History.
The
History of Priddy's Hard.
The
decision was made in 1760s to move the gunpowder store from the
Square Tower in Portsmouth to Priddy's Hard, near the right end
of the Gosport defensive lines. This would be the first time Britain
separated its gunpowder stores from its ordnance stores, and this
example was later followed elsewhere, particularly at Plymouth.
In 1764, after a series of petitions sent to the Master General
of Ordnance from the general public, the decision was made to
remove the gunpowder that had been stored in Square Tower, Portsmouth.
1st.
In carrying powder from thence to the hoys about 400 yards (367
metres) distance to the end of the point, and by shaking the barrels
together in a Cart there has been a train along that street, which
in War time is the most popular part of the town.
2nd. When funerals pass by there the sparks of the Links
and Torches have been seen to fly against the Magazine Walls and
Windows.
3rd. At shipping off the Powder from the Point among a
crowd of drunken, smoking, sailors tending to the Men of Wars
boats is also a very great hazard.
4th. This Magazine being next to the sea and within reach
of Shipping, makes it a good Mark to Bombard where 6,000 barrels
of Powder are lodged.
5th. When Spring Tides come into the Ground Room under
the Foundation of the Wall, and strike up damps, which might be
cured by Arching over that places; but since the other inconveniences
are so great to cause the Ruin of this Place and from miles around:
Am humbly of the opinion a New Magazine in the Harbour, free from
the said Hazards would be most for the safety of this port.
If the Magazine had exploded the casualties would have been appalling
in this densely populated part of Portsmouth. Serious accidents
with gunpowder were well known, some of them were recorded as
follows:
1649 Tower Street, London - 60 houses demolished after 37 barrels
detonated in a shop.
1654 Gravelines - Explosion of Magazine, 3,000 killed.
1693 Dublin Detonation of 218 barrels, 100 killed.
1739 Brescia Lightning Strike - 3,000 killed.
Various proposals were suggested as to where to build the new
gunpowder magazine, Priddy's Hard, Boatswain's Hill Coppice (where
Defence Munitions Gosport is today), and Horsea Island in the
eastern reaches of Portsmouth Harbour. None of the sites were
considered ideal, including Priddy's Hard, the main concern the
closeness of the Royal Dockyard, this would eventually lead to
its final closure
In 1770 land owned by Jane Priddy at Hardway, Gosport, was acquired
by the Board of Ordnance to construct a new powder depot for the
Royal Navy. Over the years that followed, Priddy's Hard in Gosport
became the Royal Navy's principal armaments depot, supplying naval
fleets from Trafalgar to the Falklands.
Construction of this Board of Ordnance facility began in 1771,
and it was completed in 1777. Plans for two additional magazines
adjacent to the grand magazine were cancelled because of the proximity
of the Weevil Victualling Yard. Gunpowder storage capacity was
therefore inadequate, so during the Napoleonic Wars powder was
stored in hulks in Portsmouth Harbor. This, however, endangered
warships, but fortunately no disaster resulted. Today, the facility
houses "Explosion", a museum of naval ordnance.
Originally the magazine was to be loaded from a rolling-way across
the foreshore but it was decided when the time came, to construct
a camber basin to enable the lighters to unload right at the rear
of the magazine. Further magazines were planned at this juncture
to the east and west of the current Grand Magazine, but were never
built. This lack of storage capacity was highlighted during the
Napoleonic Wars and as a consequence led to the use of floating
gunpowder in the reaches of Fareham Lake.
Construction of the new powder magazine on land within the ramparts
commenced in 1771, along with a cooperage, guardhouse, shifting
house barracks and the octagonal camber basin. The Grand Magazine
(as it became) was originally enclosed with a high brick wall
to assist with security and to ensure no contraband items were
brought into the magazine. These items included ferrous objects
(to reduce the risk of sparks), alcohol and smoking materials.
Access to the Grand Magazine by hoys (lighters) was a problem
from the very beginning. Although the camber basin was constructed
with a sluice to help prevent silting up, vessels still had difficulty
entering it at any other time than high tide. This problem was
solved by the construction of a pier on the eastern side of the
camber basin, the remains of which can be seen at low water.
By May 1777 the first powder barrels were moved to Priddy's Hard
from Portsmouth's Square Tower. Although six thousand barrels
of gunpowder could be stored there, it was subsequently thought
necessary to disperse the ammunition and gunpowder in case the
depot ever came under attack. Satellite magazine stores were built
to serve this purpose in other locations, but Priddy's Hard remained
the most important. Why it took six years for all of the complex
to be completed is not known. The addition of a further two magazines
flanking either end and at right angles to the Grand Magazine
were cancelled. A possibility for the cancellation may have been
the serious fire in the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in 1776.
By 1846 Priddy's Hard was still under the control of the Board
of Ordnance and the following building existed on the site:-
Powder Magazine - Built to store 6,222 100 lb barrels. Contained
an office for the Foreman, Shoehouse and Pumphouse.
Two Shifting Houses - For civilian workers and Army guards.
Inner and Outer Rolling Way to the Magazine.
Connecting Store.
Camber Basin.
Four Demi-Bastions.
Three Storehouses.
Two Fire Engine Houses.
Boathouse.
Guardhouse.
Ferryman Lodge (Demolished in 1960s).
House for Works Overseer (Demolished in 1950s).
Houses for Storekeepers, Foreman of Labourers, Cooper & Coxswain.
Apartments for Established Clerk & Office Keeper.
Details
for the Old Maps.
1575
Saxton. 
Map, hand coloured
copper plate engraving, Southamtoniae, ie Hampshire, scale about
3 miles to 1 inch, engraved by Leonard Terwoort, Antwerp, Netherlands,
published by Christopher Saxton, map maker, London? about 1575.
1605
Keer.
Map, uncoloured
engraving, Southampton, ie Hampshire, scale about 1 to 1000000,
about 17 statute miles to 1 inch, by Pieter van den Keere, 1620.
The map is from the 1666 edition of the atlas, with the text for
Surrey on the reverse, but is the same map as the 1620 edition.
The map scale is in old english miles, about 1.25 statute miles.
1607
Norden.
Map, Hamshire
olim Pars Belgarum, county map of Hampshire, scale about 4 miles
to 1 inch, by John Norden about 1595, version engraved by William
Hole and published in Britannia, by William Camden, about 1607.
1611 Speed.
Map, hand coloured
copper plate engraving, Hantshire described and divided, Hampshire
with part of the Isle of Wight, and a town plan of Winchester,
scale about 3 miles to 1 inch, by John Speed, engraved by Jodocus
Hondius, about 1611.
Published in the Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, 1611.
1613
Drayton.
Map, hand coloured
copper plate engraving, fantastical map of Dorset, Hampshire and
the Isle of Wight, published in Poly-Olbion, by Michael Drayton,
poet, engraved by William Hole, about 1612.
Showing the rivers of Hampshire and Dorset, decorated with goddesses
and allegorical figures for forests, islands, etc. This bizarre
map was published for inclusion in 'Poly-Olbion, or Chorographical
Description of all the Tracts, Rivers, Mountains, Forests and
other parts of the Renowned Isle of Great Britain, by Michael
Drayton, poet; it is of no topographical interest; but it is an
interesting document of its time, containing numerous classic
allusions reminiscent of contemporary poetry and masques.
1643 Simmons.
Table of distances,
Hamshire, with a thumbnail map, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight,
scale about 23 miles to 1 inch, by Thomas Jenner, London, published
in A Direction for the English Traviller, 1643.
The map is redrawn from the earlier edition by Mathew Simmons,
1635.
The county map is crammed into the bottom right part of the page,
below and beside the triangular distance table; the map is orientated
with north towards the bottom left, about 225 degrees clockwise
from normal, but from the lettering is drawn to be read with north
at its top.
1645
Blaeu.
Map, hand coloured
engraving, Hampshire or the County of Southampton, or Hantshire,
scale about 3 miles to 1 inch, published in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,
by William J Blaeu, France, 1645.
1695
Morden.
Map, hand coloured
engraving, Hamp Shire, ie Hampshire, scale about 4 miles to 1
inch, by Robert Morden, published in an edition of Britannia by
William Camden, 1695. This is the second Hampshire county map
with roads indicated practically; the few routes are a selection
of those published by John Ogilby, 1675.
1742
Badeslade.
Map, Map of
Hampshire South West from London, scale about 12 miles to 1 inch,
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, drawn by Thomas Badeslade, published
in Chorographia Britanniae, by William Henry Toms, Union Court,
Holborn, London, 1742.
1751 Kitchen.
Map, hand coloured
engraving, A New Improved Map of Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight,
scale about 3 miles to 1 inch, published for inclusion in the
Large English Atlas series by Thomas Kitchin, London, about 1760.
Published with R Sayer, Fleet Street, Carington Bowles, St Paul's
Churchyard, and R Wilkinson, Cornhill, London.
1757 Senex.
Strip map,
road map, hand coloured engraving, scale about 2-2.5 miles to
1 inch, The Road from London to the Lands-End, Cornwall, segment
from London to Andover, Hampshire, and on the other side the last
segment of the road from London to Holyhead, Anglesey, from a
road book by John Senex, printed for John Bowles and Son, The
Black Horse, Cornhill, London, 1757.
1767 Kitchen.
Strip map,
road map, uncoloured engraving, Road from London to the Lands
End, in Kitchin's Post Chaise Companion, by Thomas Kitchin, published
by Robert Sayer, 53 Fleet Street, John Bowles, Cornhill, and Carington
Bowles, St Paul's Church Yard, London, 1767.
Pl.25 London; via Hammersmith, New Brentford, to Staines, Middlesex;
via Bagshot, Surrey; then Blackwater, Hartford Bridge, Basingstoke,
Whitchurch, Andover, to Middle Wallop, Hampshire; on to Salisbury,
Wiltshire, and westward; scale about 3 miles to 1 inch.
1788 Harrison.
Map, hand coloured
engraving, A Map of Hampshire, county map, scale about 5 miles
to 1 inch, drawn by Haywood, engraved by Sudlow, published by
John Harrison, 115 Newgate Street, London, 16 December 1788.
1823 Perrot.
Map, engraving,
Wiltshe Hamp ie Wiltshire and Hampshire with the Isle of Wight,
scale about 42 miles to 1 inch, by Aristide Michel Perrot, drawn
by Thierry, engraved by Mme Migneret, France, 1823.
The map is very small, Hampshire is only about 3cm wide, the 2
counties on a sheet suspended from rods mounted on an anchor;
above are wheat stalks, oak leaves and what could be ribbons,
below is a boar's head and the flukes of the anchor; plate number
'P.126.' is engraved top right.
The map was published in L'Angleterre, or description Historique
et Topographique du Royaume-Uni de la Grande-Bretagne' by Etienne
Ledoux, 9 Rue Guenegaud, Paris, France, 1824.
Old
Maps.
This site is © Copyright www.priddyshard.com
2008... All Rights Reserved
