Body left headless after explosion in 1900 at Brean Fort

All that remained of the 31-year-old, married Gunner was a twisted torso and his right arm.

In the early 1860s, Britons feared a French Invasion led by Emperor Napoleon III, who the British suspected of emulating his Uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, so Brean Down Fort was built in the 1860s - part of a grand scheme of defences devised to see off the threat of a French invasion that never came.

Such fortifications have since become known as Palmerston's Follies since they became obsolete within just a few years of being built as a result of large-scale improvements in naval gunnery. The first construction started in 1864 and finished in 1871; the completed fort was home to barracks that could house up to 50 men, officer quarters and three 7-inch rifled muzzle loading guns.

In general, life in the fort was quiet and uneventful - in fact, the only shot ever fired in anger was the one believed to have been fired by Gunner Haines.

It was 4.50 am on July 4, 1900, when one of the vast underground magazines - containing three tonnes of gunpowder - exploded.

The detonation was so powerful it was heard as far away as Cardiff, with one man telling the local press: “As if the end of the world had come."

The blast ripped the roof from the barracks, shattering every window on the base and leaving iron girders twisted into every conceivable shape.

A 112lb coping stone was hurled into the air and found 200 yards away, while two seven-inch guns were thrown off their mountings. Just one man died in the blast, but another was seriously injured as the shattered glass filled the air.

The fort was usually staffed by just four men under the charge of Sergeant Major Withers, but the numbers had been bolstered by 13 men from the islands of Flat Holme and Steep Holme who had recently arrived at the fort for preliminary gun practice.

According to an investigation, the evening before the explosion, Gunner Haines and his colleague Gunner George Johnson had left the fort at around 5 pm to go to Burnham and pick up their bikes.

Permission to leave the barracks is not recorded, so they took a chance by going out. The pair headed to the Commercial Hotel for drinks before leaving Burnham at 8.30 pm, but Haines got a puncture on the way back, and they parted company, with Johnson arriving at the fort between 10 pm and 11 pm, while Haines arrived closer to midnight.

The pair did not have permission to leave the fort, and Haines was put on a charge and told he would be dealt with in the morning.

Haines was spotted in his barracks that night, but just before 5 am, he is said to have crept out of his bed, stole a carbine from one of his colleagues, snuck down to the magazine store, and fired his gun into the gunpowder, igniting the lot of it.

At the inquest, the coroner heard that Haines had 13 years' service and a record for good service but was known to be "somewhat sullen". None of his colleagues had any concerns about his behaviour. Those who had seen him before the explosion said he did not appear drunk, and none had ever heard him threaten the fort or its personnel.

Those who served with him said that in the three or four days before the explosion, he had been 'reticent' and 'particularly morose'.

The Sergeant said that Haines had probably left his room naked, as his clothing was found neatly folded on his bed, and made his way towards the store before firing his gun and added that there was "nothing wrong with him, apart from a violent temper".

The inquest found that the only way the explosion could have happened was if the Gunner had fired a shot down the ventilator.

"If he had got inside the magazine to fire, his remains would never have been found," the Sergeant told the inquest.

Despite his service record and the testimony of his colleagues, Haines was declared a ‘madman’ once the jury returned their verdict: "That the explosion was caused by deceased firing a carbine down a ventilator and that at the time he was temporarily insane."

However, some people doubt this finding. In his book Somerset Tales of Mystery and Murder, historian Roger Evans suggests Haines may have been a convenient smokescreen for more nefarious deeds.

He argues that Haines had been an exemplary soldier, said to have been conscientious and reliable, and witnesses had described him as being polite and sensible on his way back to the fort from Burnham on the night of the explosion.

He adds that the blast is likely to have torn off his clothing, and he could well have been on a trip to the latrines and been caught up in the explosion.

He adds that just seven months before the explosion, Irish Nationalist leader John Redmond had called for an uprising against the British. The following day, British forces expelled a fierce attack by the Boers at Ladysmith in South Africa.

He suggests that there were - without a doubt - elements at home and abroad only too willing to carry out a stealthy attack against the British Forces on their home territory.

Evans suggests that by pointing the finger at Haines so quickly, all other possibilities were swept under the carpet.

Whatever the truth, after the explosion, the fort was decommissioned, and the guns sold for scrap.

Between 1905 and 1939, it had a new lease of life as a cafe, but at the start of the Second World War, it was hastily re-armed with two six-inch naval guns and two searchlight batteries and used as a testing site for secret weapons.

Among the weapons tested were the “Bouncing bomb” and the acoustic emitter.

The weapons testing was not without some drama - The bouncing bomb was placed on a trolley and sent down a small track, used as a launching trail.

It was supposed to reach the stop buffers at the end of the track and launch into the air, where it would safely explode. Instead, the trolley picked up too much speed, burst into flames, crashed straight through the buffers and took the railings with it as it crashed into the sea in a ball of fire.

In another test, The ‘Expendable Noise Maker’ - a rocket designed to confuse enemy acoustic torpedoes by giving off rhythmic detonations - flew off into the Channel, did a sharp right and returned inland, exploding in a local farmer’s chicken run.

Today, things at the fort are much less…explodey. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Victorian barracks were renovated, and in 2000, The National Trust bought the site for £1.

Each year thousands explore the ruins, visiting Brean Down for the walks, the history and the views. Since the end of the Second World War, the elements and human encroachments have waged their own war on the fort.

The buildings remain, trapped between land and sea, somewhere between structure and rubble, silent witnesses to the night that Gunner Haines crept from his bed and into the darkness.