Needles Q.F. Battery was built at the base of the cliff face below Needles (Old) Battery facing North. The four 6-pdr Quick Fire positions and single searchlight position are all connected by a tunnel network cut through the chalk rock. In sections of the tunnel the chalk sides are faced with concrete. Access to this tunnel network is by a lift shaft with the top of the shaft in the moat of the battery some 200 feet (60 metres) above.
A summary of the tunnel system is outlined below.
- North of the drawbridge is a lift shaft that drops 200 feet to give access to the searchlight gallery and four gun emplacements at sea level.
- A Campbell oil engine, one of only two in existence, can be found just inside the lift shaft building (see image). This was used to power the lift. The gantry over the lift shaft also still survives but the lift’s octagonal iron cage is gone. Some of the fittings, such as the counterweights and cables, survive at the bottom of the shaft.
- A brick arched doorway at the bottom of the shaft leads to a network of tunnels and a brick vaulted room.
- This brick vaulted room contains a three-cylinder water pump made by Joseph Evans and Son. It is believed this was for the water supply from the branch tunnel.
- The main access tunnel, cut through the chalk, heads northwest toward the gun emplacements and searchlight position, see plan. In some sections, the tunnel is lined with concrete. It eventually splits into east and west tunnels, which then subdivide and end at gun or searchlight emplacements as shown in the plans.
- A second branch tunnel leads off from the lift chamber and runs north and downhill to freshwater tanks that supplied the fort.
The exact date that this battery was built is not know, but it would appear to have been operational in the 1890s with four 6-pdr Q.F. guns. Plans from 1901 (UK TNA WO 78/4891) show the tunnels and lower battery. It does not appear to have been a success because of the limited arc of fire for the guns. The searchlight position is reported to have been used for some tests. This Q.F. Battery overall was not a success given the expense involved in building it.