page_title: Maunsell Forts
section_title: Red Sands Fort (U6)
hierarchical_section_title: Maunsell Forts / Maunsell army forts / Red Sands Fort (U6)
caption_attribution_description: English: The Red Sands Maunsell sea fort in the Thames estuary, off the north coast of Kent. The new landing stage, ladder and antenna on the foreground fort, and the catwalk linking it to its neighbour, appear to date from the period 2007-8, when the fort was used for legal broadcasts by Red Sands Radio, before being declared unsafe for occupation.
context_page_description: The Maunsell Forts are armed towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were operated as army and navy forts, and named after their designer, Guy Maunsell. The forts were decommissioned in the late 1950s and later used for other activities including pirate radio broadcasting. One of the forts is managed by the unrecognised Principality of Sealand; boats visit the remaining forts occasionally, and a consortium called Project Redsands is planning to conserve the fort situated at Red Sands.
  In the summers of 2007 and 2008 Red Sands Radio, a station commemorating the pirate radio stations of the 1960s, operated from the Red Sands fort on 28-day Restricted Service Licences. The fort was subsequently declared unsafe, and Red Sands Radio has moved its operations ashore to Whitstable.
context_section_description: There are seven towers in the Red Sands group at the mouth of the Thames Estuary.  The towers had been connected by metal grate walk-ways. In 1959 consideration was given to refloating the Red Sands Fort and bringing the towers ashore but the costs were prohibitive. In the early 21st century, in response to proposals to demolish the fort, a group called Project Redsands was formed to try to preserve it. It is the only fort that can be visited safely from a platform in between the legs of one of the towers.
caption: Red Sands, 2013
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