RESIDENTS of Fort Picklecombe in Maker, near Torpoint, held their annual general meeting at Maker with Rame Community Hall.

The gathering marked the lead-up to a milestone year, with 2026 set to celebrate 50 years since the first apartment was purchased at the former coastal fort in 1976.

Fort Picklecombe was commissioned by Prime Minister Lord Palmerston as part of a chain of sea defences protecting Plymouth Sound and the naval dockyards. Built between 1864 and 1871, it was intended to deter a feared French invasion that never came, earning the forts the nickname “Palmerston’s Follies”.

Converted into apartments in the 1970s, the building remains a distinctive landmark visible from the Cawsand Ferry route between the Barbican and Cawsand.

Residents celebrated with a commemorative pictorial cake showing the fort’s history, cut by Ken and Lorraine James, who have lived there since 1986.