 The surviving fragments of the fort and the area around it are part of a nature reserve and can be visited by the public.The Thames was guarded by a number of forts built around Gravesend and Tilbury in the 16th and 17th centuries but these were inadequate against the threat of the new generation of artillery that had emerged by the end of the 18th century.An artillery battery was established farther downriver at Shornemead in 1795–96, during the Napoleonic Wars, along with two other batteries at Lower Hope Point on the Kent side and Coalhouse Point on the Essex side.