The complex formed an integral part of the defences of the eastern segment of the Victoria Lines

Tucked away in a country lane leading from the access road to the village of Għargħur and down to the picturesque Wied Pisuella and Wied id-Dis lies a complex of buildings which is known as the Għargħur High-Angle Battery.

The dislodged main gate some months ago.

The buildings are in a fair condition though the grounds around them are overgrown with vegetation and strewn with all sorts of discarded rubbish. When visited some months ago, one-half of the main gate was off its hinges and lay on the ground buried under debris.

The complex formed an integral part of the defences of the eastern segment of the Victoria Lines although they are situated about one kilometre behind the infantry line and on the reverse slope of Ġebel San Pietru. It is bounded by a low perimeter wall abutting on the lane, with a guard room at the entrance gate built in the rusticated style typical of British military buildings in Malta.

There are barrack rooms, stores and a battery command post built in the same style close to the entrance. The guns were situated at the rear of the complex trained to fire as Howitzers lobbing shells over the ridge at targets down in the Magħtab and Burmarrad plains below the Victoria Lines and the northeast coastline. The trajectory of the shells would be over part of Għargħur village and Ġebel San Pietru heights, today popularly referred to as ‘Top of the World’.

Stephen Spiteri, the leading authority on British fortifications, has kindly passed on to me a sketch plan that Quentin Hughes had traced from an original document showing the position of the projected battery in the late 1880s in relation to the village of Għargħur and the Victoria Lines.

The guardroom in rusticated style. Photo: Joseph Galea Debono

The battery consisted of six, 10-inch, rifled muzzle-loading guns deployed in a row flanked by stores

It was to have had a polygonal shape, very much like the Żonqor Battery at Marsascala. This sketch also shows the site of a water tank situated at a higher level on the hill in front of the battery which still exists today. But the battery was eventually built in the plan as sketched by Spiteri for his book British Military Architecture in Malta, reproduced here by his kind permission.

The trolley rails leading to the gun-loading platform. Photo: Joseph Galea Debono

The battery consisted of six, 10-inch, rifled muzzle-loading guns deployed in a row flanked by ammunition stores. Rails running from these magazines to the gun-loading platform can still be seen. These lead to the elevation above the muzzles of the guns from where the shells were loaded. The shells and cartridges were rolled on trolleys and carried to the guns on these rails. Davits for the raising of the shells from the ground level to the loading platform are still in place. There were also underground magazines dug into the ridge in front of the guns and gun-crew rest rooms on both sides of the gun line.

Construction of the battery began in 1899 and ended a year later. The guns were in place by 1901. As the targets could not be seen owing to the lie of the land, they could not be aimed and laid directly on the approaching enemy. However, they were guided from forward observation posts and position finding cells situated on the Ġebel San Pietru heights about a kilometre away to which they were linked by telephone. These provided the target coordinates.

According to Dennis Rollo, author of The Guns and Gunners of Malta, the battery was kept in service long after the Victoria Lines fell into disuse and it served right through World War I; its armament was reduced to four guns by then. It last appeared on the armament list in 1919 and by 1922 it did not feature anymore. During World War II it served for a time as the operational headquarters of coast artillery, or Coast Control, as it became known.

A sketch plan of the battery. Photo courtesy: Stephen Spiteri

After the war, it was turned into a resi­dence for leprosy patients by the Maltese civil authorities. Additional rooms were built over the platform on which the guns were originally deployed, to house the residents and medical stores.

The first 24 residents moved into the complex in 1974. By 1989 only a few were left. The last case was transferred to the geriatric section of another hospital in 2001. The facility was then closed down in 2004.

The complex now lies abandoned and, although the buildings themselves do not show any obvious external signs of decay, the entire site is showing signs of gross neglect. Għargħur local council might look at the possibility of finding some practical use for this complex such as a countryside location for youth organisations like the Boy Scouts or Girl Guides in the same way as Tarġa Battery on the outskirts of Mosta was turned into a site for such a good purpose.

The author wishes to thank Stephen C. Spiteri, author of British Military Architecture in Malta and The British Fortifications; and Dennis Rollo, author of The Guns and Gunners of Malta, for information provided for this article.

Ten-inch rifled muzzle-loading gun. Photo courtesy: Dennis Rollo

Quentin Hughes’s tracing from the original plan showing the proposed location and shape of the battery. Photo courtesy: Stephen Spiteri