What's the story here?

Stokes Bay is located on the mainland side of the eastern entrance to The Solent, about 1½ miles inside Spithead and just south of Gosport. The bay is situated in a slight indentation on the coastline, between Gilkicker Point and Browndown Point, roughly 1¾ miles to the northwest. It is bordered by a long, mostly secluded shingle beach that hosts an active sailing club and the headquarters of the Gosport & Fareham Inshore Rescue Services (GAFIRS). The small settlement of Alverstoke, next to Gosport, lies close to the shore.




The Stokes Bay anchorage is primarily used for short stops, lunch breaks, or tide waits rather than overnight stays, due to its exposure to prevailing winds and its potential for developing an uncomfortable roll in certain conditions. It offers good holding ground and features a landing beach for dinghies, with nearby snacks and water available.




The bay is popular with bathers, kite-surfers, small dinghies and fishermen. To accommodate all users, local byelaws require special care to be taken by vessels operating within 805 metres of the shore. Stokes Bay Sailing Club have laid a line of yellow buoys about 50 metres out from the shore, and boats should not pass inside the line of these buoys.

Stokes Bay handles northerly winds well, but prevailing southwesterlies can turn it into a lee shore. If conditions are unfavourable, the Isle of Wight's Osborne Bay provides deeper, more sheltered waters for anchoring.

How to get in?

Shoreline guidance and pilotage are available for Western Approaches to The Solent and the run-up to Southampton or refer to Eastern Approaches to The Solent and the run-up to Southampton . Both offer waypoints, information on approaches, tide times, and guidance for Southampton Waters. Vessels converging on the entrance will find nothing in the way of local hazards by staying in reasonable soundings and following the Solent's ample marks. The direction of buoyage in the eastern Solent is from east to west. The prominent Gilkicker Point readily identifies the bay from all directions of approach.




Vessels hugging the shoreline and approaching from the west should keep well clear of Lee Point. It has a gravel spit that extends a ¼ of a mile offshore, with an unlit green pile marking its tip. A seasonal racing buoy, situated about 400 metres west of the pile, provides a good reference for the 5 metre contour.




The shoreline beyond Lee Point remains shallow or dries out to 300 metres as it leads past Browndown Point into Stokes Bay. The northwest end of Stokes Bay is marked by a green pile indicating the head of an outflow pipe.




Vessels that opt to stay close to the shoreline should steer clear of the area immediately south of the Gosport & Fareham Inshore Rescue Services Headquarters, which is situated on the beach about ⅓ of a mile northwest of Gilkicker Point. This area is foul with the remains of a pier that once belonged to a 19th-century railway line. It is indicated by a conical yellow buoy approximately 30 metres outside the foul zone.




A helpful navigation tip for vessels approaching from the southeast is to keep Gilkicker Point and Horse Sand Fort in-line. This keeps a vessel between the 5 and 2 metre contours and clear of the obstructions.

Approaches from the southwest are clear except for a single charted wreck. This lies in 8 metres of water with a charted clearance depth of 4.9 metres and is located ⅓ of a mile southwest of the Stokes Bay Sailing Club. This is thought to be part of an old lighter Duddon that sank here in 1924. In all cases, staying just within the buoyage, or locally a ½ mile offshore or on the 10-metre contour, clears all dangers.




The initial fix is positioned about 1,300 metres east of the Browndown starboard buoy that exhibits a light Fl(2) G.10s. The initial fix is set about a ½ mile out from the shore on the 46°T alignment of the Stokes Bay Sailing Club flagpole, with the square tower of Alverstoke Church that stands a ⅓ of a mile behind. Following this alignment, it passes 100 metres northwest of the obstruction and continues into the bay. It is safe to break off from the transit when the 5-metre contour has been passed.




Anchor outside the yellow buoys that mark swimming and sailing club dinghy racing zones. The seabed is predominantly sand with patches of mud, which offers good holding. Land on the shingle beach by tender.

Why visit here?

Stokes Bay derives its name from the Old English word stoc, meaning an outlying settlement, hamlet, or farmstead. Any ancient settlement that existed here until the Middle Ages would have been aptly described as such. However, by then, situated at a pivotal point on the approaches to the Solent and the western flank of Portsmouth Harbour, the area's strategic military position had become its central feature.




This small, unassuming bay is steeped in three centuries of military and naval history. Its military importance initially focused on it serving as the ideal landing area from which an enemy could attack the western approach to Portsmouth Harbour. Defensive measures to address this vulnerability date back to the 1780s. At that time, a series of small fortified positions, called 'redoubts', were built above the beach. The key forts of Fort Gilkicker and Browndown Battery, positioned at either end of the bay, were to come a century later during the Victorian period.




Fort Gilkicker was the first large-scale fort built on Stokes Bay, although initially it served as an auxiliary battery for Fort Monckton in the 1790s. This early auxiliary battery featured an earthen rampart with eleven gun emplacements firing through embrasures in the parapets. The more substantial Fort Gilkicker was constructed on the same site between 1863 and 1871 as part of the historic Palmerston defensive enhancements. It was one of six forts stretching from Stokes Bay to Fareham, which, along with three offshore forts, made Portsmouth the most important deep-sea anchorage in the British Empire and the most heavily defended location in the world.




Fort Gilkicker had 22 gun emplacements and dominated the Spithead anchorage. Its walls were further strengthened with substantial earthwork embankments before the First World War, in which it served. It later continued to protect Portsmouth from air raids during World War II and operated as the signal station that coordinated the repair and supply of stores for the numerous craft assembling in the Isle of Wight area before D-Day. It was finally decommissioned in 1956 when Coastal Defence was abolished.




The original Browndown Batteries, known as 'Browndown Battery East' and 'Browndown Battery West', were constructed in 1852. Both batteries featured prepared positions with movable guns behind earthen parapets. The need for heavy guns to defend the deep water anchorage off Browndown Point led to the eastern battery being demolished, and in 1888 the western one was rebuilt as the new 'Browndown Battery' that exists today. The battery was then steadily modified until it was disarmed in 1906. It remained within the perimeter of Browndown Army Training Camp until it was also closed in 2009.




The small bay played a crucial role in the D-Day landings. It was closed to the public from May 1942 and used for the secret 'Phoenix' construction of large reinforced concrete caissons. The 1942 Dieppe Raid made it clear to the Allies that they could not rely on capturing a French beach to land the thousands of tonnes of vehicles, goods, and men needed for a successful invasion.



The solution was to build prefabricated harbours that could be transported across the channel and assembled as needed. The concrete caissons were to be the building blocks of what would become the 'Mulberry Harbours'. These were enormous, hollow, chambered concrete structures of six different types. The largest of the Phoenixes, the 'A1' type, had a displacement of 6,044 tons, was 60 ft high, 204 ft long, and 56 ft 3 ins in breadth, made of concrete. Their hollow chambers allowed the structures to float and be towed by a tugboat. They could then be assembled in lines at the target location, flooded, and sunk in a controlled manner. These then served as the breakwaters for what would become the 'Mulberry Harbours'.




Construction of the caissons took place at various locations along the south coast of England, with Stokes Bay being one of the main sites for developing, testing, and assembling the components of the 'Mulberry Harbours'. Fourteen 'B2' caissons, the second largest type, were built in the bay by 1,600 men working around the clock from November 1943 to April 1944. Each 'B2' measured 203 feet 6 inches long, 44 feet wide, and 35 feet high. They were divided into 22 compartments, arranged in two rows of eleven, separated by concrete walls 10 feet thick, spaced at 16-foot intervals.




Once completed, the caissons were towed to Dungeness and Selsey, where they were partially submerged to conceal them from enemy aircraft. After the Normandy beaches were secured, the parts were towed across the channel and sunk to form the breakwaters that replaced the initial 'Gooseberry' block ships. A total of two harbours were built: 'Mulberry A' at Omaha Beach and 'Mulberry B’ at Gold. Sunk lines of old ships and concrete caissons eventually formed six miles of breakwater, with each harbour requiring 140,000 tonnes of concrete. These harbours enabled the Allies to rapidly offload cargo onto the beaches, playing a vital role in the success of the invasion.




After work was completed on the caissons at Stokes Bay, the bay played a direct role in the invasion itself. In the lead-up to the invasion, tank regiments trained with special floating 'Duplex Drive' swimming tanks in the west end of Stokes Bay. The tanks were parked on concrete stands on the site of the current mobile home park. As the invasion neared, the beach was fortified at four points with concrete mats, which, due to their appearance, were called 'Chocolate Blocks'. Dolphins were built to secure landing craft immediately offshore, and walkways were constructed to form jetties for soldiers to embark onto the landing craft. The Stokes Bay Sailing Club building was initially built to serve as the 'Loading Control Centre' for the D-Day embarkations.




Things are much quieter at Stokes Bay today. The Stokes Bay Sailing Club, which was formed just before the war, took control of the solid two-storey D-Day embarkation building in 1946. A decade later, all the bay's military defensive buildings were closed. Brownstown Army Training Camp remained operational until it too was closed in 2009. Being close to Marchwood Military Port, the beach below Browndown Battery is still occasionally used for amphibious warfare training. Apart from that, Stokes Bay is used mainly for leisure activities.




From a sailing perspective, it is prone to a roll that makes it an unlikely choice for a comfortable night's sleep. However, for a family boat, those interested in exploring three centuries of military history, or those searching for a tide wait or lunch stop, it is ideal.

What facilities are available?

The beach has three slipways all with lips that need negotiating. The beach has a cafe, restaurants and a variety of beach shops. Public toilets, including a disabled toilet, are available. There is a ‘One Stop’ convenience store in Alverstoke village, approximately a five minute’s walk from the club. The shop has an instore cash machine. Alverstoke village also has a Fish & Chip shop and a Chinese take-away. A large Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons supermarkets can be found off Stoke Road in Gosport.

Trains from Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour take about 1½ to 2 hours, and then the Gosport Ferry from the station takes about 5 minutes to Gosport Bus Station. An infrequent bus service can be found to Stokes Bay or alternatively, being a distance of 3.2 KM (2 miles), a taxi would shorten the time.

Any security concerns?

Never an issue known to have occurred to a vessel anchored off Stokes Bay.

With thanks to:

Marion Shirley S/Y East Breeze, Tony Firth, Port Solent Yacht Club.