Fort Blockhouse
Fort Blockhouse | |
---|---|
Gosport, England | |
![]() Fort Blockhouse (centre) and the marina | |
Type | Fort, later submarine base |
Site information | |
Condition | Complete |
Site history | |
Built | 1431, various additions until 1960s |
In use | 1431–1539 (as blockhouse) 1539–1956 (as battery) 1905–1998 (as submarine base) 1996–2020 (as training site) 2002- present (as RAMC barracks) |
Battles/wars | Siege of Portsmouth (1642) |
Fort Blockhouse is a former military establishment in Gosport, Hampshire, England, and the final version of a complicated site. At its greatest extent in the 19th century, the structure was part of a set of fortifications which encircled much of Gosport. It is surrounded on three sides by water and provides the best view of the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. It is unique in that it was built over five centuries from its original construction as a blockhouse in 1431 to the final addition of submarine base structures in the mid-1960s. Coastal fortification was abolished nationally in 1956, and the fort has not been used in a military capacity since 2021.[1]
The MoD plans to dispose of the site in 2025.
History
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Aerial_photograph_of_Portsmouth_Dockyard_taken_during_a_Photex%2C_taken_from_2%2C000_feet._MOD_45144954.jpg/170px-Aerial_photograph_of_Portsmouth_Dockyard_taken_during_a_Photex%2C_taken_from_2%2C000_feet._MOD_45144954.jpg)
Early fortifications (1431–1667)
[edit]Following the burning of Portsmouth during the Hundred Years' War, money was set aside in 1417 to provide protection for Portsmouth Harbour. A timber blockhouse was first built on the Gosport side of the harbour in 1431, after authorisation by Henry VI. A chain was strung from Blockhouse point to a similar tower in Portsmouth, which could be raised to prevent entry to the harbour by enemy ships.[2] It was subsequently rebuilt and strengthened, and in 1542 John Leland described it as a round stone tower with ordnance.[3]
Around the year 1539 a 'bulwark' was built by Thomas Spert to the south-west of the blockhouse (where Haslar Hospital now stands);[4] it was subsequently known as Lymden's Bulwark.[5] Further to the south another fort was built in 1545-46 named Haselworth Castle, though this was abandoned only eleven years after construction.[6] The Cowdray engraving of The Encampment of the English forces near Portsmouth in 1545 depicts all three structures, with Haselworth still under construction;[4] two years later the 1547 Inventory of Henry VIII lists 'Lymden's Bulwark by the West Haven, under Captain John Lymden' and also 'Hasillworth Castle', but the blockhouse is omitted (implying it was no longer armed at this time).[3] By the end of the century all these fortifications were in a derelict state, and a few decades later only a mound remained to indicate the site of the former bulwark.[5]
Modernised fort (1667–1877)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Portsmouth_RMG_F1960.tiff/lossy-page1-220px-Portsmouth_RMG_F1960.tiff.jpg)
In 1665, during the Second Dutch War, Sir Bernard de Gomme was commissioned by Charles II to improve the Portsmouth defences.[7] Two years later he installed a new L-shaped battery on Gosport Point (where the blockhouse had formerly stood): it consisted of a row of eighteen guns facing south-east, to protect the seaward approach to the harbour, and two more guns pointing south-west, so as to protect the landward approach to the battery (which was along a narrow spit of land).[8] The following decade an eighteen-gun battery was constructed by de Gomme alongside the Round Tower on the Portsmouth side of the harbour entrance, matching the battery on the Gosport side.[7] To the north, on the west side of the harbour, de Gomme built two square defensive towers, Charles Fort (at Gosport) and James Fort (on Burrow Island), which were completed by 1679; while on the landward side he began constructing a bastioned trace around the town of Gosport in 1678.[9]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Plan_of_Portsmouth_%28detail%2C_showing_Fort_Blockhouse%29_1750.jpg/250px-Plan_of_Portsmouth_%28detail%2C_showing_Fort_Blockhouse%29_1750.jpg)
An inspection in the early 18th century, however, found that the defences had fallen into poor condition; Captain Talbot Edwards (who, as Second Engineer, had been made responsible for surveying the Portsmouth fortifications) said of the battery that 'this work like the rest is all gone to ruine'.[8] Between 1708 and 1714 the battery was completely rebuilt to create a bastioned fort, with a renewed seaward-facing open-air battery to the south-east and significant defensive earthworks to the south-west.[10] The shape of the 18th-century fort can still be discerned and surviving elements of the 1708 works are the oldest still present on the site.[11] The entrance to the fort on the south-west side consisted of a gateway flanked by two demi-bastions;[10] the gatehouse was demolished in the 1960s, but its keystone survives on site,[12] decorated with the arms of the Board of Ordnance and inscribed Anno 1708.[13] The fort was surrounded by a moat on the south-west and south-east sides, the former crossed by a bridge which was protected at its far end by a stone redan and angled outer earthworks. To the north the fort was enclosed by wooden palisades which formed a bastion at the northernmost point. In the 1750s the fort was described as being armed with twenty-one 18 pounder guns and three 6 pounders.[10]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Gezigt_van_de_stad_en_haven_van_Portsmouth_-_btv1b53010608c.jpg/350px-Gezigt_van_de_stad_en_haven_van_Portsmouth_-_btv1b53010608c.jpg)
Beyond Fort Blockhouse the Gosport fortifications were extended northwards in 1757 in order to enclose the Weevil brewery (which had been acquired by the Victualling Commissioners a few years earlier). New defences were constructed for Gosport in 1778, with the bastioned Fort Monckton situated on the ground that had been occupied by Haselworth Castle in the Tudor era.[9] Further renovations took place from 1797 to 1803, amid fears of French invasion. This created a line of bastions defending Gosport all the way from Blockhouse Point up to Forton Lake on the far side of the town, with French prisoners of war making up a part of the construction workforce.[14] These developments rendered some of the older works redundant:[15] both James Fort and Charles Fort were allowed to fall into ruin in the early 19th century.[13]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Fort_Blockhouse_%28geograph_3348716%29.jpg/220px-Fort_Blockhouse_%28geograph_3348716%29.jpg)
By 1805 Fort Blockhouse was armed with fifteen 36-pounder and fifteen 18-pounder guns.[16] In 1813, as noted on a preserved datestone,[12] the fort began to be remodelled: the west demi-bastion was extended to the north in 1817-20 and not long afterwards the sea battery was rebuilt with thirteen covered casemates housing 32-pounder guns.[8] The upper part of the battery was strengthened and widened in 1845-48, providing space on the terreplein for a further thirteen guns to be mounted en barbette. This work was part of a substantial rebuilding, which saw the creation of the north bastion: a rounded structure built of red brick and fronted in limestone, with upper and lower casemated batteries which provided a field of fire over the harbour.[11] It was linked, to the west bastion on the one hand and to the sea battery on the other, by a pair of long brick-built casemated buildings: the former providing accommodation for officers,[17] the latter for other ranks.[18]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Richard_Beavis_-_Block_House_Fort%2C_Gosport%2C_Hampshire_-_B1975.4.41_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg/350px-Richard_Beavis_-_Block_House_Fort%2C_Gosport%2C_Hampshire_-_B1975.4.41_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg)
The 18th-century fortifications of Gosport were considered obsolete by the 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom. While the commissioners did not recommend any changes to Fort Blockhouse, nor were its armaments updated: in 1867 it was still armed with 32-pounder smooth-bore cannons.[8]
Royal Engineer Submarine Mining Establishment (1873–1907)
[edit]In 1873 Fort Blockhouse began to be used by the Royal Engineers as a base for the deployment of remote-controlled submarine mines as a line of defence for the harbour.[19] At the edge of the headland, to the north of the fort, they built a short pier and several buildings over time, including a set of boathouses and cable sheds (which are still in situ as of 2024, alongside an associated slipway).[11] The casemates of the north bastion were converted into stores for mine casings and other new buildings were erected around the site, along with a light rail system to move the mines and explosives.[10] Additional administrative buildings were added in 1884, when the site also became home to the School of Submarine Miners. The pier was extended in 1888, and additional rooms continued to be added for storage and tests until 1891.[20]
As a fort, Blockhouse was increasingly seen as obsolete and its armament was accordingly reduced, from ten RML 64-pounder guns in 1885 to three in 1888 (three machine guns were also provided, to protect the associated naval minefield). Subsequently five 12-pounder quick-firing guns were installed to combat the emerging threat posed by fast torpedo boats.[10] In 1893-94 a defensive boom was provided, which could be deployed to seal off the harbour entrance (analogous to the old chain defence).[11]
In 1892 a new School of Submarine Mining was established on a site at Stokes Bay (close by Fort Gilkicker), which had previously been used for testing and experimental work. That same year the Royal Engineer companies moved from Fort Blockhouse to Fort Monckton; in their place a linked militia unit (the Portsmouth Militia Division (Submarine Miners) Royal Engineers), previously based at Fort Monckton, moved to Fort Blockhouse where they remained until 1907.[19] The two forts were linked with a narrow gauge railway, which also extended to the facilities in Stokes Bay; the railway survived into the early 20th century.[21]
Royal Navy Submarine Base (1905-1998)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/B10_RP_2843.jpg/220px-B10_RP_2843.jpg)
The Royal Navy was not persuaded of the benefits of submarine mining and by 1903 the Admiralty was lobbying the War Office to take over submarine mining bases and to replace the fixed minefields with mobile submarines, in order to provide a more effective line of defence.[22] Fort Blockhouse was duly turned over to the Royal Navy in 1905. By 1909 a pier had been built along the north-west edge of the headland, creating an enclosed pool of water. A hulk, HMS Dolphin, was moored nearby to provide additional accommodation and from August 1912 the name HMS Dolphin was extended to cover the whole establishment.[10] During the First World War HMS Dolphin was the navy’s principal submarine depot; the Rear Admiral Submarines was based there and it soon became the home of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.[23]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Fort_Blockhouse.jpg/220px-Fort_Blockhouse.jpg)
The period between the two world wars saw significant expansion at HMS Dolphin: on the open courtyard within the bastions of the fort a number of administrative and other buildings were erected; upper floors were added to the casemated accommodation blocks, with the officers' block being extended to create a new officers' mess.[17] The establishment also expanded beyond the lines of the original fort on Blockhouse point: west of the main gatehouse, the defensive moat was infilled in the 1920s and the earthworks were levelled; 'Vulcan Block', providing accommodation for seamen, was built there in 1933, along with a new guardhouse and various other buildings.[11] East of the original fort, alongside the north bastion, a block for Warrant Officers was built facing the harbour; to the north-west, overlooking the piers, a headquarters block for the Rear Admiral was erected in 1937-38.[11]
The prominent Submarine Escape Training Tower was built in 1953, and opened in 1954. The need for such a training facility had been made apparent by the loss of HMS Truculent in 1950.[11] With the disbanding of the Coastal Artillery service, the battery of the fort was disarmed in 1956. With the Submarine Service set to take on responsibility for the UK's nuclear deterrent, HMS Dolphin was further expanded with additional buildings added to the west of the site in the mid-1960s (including several barrack blocks looking out on the Solent).[10]
In 1980 a new Royal Navy Submarine Museum was established just outside the entrance to HMS Dolphin.[24]
The end of the Cold War brought with it a reduction in defence requirements, with the threat of Soviet submarines having passed, and so in 1992 it was announced that the smaller submarine fleet would be leaving HMS Dolphin and moving west to HMNB Devonport.[10] The last submarine left Dolphin in 1994. Having been declared surplus to requirements in 1996, HMS Dolphin was formally decommissioned in 1998.[25]
Coastal forces (1914-1966)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/%27Mine_Sweepers_waiting_for_the_fog_to_lift%27%3B_off_Fort_Blockhouse%2C_Portsmouth_RMG_PW1146.jpg/220px-%27Mine_Sweepers_waiting_for_the_fog_to_lift%27%3B_off_Fort_Blockhouse%2C_Portsmouth_RMG_PW1146.jpg)
During the First World War a base for coastal motor boats was established on Haslar Creek, alongside Fort Blockhouse. It closed after the Armistice in 1918, but reopened in 1921; for a time it was placed under the command of HMS Dolphin, but in 1926 it was separately commissioned as HMS Hornet (shore establishment).[26] Hornet closed in 1936 and the site was leased to the Royal Air Force Marine Branch; but at the start of the Second World War it was recommissioned as HMS Hornet and served throughout the war as a Coastal Forces base. By 1943 forty-eight motor torpedo boats were stationed there, along with smaller numbers of motor launches and motor gunboats. After the war Hornet continued in commission until September 1957, when the Coastal Forces division was disbanded; however a small residual 'Coastal Forces Trials and Special Service Squadron' was retained for a time, as part of HMS Dolphin, and provided with two new Brave-class patrol boats.[26]
By 1964 the former Hornet site was largely disused. That year a sailing club (Hornet S.C.) was established there for serving and ex-Royal Navy personnel, with shore facilities, including a clubhouse in the former wardroom, and marina facilities on the creek. In 1972 the Royal Navy established a joint services adventure sailing training centre alongside the sailing club.[27]
33 Field hospital and Defence Medical Training facilities (1996–2018)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Fort_Blockhouse_1.jpg/220px-Fort_Blockhouse_1.jpg)
The Defence Medical Training Organisation (DMTO) was established at Fort Blockhouse in 1996 (close by what was then the tri-service military hospital at Haslar).[28] At the same time, part of the Blockhouse site became the Royal Defence Medical College (RDMC), which provided initial and advanced training for all military Medical Officers and nurses and the majority of medical technicians.[29] Following the decommissioning of HMS Dolphin in 1998, RDMC became responsible for the whole Fort Blockhouse estate. In 2002, however, after Haslar's closure had been announced, the college relocated from Gosport to Birmingham (where the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine had been established the previous year); it now forms part of the University of Birmingham Medical School.[30]
After the closure of the college, the Defence Medical Education and Training Agency (successor to the DMTO) remained, with its headquarters in the Mackenzie Building at Fort Blockhouse; the DMETA maintained a 'small residual training facility' on the site,[31] which was connected with the local Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit. The DMETA was wound up in 2008, and its functions relocated to DMS Whittington as part of Joint Medical Command.[32]
In 1996, 33 Field Hospital relocated to Fort Blockhouse following the closure of Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, where it had been established in 1985.[33] Over the next twenty years the hospital was regularly deployed, to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, the last deployment being to South Sudan in 2017.[33] 33 Field Hospital was disbanded on 1 December 2018, after 33 years’ existence.[34]
SETT training facility (1998-2020)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Submarine_Escape_Training%2C_Gosport._MOD_45143837.jpg/220px-Submarine_Escape_Training%2C_Gosport._MOD_45143837.jpg)
Although the submarine base was closed in 1998, the Royal Navy Submarine School (RNSMS) remained at the fort until 23 December 1999, and some training continued at Blockhouse for a further twenty years: the submarine school was relocated to HMS Raleigh in Cornwall, with pressurised training remaining at the Blockhouse facility until 2008. The Submarine Escape Training Tank (SETT) remained in service until it was finally closed in January 2020.[35]
Other units
[edit]Since 2008 the National Coastwatch Institution has maintained a daily lookout from the fort's signal tower;[36] it was visited by the Princess Royal in 2023.[37]
As of 2022, according to the MOD, a number of 'non-military agencies, cadet forces and civilian associations' were based at Fort Blockhouse, including (in addition to the NCI): the Royal Naval Sailing Association (based at Blockhouse since the 1930s),[38] Hornet Services Sailing Association, the Royal Navy Submarine Museum and local Sea Cadets and Air Training Corps units.[39]
Saluting station
[edit]Up until 2017 Fort Blockhouse was the Royal Navy's main saluting station in Portsmouth.[40] Four QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns mounted on the south casemates,[10] the earliest dating from 1886, were regularly used for ceremonial gun salutes (latterly HMS Collingwood provided the gun crews).[41] The use of Fort Blockhouse for gun salutes was of long standing; at the Portsmouth Naval Review of 1773 King George III was greeted by 21-gun salutes from Fort Blockhouse, the saluting platform and Southsea Castle.[42] On an earlier occasion, when Charles II was sailing into Portsmouth to inspect the newly-finished fortifications in 1683, a gunner at Fort Blockhouse was killed when one of the guns burst as the salute was being fired.[43]
Future
[edit]Planned disposal
[edit]In 2016, it was announced that Fort Blockhouse would be disposed of by the Ministry of Defence in 2020, as part of a wider package of reductions in defence estate.[44][45] Surveys were undertaken from January to March 2020 to determine which structures at the site would become listed buildings, and major job cuts took place at the end of the year.[46][47] The disposal date was later extended to at least 2023,[48] and once more to 2025.[49]
References
[edit]- ^ Fort Blockhouse History Archived 2007-01-05 at the Wayback Machine from www.gosport.info
- ^ Pettifer, Adrian (1995). English Castles A Guide by Counties. Boydell Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0851157825.
- ^ a b "Gosport Tower". Gatehouse Gazetteer. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
- ^ a b Colvin, Howard (1982). The History of the King's Works: 1485-1660 (part II). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 500–513.
- ^ a b "Lymden's Bulwark". Gatehouse Gazetteer. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
- ^ "My Gosport guide to the History of Gosport Hampshire". www.mygosport.org.
- ^ a b Saunders, Andrew (1989). Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortification in the British Isles and Ireland. Liphook, Hants.: Beaufort Publishing. pp. 91–92.
- ^ a b c d "Historic England Research Records: Fort Blockhouse". Heritage Gateway. Historic England. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
- ^ a b "Fortified Places > Fortresses > Gosport". www.fortified-places.com. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Historic England. "Fort Blockhouse (1001873)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Haslar Peninsula Conservation Area Appraisal". Gosport Borough Council. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
- ^ a b Historic England. "Former Gatehouse Datestone, Fort Blockhouse (1469578)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ a b Slight, Henry (1838). The History of the Town and Borough of Gosport. Portsmouth. pp. 6–7. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ Chamberlain, Paul (2016). Hell Upon Water Prisoners of War in Britain 1793–1815. The History Press. ISBN 978-0750980531.
- ^ "Historic England Research Records: Fort James". Heritage Gateway. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ Maurice-Jones, Col. K. W. (1959). The History of Coast Artillery in the British Army. Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution. p. 97.
- ^ a b Historic England. "Thames Block, Fort Blockhouse (1470250)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ Historic England. "Arrogant Block, Fort Blockhouse (1469940)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ a b Brown, William Baker (1910). History of Submarine Mining in the British Army. Chatham: Royal Engineers Institute. p. 130.
- ^ "Fort Blockhouse". Gosport Open Days. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
- ^ "Fort Gilkicker: Stokes Bay: Fort Monckton and the Submarine Mining Establishment". www.fortgilkicker.co.uk.
- ^ Lambert, Nicholas (2001). The Submarine Service, 1900-1918. Aldershot, Hants.: Ashgate. pp. 42–48.
- ^ "Submarine School". Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ^ Whitman, Edward C (2003). "Royal Navy Submarine Museum Preserving a Notable Collection of Artifacts and War Stories". Undersea Warfare (19). U.S. Government Printing Office. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
- ^ "Fort Blockhouse" (PDF). Victorian Forts. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
- ^ a b Brown, Paul (2005). Maritime Portsmouth. Stroud, Gloucs.: The History Press. pp. 149–153.
- ^ "History". Hornet Services Sailing Club. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
- ^ "Farewell to medical college at Blockhouse". Navy News. 1 May 2002. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ "Memorandum submitted to the Defence Committee by the Ministry of Defence responding to the Committee's Questions on the Defence Medical Services". UK Parliament. House of Commons. 3 November 1999. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
- ^ "History of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine". Birmingham University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
- ^ "DMETA Annual Report 2006-07" (PDF). GOV.UK. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
- ^ Mr Bob Ainsworth, Minister for the Armed Forces (1 April 2008). "Executive Agencies". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 474. UK: House of Commons.
- ^ a b "History of 33 Field Hospital - 33_Fd_Hosp.pdf" (PDF).
- ^ Vassallo, Colonel David. "A history of 33 Field Hospital" (PDF). Friends of Millbank. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
- ^ "Iconic Gosport tower is used by submariners for the final time". www.portsmouth.co.uk.
- ^ "NCI Gosport". National Coastwatch. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ Brown, Kelly (22 May 2023). "In Pictures: Princess Anne visits the National Coastwatch Institution at Fort Blockhouse in Gosport". The News. National World Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ The Navy List for August 1937. London: His Majesty' Stationery Office. 1937. p. 369.
- ^ "Lodger Units - Fort Blockhouse". WhatDoTheyKnow. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ "Gun Salutes" (PDF). Royal Navy. April 2017. p. 94-2. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ "UK: Gun Salute to Mark 60th Anniversary of the Queen's Coronation". Naval Today. 3 June 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ Campbell-Smith, John (1818). The Naval History of Britain (Voume V). London: Baldwyn and co. p. 477.
- ^ Saunders, A. D. (2004). Fortress Builder: Bernard de Gomme, Charles II's Military Engineer. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. p. 152.
- ^ "A Better Defence Estate" (PDF). Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
- ^ "Gosport military base to be sold off by government by 2026, new MoD estate plan reveals". www.portsmouth.co.uk.
- ^ "Workers at HMS Sultan, HMS Excellent and Fort Blockhouse 'face pay cut or sacking'". www.portsmouth.co.uk.
- ^ "Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) – Gosport Borough Council". www.gosport.gov.uk.
- ^ "MOD Confirms Changes To Base Closure Plans". Forces News. 19 November 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
- ^ "Disposal database: House of Commons report". Retrieved 12 July 2022.