|current_commander=

|commanders=

|occupants=

|battles=

|events=

}}

Knowles Battery is a former 19th-century fort, built as a result of the Royal Commission on National Defence of 1859. Part of an extensive scheme known as Palmerston Forts, after the prime minister who championed the scheme, it was built to defend the landward approaches to the north east of Plymouth, as an element of the plan for the defence of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport.

Designed by Captain (later Maj General) Edmund Frederick Du Cane,Freddy Woodward, (1996) The Historic Defences of Plymouth, Cornwall County Council, p169 it was built by George Baker and Company and finished by the Royal Engineers. It was designed to be armed with thirteen guns. Fire from the battery linked with nearby Woodlands Fort and Agaton Fort{{cite web|url=https://www.victorianforts.co.uk/pdf/datasheets/knowles.pdf |title=Plymouth.dpd |date= |accessdate=2018-11-25}}

By the early 1900s the fort had become obsolete as a defensive position and was disarmed. It was sold by the War Department in 1930.Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, 1488/17: Sale catalogue for surplus war department property in Plymouth, 20 November 1930 A school was built on the site in the 1960s. Knowles Battery was listed as a scheduled monument in 1973.{{NHLE|num=1002614|desc=Knowle Battery |date=2008-04-07 |accessdate=2018-11-25}} It is now part of Knowle Primary School.