Chesil Beach cannon
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | Chesil Beach cannon | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 50.6127, -2.5345 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1433972 | Historic England |
| Designated | 2017-08-18 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 0.57 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | SY6227879359, SY6228979153 | Historic England |
About the wreck
The Chesil Beach cannon consists of the remains of an unknown wreck were found on Chesil Beach, Dorset, England, in 2010. The site was designated on 18 July 2017. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
Diving & visiting
This is a designated Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Under the Act, diving on or otherwise interfering with the wreck inside its restricted area requires a licence; see the Historic England list entry for details.
The site was discovered in 2010 by the Shipwrecks Project. The sites were investigated by Wessex Archaeology in 2015; this involved a programme of diving surveys.
A number of archaeological finds of similar dates have been identified near the sites since the 1970s including a large plug of tobacco found below a cannon up to 500m to the northwest of the sites. Shot, a brass barrel spigot, and some silver Dutch coins have also been found in the vicinity of the sites.
Location
- Recorded position: 50.6127, -2.5345 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: English Channel
- Nearest coast: England
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Chesil Beach cannon (revision 1256733491), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Discovery and investigation”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Protected Wreck data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS M2 1932 · 4 km
- HMS Delight 1940 · 8 km
- Earl of Abergavenny 1805 · 9 km
- HMS Foylebank 1940 · 9 km
- HMS Hood 1914 · 9 km
- USS S-24 11 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · English Channel