Description of Historic Place

Quidi Vidi Battery is a reconstruction of British coastal battery which was located on the site. In keeping with the 1812 period of reconstruction the site consists of a barracks, gun deck with two cannons and two carronades and a powder magazine; all of which is enclosed by a wooden pallisade. It sits on an archaeological site which was excavated by the province of Newfoundland in 1965 and 1995.

Heritage Value

Quidi Vidi Battery represents an important period in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador. As one of 12 coastal military installations designed by the British to protect St. John’s from an overland attack, Quidi Vidi Battery was part of a perimeter defensive system and military infrastructure designed by British authorities from approximately 1780. A testament to its importance rests with the fact that it was the longest lived coastal battery. It remained manned by British military personnel until British forces left Newfoundland in 1870.

First opened in 1967, the site is the first Provincial Historic Site developed by the province and opened to the public. As such it represents an early philosophy in cultural heritage presentation whereby reconstructions were seen as an appropriate approach to heritage preservation, representation and presentation of the province’s culture and history.

Source: Listed in the Newfoundland Gazette and confirmed as a Provincial Historic Site by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador on August 13, 1974.

Character-Defining Elements

All those elements that represent the early British fortification of the area and any remaining original or reconstructed artifacts, including:
-remains of powder magazine;
-archaeological remnants of the site including foundation of barracks;
-reconstructed barrack;
-reconstructed gun deck with sod parapet ;
-reconstructed palisade;
-reconstructed flag pole;
-2 commemorative plaques denoting the contribution of the 56th Field Engineers in the reconstruction of the site; and
-the unimpeded view of the land and sea approach to the site, an important feature in determining where the battery was originally placed.