The pair had sided with the Roundhead garrison in Barnstaple, which also covered nearby Bideford, because of the prejudice they had towards Charles I for exploiting the merchant classes of England.

Some time after August 1642 James Chudleigh built a pair of 8-gun earthwork artillery gun platforms on both sides of the River Torridge to guard the seaborne approaches to Bideford against attacks by Royalist ships.

[3] By the summer of 1643 the Royalists, under Sir Ralph Hopton, had made major gains in the South West, having won victories at the Battle of Braddock Down (January 1643) and Stratton (May 1643), causing the Parliamentary forces to retreat into Bideford where they were then besieged.

In the mid 19th-century, the East-the-Water of gun platform was rebuilt in stone as a five-sided folly by James Ley from Northam, who gave it 14-gun emplacements instead of the original eight.

[1] Ley's interpretation of "Chudleigh Fort" was for it to be a belvedere that provided elevated views across the town and the River Torridge; it had no genuine military purpose with thin stone walls and an open rear.