The Martello Wish Tower

the Martello Wish Tower

Wish Tower (Martello Tower No. 73)
The Tower was built in 1804 as part of the coastal defenses against Napoleon, and its establishment was an officer and 24 men with a heavy cannon mounted on top. After the war it was disused until 1830 when coastguards occupied it for a time. In 1883 the Tower was leased from the War Office by the town, and became home of the Hollobon family who ran it as a geological museum.

This is a quaint view of the Wish Tower during Victorian times.
The name 'Wish' derives from the once marshy area called the 'wish' or 'wash' situated nearby, where the old Shomer Dyke entered the sea.

Holiday-makers around the Wish Tower in 1912

During 1939 - 1945 the Tower became part of a defensive gun emplacement, but in 1954 was threatened with demolition when the site was considered for a projected Conference Hall. In 1960 it was restored and a 'sun lounge' built nearby. In 1970 the Tower was opened as a Coastal Defence Museum.

This is Pauline posing in front of the Wish Tower, September 19, 1965,
the day that Phil Mowbray proposed to her!

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