Nomination of the world’s first Cultural Seascape:
Defence of the Realm
to be Inscribed on the World Heritage List
* = Still to be inserted
This document
has been produced and co-ordinated under the direction of the
Portsmouth City
Council, Fareham Borough Council, Winchester City Council, Gosport Borough
Council, the Isle of Wight Council, MOD Defence Estates, Queen’s Harbour
Master, The Hants. and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology, Mary Rose Trust,
The Portsmouth Society, Gosport Society,
Fareham Society, Portchester Society, City of Winchester Trust, Isle of Wight
Society, Solent Protection Society, Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust,
Naval Dockyards Society, University of Portsmouth
Support and
endorsement is sought from English Heritage, Government Office South East,
South East of
England Development Agency, the National Museums and Galleries Commission,
Icomos UK, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Environment Agency,
Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Partnership, PUSH
[Aims
of the
The five conservation officers
of five local authorities, Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham, Winchester and the
Isle of Wight, Defence Estates, Assistant Queen’s Harbourmaster, Portsmouth
Naval Base Property Trust, Mary Rose Trust, Hants. and Wight Trust for Maritime
Archaeology, Friends of Old Portsmouth and the five Civic Societies including
the Portsmouth Society - very much based on local knowledge - began to discuss
the proposed World Heritage site in November 2006. They agree that the medium-term goals (set
out in a separate document) are worth pursuing for the gains they offer,
whether or not the proposal makes it onto the DCMS Tentative List. These include integration of planning around
the harbour - there is an opportunity in the draft local development
frameworks; tall buildings policies recommended by English Heritage; joint
tourist marketing, protection of marine industry, nature conservation, port
matters, a centre for the study of climate change, protection of sites of
marine industry and other issues. Those
who have special knowledge to contribute will be welcome to join the group.
The Dossier
This draft dossier sets out the
case for
World Heritage List
Nomination Form
Convention
concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage
Under the terms
of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage, adopted by the General Conference of UESCO in 1972, the
Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and
Natural Heritage, called ‘the World Heritage Committee” shall establish, under
the title of “the World Heritage List”, a list of properties forming part of
the cultural and natural heritage, which it considers as having outstanding
universal value in terms of such criteria s it shall have established.
The purpose of
this form is to enable State Parties to submit to the World Heritage Committee
nominations of properties situated in their territory and suitable for
inclusion in the World Heritage List.
This
‘Nomination Document’ has been prepared in accordance with the “Format for the
Nomination of cultural and natural properties for inscription on the World
Heritage List” issued by UNESCO.
The form has
been completed in English and is to be sent in three copies to:-
The Secretariat
World Heritage
Committee
Division of
Cultural Heritage
UNESCO
Place de
Fontenoy,
75352
UNITD NATIONS
EDUCATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANISATION
CONTENTS
Page
1. Identification of Property
a) Country
b) Region
c) Property
d) Location
e) Boundary
f) Area of Property
2. Justification for Inscription
a) Statement of Significance of
the world’s first cultural seascape
b) Comparative Analysis: National and
International
c) Authenticity and Integrity
d) Criteria under which Inscription is Proposed
3. Description
a) Description of Property
- The Natural Environment of the Nominated Site
- The Archaeology of the Nominated Site
- Area 1
Underwater and intertidal zone –
- Area 2
Underwater and intertidal zone
-
- Area 3
- Area 4 H
M Naval Base
- Area 5
Preserved ships
· Mary Rose
· HMS Victory
· HMS Warrior 1860
· 25
· HMS Minerva and other Twentieth Century ships
- Area 6
Old
- Area
- Area 8
- Area 9
Fort Blockhouse and
- Area
- Area 11
Cams Hall
- Area 12
Priddy’s Hard
- Area 13
Alverstoke and
- Area 14
Royal Clarence Yard
- Area 15
Sea Forts and Puckpool
- Area 16
Portsdown Hill: Palmerston Forts and
- Area 17
Gunboat Yard and Ship Testing Tanks
- Area 18
Ryde
- Area 19
Southsea Seafront and
- Area 20
Fareham Creek
- Area 21
- Area 22
- Area 23
HMS Daedalus and HMS Siskin/HMS Sultan
· Area 24 Shipping and ferries
b) History and
Development
i) The Submerged
Landscape - Prehistory of the
Spithead and
ii)
History of the East Solent including
and anchorage
ii)
iii)
Portsmouth
Dockyard – origins to sixteenth century
iv)
v)
vi)
Palmerston’s
Ring Fortress
vii)
Portsmouth
Dockyard – development of the world’s largest industrial complex in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
viii)
Portsmouth
Dockyard – technological innovation: block-making, caissons, ship
model-testing, victualling
ix)
Portsmouth
Dockyard – nineteenth century, steam engine manufacture, steam dredger and the
Great Extension
x)
Portsmouth
Dockyard to HM Naval Base – twentieth century to twenty first
xi)
The
Development of specialist supporting establishments: Ordnance sites:
xii)
The
Development of specialist supporting establishments: Victualling: Royal
Clarence Yard
xiii)
The
Development of specialist supporting establishments Medical treatment: earlier
hospitals and
xiv)
The
Development and Significance of Dockyard buildings – dry docks, ropery,
storehouses, workshops, foundry, shipbuilding sheds, small boat building and
repair
xv)
The
Development and Significance of Dockyard buildings – houses, offices, chapel,
education
xvi) The Development
and Significance of the Submarine service
xvii) The Development
of towns around
xviii)
Planned
urban developments in the nineteenth century:
Alverstoke and Owen’s Southsea; Ryde
xix) The
Significance of military and naval monuments and memorials around
xx)
The
Collections of the
Royal Armouries (Fort Nelson), Portsmouth City Museum,
Gosport Discovery Centre, Westbury Manor Museum, Charles Dickens’s Birthplace,
Cumberland House Museum, Eastney Pumping Station – and their links to the
history of Portsmouth Harbour and Spithead
xxi)
The Significance of the Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior 1860 and
xxii)
Twentieth century technical and technological innovation:
Admiralty Research Establishment, Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment,
Qinetic
c)
Form
and Date of Most Recent Records of Property
d)
e)
Policies
and Programmes Related to the Presentation and Promotion of the Property
4. Management
a) Interests
and Ownership
b)
Legal
Status
c)
Protective
Measures and Means of Implementing Them
d)
Agencies
with Management Authority
e)
Level
at which Management is Exercised
f)
Agreed
Plans Related to the Property
g)
Sources
and Levels of Finance
h)
Sources
of Expertise and Training in Conservation and Management Techniques
i)
Visitor
Facilities and Statistics
j)
Property
Management Plan and Statement of Objectives
k)
Staffing
levels
5. Factors Affecting the Property
a) Development Pressures
b) Environmental Pressures – above ground;
underwater
c) Natural Disasters
d) Visitor/Tourist Pressures
e) Number of Inhabitants within the Property
and Buffer Zone
f) Transport Pressures
6. Monitoring
a) Key Indicators for Measuring State of
b) Administrative Arrangements for Monitoring
Property
c) Results of Previous Reporting Exercises
7. Documentation
a) Photographs, Slides and Video
b) Copies of Property Management Plans and
Extracts of other Plans Relevant to the
Property
c) Bibliography
d) Addresses where Inventory Records and
Archives are Held
8. Signature on Behalf of State Party
Acknowledgements*
David Brims, Hiscock Gallery
Plan of Her Majesty’s Dockyard Royal Naval Museum
“From hence, we descend
gradually to
“Before any ships attempt to
enter this port by sea, they must also pass the cannon of the main platform of
the garrison, and also another at South-Sea-Castle; so that it is next to
impossible that any ships could match the force of all those cannon, and be
able to force their way into the harbour…”
“As to the strength of the town
by land, the works are very large and numerous, and besides the battery at the
Point aforesaid, there is a large hornwork on the south-side, running out
towards South-Sea Castle; there is also a good counter-scarp, and double moat,
with ravelins in the ditch, and double pallisadoes , and advanced works to
cover the place from any approach, when it may be practicable. The strength of
the town is also considerably augmented on the land-side, by the fortifications
raised in King William’s time about the docks and yards, which are now
perfected, and those parts made a particular strength by themselves. These docks and yards are now like a town by
themselves, and are a kind of marine corporation, or a government of their own
kind within themselves; there being particular large rows of dwellings, built
at the public charge, within the new works, for all the principal officers of
the place. The tradesmen likewise have
houses here, and many of the labourers are allowed to live in the bounds as
they can get lodging.”
The town of Portsmouth, besides
its being a fortification, is a well inhabited, thriving, prosperous
corporation; and hath been greatly enriched of late by the fleet’s having so
often and so long lain there, as well as large fleets of merchantmen, as the
whole navy during the late war; besides the constant fitting out of men here,
and the often paying them at Portsmouth, has made a great confluence of people
thither on their private business, with other things, which the attendance of
those fleets hath required. These things
have not only been a great advantage to the town, but has really made the whole
place rich, and the inhabitants of Portsmouth are quite another sort of people
than they were a few years before the Revolution; it may be said, there is as
much to do at Portsmouth now in time of peace, as there was then in time of
war, and more so.”
“…The inhabitants indeed
necessarily submit to such things as are the consequence of a garrison town,
such as being examined at the gates, such as being obliged to keep garrison
hours, and not be let out, or let in after nine o’clock at night, and the like;
but these are things no people will count a burthen, where they get their bread
by the very situation of the place, as is the case here. “ Daniel Defoe A Tour through the Whole Island of
‘The English royal dockyards, victualling
yards and hospitals formed what are arguably the largest industrial centres in
Britain before the Industrial Revolution, while their economic impact was out
of all proportion to their size’ (Coad
1989).
By the middle of the eighteenth century the
royal dockyards and the navy had become 'by a large margin the largest
industrial organisation in the western world’ (Rodger 1986).
1. Identification of Property
!a) Country
b) State, Province or Region
c) Name of Property
d) Exact Location on Map and Indication of
Geographic Co-ordinates to the Nearest Second*
The Site
includes parts of the City of Portsmouth, Gosport Borough Council, Fareham
Borough Council and the Isle of Wight Council, in the South East Region of
England approximately 75 miles south-south west of London, the country’s
capital city.
The
Site contains two adjacent bodies of water:
It
includes the islands in
The
Northern Boundary includes Forts Southwick, Purbrook, Southwick and Nelson on
the brow of Portsdown Hill
Fort
Purbrook 50 51.2N 01 02.2W
Fort Nelson 50 51.6N 01 08.1W
Fort Fareham 50 50.5N 01 11.0W
Fort Elson 50 49.3N 01 08.8W
Fort Brockhurst50 48.8N 01 09.0W
Fort Rowner 50 48.4N 01 09.2W
Fort Grange 50 47.8N 01 09.5W
No 2 Battery 50 47.1N 01 09.8W
The
Southern Boundary includes Southsea seafront from Old Portsmouth to
Western
Boundary: Hill Head to Fishbourne Creek in the Isle of Wight, along the contour
of Ryde and Appley to include the seashore, including Puckpool Battery to
Seaview High Street.
The
Eastern Boundary runs from Seaview High Street, through No Mans Land and Horse
Sands Fort to the eastern edge of
e) Boundary of Nominated Site and Proposed
Buffer Zone
The boundary of
the nominated site is shown on Plan 2.
The nominated
site is divided into the following twenty areas shown on Plan 3
*Plan 1 Maps of
Western Europe, the
Plan 2 Location Plan of
*Plan
3 Plan of the Nominated Site divided into twentysix areas
- The Natural Environment of the Nominated Site
- The Archaeology of the Nominated Site
- Area 1
Underwater and intertidal zone –
- Area 2
Underwater and intertidal zone
-
- Area 3
- Area 4 H
M Naval Base
- Area 5
Preserved ships
· Mary Rose
· HMS Victory
· HMS Warrior 1860
· 25
· HMS Minerva and other Twentieth Century ships
- Area 6
Old
- Area
- Area 8
- Area 9
Fort Blockhouse and
- Area
- Area 11
Cams Hall
- Area 12
Priddy’s Hard
- Area 13
Alverstoke and
- Area 14
Royal Clarence Yard
- Area 15
Sea Forts and Puckpool
- Area 16
Portsdown Hill: Palmerston Forts and
- Area 17
Gunboat Yard and Ship Testing Tanks
- Area 18
Ryde
- Area 19
Southsea Seafront and
- Area 20
Fareham Creek
- Area 21
- Area 22
- Area 23
HMS Daedalus and HMS Siskin/HMS Sultan
· Area 24 Shipping and ferries
*The
proposed Buffer Zone is shown on Plan 4
The proposed
Buffer Zone has been developed to ensure that future development in the setting
of the nominated site respects the values of the nominated site. The boundaries of the proposed buffer zone
will be confirmed through a process of stakeholder consultation, during the
on-going production of the World Heritage Site Management Plan.
f) Area of Property
*The area of the
nominated site is approximately ha
*The area of the
buffer zone is approximately ha
*Plan 5 The Nominated Site, the Buffer Zone, Natural
Features, Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
2. Justification for Inscription
W L Wyllie
“ …it was April
in its mild air, brisk soft wind, and bright sun, occasionally clouded for a
minute; everything looked so beautiful under the influence of such a sky; the
effects of the shadows pursuing each other on the ships at Spithead and the
island beyond, with the ever-varying hues of the sea, now at high water,
dancing in its glee and dashing against the ramparts with so fine a sound … “:
Spithead as Fanny Price, Jane Austen’s heroine, saw it
In
2A Statement of Significance
Introduction
Portsmouth
Harbour, Spithead and the Isle of Wight as the first Cultural Seascape to be
inscribed on the World Heritage List
Statement of universal value
Spithead
and
The great
natural
The site’s human history is in its
geography: the combination of sheltered anchorage and large harbour easy to
defend from enemy attack around its narrow entrance was why the Romans
constructed Portchester Castle at the head of the harbour from 380 AD as one of
Forts of the Saxon Shore, their largest fortress in
northwest Europe. A Romanesque keep
and church were added in the 11th century. From the seventeenth century
The historic
towns of Fareham and
Over the last
four centuries,
In the
nineteenth century a ring fortress was constructed: massive land forts
encircling the harbour along Portsdown Hill and in Fareham and
‘The
English royal dockyards, victualling yards and hospitals formed what are
arguably the largest industrial centres in Britain before the Industrial
Revolution, while their economic impact was out of all proportion to their
size’ (Coad 1989).
By the middle
of the eighteenth century the royal dockyards and the navy had become 'by a
large margin the largest industrial organisation in the western world’ (Rodger
1986).
There are
several technological world firsts associated with the harbour and its
surroundings. The most important is
Block Mills, where the world’s first steam—powered mass production factory
using metal machine tools was developed by Marc Brunel, Henry Maudeslay, Simon
Goodrich and others. Simon Goodrich
devised the world’s first steam powered dredger.
Also in
The
ship-testing tanks in Haslar,
In 1910 Grange
Airfield, already in War Office ownership and manned by the Royal Artillery,
was developed on flat land between Fort Rowner and Fort Grange for experiments
in ‘heavier than air’ flight, using a towed bi-plane wing built at the United
Services College Windsor. The wind
tunnel in Fort Grange was used to test aircraft stability curves on aerofoil
sections under the direction of Dr. A P Thurston (The History of
The Whitehead
torpedo was developed in the diving lake at
James Lind
(1716-1794) Chief Physician at
Portsmouth’s
green seafront Southsea Common was for centuries the assembly point for armies
and naval forces departing for war, preserving it - as a field of fire - from
development until 1922, when it was purchased by Portsmouth Corporation. It is now listed as a historic landscape.
D-Day
in June 1944, the world’s greatest seaborne invasion was co-ordinated at
Southwick House just to the north of Portsdown Hill; a large part of the
invasion forces assembled in the area and left from Portsmouth dockyard – as
did the Falklands Task Force in 1982.
War
Cemeteries: Haslar Hospital cemetery and the cemetery in Clayhall Road Gosport
contain
significant memorials to British and foreign naval personnel. Southsea and Gosport seafronts and Victoria
Park
Preserved
ships: Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior 1860 and Holland I represent key
developments in warship design. Mary
Rose was raised from the Solent seabed in 1984; significant historic wrecks
including Invincible, Edgar and Royal Sovereign and other important underwater
heritage are identified in
Ryde,
Alverstoke and Southsea have significant Regency and early Victorian planned
developments, including Owen’s Southsea, an early garden suburb developed by
Thomas Ellis Owen from 1830-60, his Alverstoke Crescent and communal garden in
Gosport, has been restored by the local community, as was Vernon Square in Ryde
and the Porter’s Garden in HM Naval Base.
The role of
The history of Portsmouth
Harbour and Spithead is in its geography: the combination of sheltered
anchorage and large harbour easy to defend from enemy attack around its narrow
entrance was why the Romans constructed Portchester Castle at the head of the
harbour from 380 AD as one of Forts of the Saxon Shore, and also why the
harbour developed as a major British naval base for the world-wide British
Empire. The history of
Together they merit
international recognition for their rich and varied maritime cultural heritage,
a unique ensemble of defence installations.
The theme of the proposal is ‘Defence of the Realm’. The Royal Navy continues to defend
Development
of
In the twelfth century
Jonathan
Coad
*The Industrial Revolution
‘Britain
was the first country to undergo radical industrial transformation…not marked
by a single event;…it had its origins in cultural, social and economic shifts
that occurred throughout Britain and Europe during the early and mid-eighteenth
century’ Maritime Mercantile City
Liverpool Nomination of Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City for Inscription of
the World Heritage List 200?.
‘By the middle of the eighteenth century the royal dockyards and the navy
had become 'by a large margin the largest industrial organisation in the
western world’
(Nicholas Rodger 1986).
* Tradition of
Technological Innovation in Portsmouth Dockyard and supporting installations
Examples of outstanding
innovation in dockyards – government establishments - perhaps reached a peak in
‘The English royal dockyards, victualling
yards and hospitals formed what are arguably the largest industrial centres in
Britain before the Industrial Revolution, while their economic impact was out
of all proportion to their size’
(Jonathan Coad 1989).
“Given the enormous scale
of naval dockyards in the eighteenth century, making them unequivocally the
largest industrial enterprises in the country, it is to be expected that they
would have had an important impact upon contemporary innovation. The part played by Dummer and later Bentham
in dock design and caissons, and by Marc Brunel and Maudslay in machine tool
manufacture and the establishment of the principles of production engineering
in the
*Development of wrought iron
“It was the demand for quality iron by
dockyards that gave rise to the development of wrought iron, the base metal of
the industrial revolution, by the private.
Inevitably during the nineteenth century wrought iron was much used in
both ships and dockyard buildings, as Malcolm Tucker illustrates for Pembroke
Dock….”One instance is that of Henry Cort, a little known ironmaster in a small
way of business, but who by virtue of the demand for wrought iron at Portsmouth
dockyard, successfully introduced two innovations which, according to one
commentator ‘together founded British industrial supremacy in iron manufacture
for the next (19th) century’ ( K T Rowland Eighteenth Century
Inventions David and Charles 1974 p.19.)
The opinion is echoes by such notable
industrial historians as HW Dickenson (HW
Dickenson ‘Henry Cort’s bicentennary’ Transactions of the Newcomen
Society XXI 1940-1, 20). Doubtless
Cort’s innovations would eventually have been made by others in his absence,
but the fact remains that the timing of his work was driven by demand in a
state enterprise, enabling production of wrought iron, the fundamental metal of
the industrial revolution, to increase more rapdly at an earlier date than
would otherwise have been the case…..It is clear that Cort was concerned with
methods of reducing costs and of improving quality, and indeed his experiments
led Boulton and Watt to describe him as ‘a brother projector’ (TK Derry and
Trevor I. Williams A Short History of Technology Oxford University Press
1960 477). The outcome was two
innovations for which he was to become famous.
A traditional tilt hammer used to raise the quality of the metal and to
shape it as it cooled was theoretically capable of producing I ton of bars in a
12 hour period. What Cort did was to
employ grooved rollers to shape the metal, in so doing achieving an enormous
leap in productivity, for at least in theory he was able to fashion 15 tons of
bars every 12 hours. …the gentler
process of rolling in place of hammering resulted in a grain structure giving a
stronger product. (RA Mott Henry Cort: the Great Finer. Creator of Puddled
Iron The Metals Society 1983 40).
The rollers were certainly in place by December 1782 when Watt wrote to
Boulton on the subject of their existence following a visit from Cort. Cort was granted a patent for the system on
17 January 1`783. The implications for
the entire metal manufacturing industry need hardly be stated. That a patent had been issued in 1728 to a
John Payne for grooved rollers in iron bar manufacture, improbably powered by a
windmill, and that similar rollers may have been employed in Sweden in 1745 by
Christoph Polhem, might be regarded as undermining Cort’s inventiveness, even
if Payne’s rollers were put into operation, but the fact remains that Cort was
certainly the first to utilise the method commercially in Britain.”
“Cort’s second invention concerned the
refining of cast or pig iron, made in a blast furnace, to produce wrought
iron. The traditional method was to heat
cast iron in a furnace in which the impurities in the coal were allowed to mix
with the metal, which was then hammered to remove carbon, the whole process
being repeated many times. …Cort
modified the design of the furnace to allow a workman to stir the metal by
means of a rod to facilitate exposure to the air, which combined with the
carbon in the metal to form carbon monoxide, to improving quality. The metal was then said to be decarburized.
…The advantage of puddling over the use of pots in which only some of the metal
was exposed to the atmosphere is clear; additionally puddling greatly speeded
up manufacture, at the same time reducing price and raising quality. Cort’s patent for this economic panacea was
granted on 13 February 1784. Between
1783 and 1786 iron made at Funtley for use in mooring chains, anchors, hooks,
and ships’ bolts was extensively tested at
*Steam powered Mass
Production
Block Mills is the site of a
world first: the first steam powered mass production factory using metal
machine tools to make the hundreds of thousands of pulley blocks required by
sailing ships. It was developed by a
constellation of brilliant engineers led by Marc Isambard Brunel, a French
émigré who left his job as Chief engineer to marry
Block Mill & No.s. 35
& 36 Stores (Building No. 1/153)
*Circular saw
*Building Construction
Early uses of cast
iron fire proof construction – Fire Station Fire Station (Building No. 1.77)
Grade II* The Fire Station in
Portsmouth Dockyard, designed by Captain Beatson and Blake, the Master
Shipwright was built in 1843-5 by Bramah and Fox of the London Works Birmingham
to replace the timber tank serving the salt water ring main installed by
Brigadier-General Bentham in 1800. It is an early example of a free standing
iron-framed structure and it represents one of the earliest uses of cast iron
columns in British dockyards (Coad p.23). Two tiers of cast iron columns
with arched girders supported a water tank with a capacity of 840 tons.
It incorporated a feature derived from greenhouse design, the use of the hollow
cast column as a water pipe. Water from the cistern was conveyed into the
ring main through hollow columns placed on either side (Evans 2004 p.49). The
structure was originally open-sided and the space beneath the tank used as a
timber-seasoning shed, though only deal, because oak, especially, produced a
chemical reaction with iron. The space under the tank was originally left
open, but later enclosed in corrugated iron sheet, some of it of very early type.
It has two tiers of classical linked by girders with elliptical lower chords
and open spandrels, including the wrought iron stays added to reinforce the
structure - making the interior a forest of columns. The tank they supported
was removed in 1950Water tower with timber store below and then fire station
1843-44, water tank removed in 1950. the
free standing iron frame tower replaced a wooden structure of about 1800 used
for the salt water main. The water tank
held 840 tons of salt water.
Early
use of large span prefabricated cast iron – Ship Shop No. 3
*Caisson development
No. 1 Basin. The
*Ship-testing tanks
The ship-testing tanks in Haslar,
*Weapons development
The Whitehead torpedo was developed in
*The
Whitehead torpedo circa 1880s onwards - 'The Devil's Device'
"But for the Whitehead
(torpedo), the submarine would remain an interesting toy and but little
more". (Admiral HJ May, 1906).
*Food processing
Freeze drying Royal
Clarence Victualling Yard
Architectural and
Engineering Legacy
*‘The Historic
Dockyard at Portsmouth is of international cultural significance, with numerous
18th and 19th century naval buildings and structures’
(Wessex Institute of Technology p.vi).
Gunwharf, ordnance and victualling establishments developed around the
harbour to service the navy. Defensive structures were built, notably in the
reign of Henry VIII (the Henrician forts, including Southsea Castle), and from
the 1860s the Palmerston ring fortress surrounding the harbour and Spithead to
defend what became the largest industrial establishment in the world in the
eighteenth century. Supporting
establishments were developed around the harbour over many centuries, and were
the site of key technological innovations.
Jonathan Coad
*The Growth of the
‘The British Empire, was, at its
peak, a vast conglomeration of disparate dominions and colonies held together
by Britain’s naval dominance and mercantile strength’ Maritime
Mercantile City Liverpool Nomination of Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City for
Inscription of the World Heritage List 200?
Portsmouth Dockyard and its supporting establishments around the
harbour as a key base for the Royal Navy was a significant factor in the
success of the
Jonathan Coad
b) Comparative Analysis: National and
International
*CC
to write this, using her research
c) Authenticity and Integrity*
d) Criteria under which Inscription is Proposed:
(ii) exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time
or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or
technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;
(iv) be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or
technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s)
in human history;
(v) be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use,
or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human
interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under
the impact of irreversible change;
(vi) to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living
traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of
outstanding universal significance.
Justification for inscription 2A
- The Natural Environment of the Nominated Site
- The Archaeology of the Nominated Site
- Area 1
Underwater and intertidal zone –
- Area 2
Underwater and intertidal zone
-
- Area 3
- Area 4 H
M Naval Base
- Area 5
Preserved ships
· Mary Rose
· HMS Victory
· HMS Warrior 1860
· 25
· HMS Minerva and other Twentieth Century ships
- Area 6
Old
- Area
- Area 8
- Area 9
Fort Blockhouse and
- Area
- Area 11
Cams Hall
- Area 12
Priddy’s Hard
- Area 13
Alverstoke and
- Area 14
Royal Clarence Yard
- Area 15
Sea Forts and Puckpool
- Area 16
Portsdown Hill: Palmerston Forts and
- Area 17
Gunboat Yard and Ship Testing Tanks
- Area 18
Ryde
- Area 19
Southsea Seafront and
- Area 20
Fareham Creek
- Area 21
- Area 22
- Area 23
HMS Daedalus and HMS Siskin/HMS Sultan
· Area 24 Shipping and ferries
Area
3
The best preserved Roman
fortress in North West Europe and a key site for World Heritage
designation. Built by the Romans about
280AD to defend
The village of Wymering nearby
was a very early Saxon settlement on the important road along the south coast.
The Portsmouth Society helped the campaign to keep Wymering Manor, the oldest
house in
The Norman king Henry 1100 -
1333 transformed the Roman fortress into a castle. He used
Area 4 H M Naval Base
HMS Warrior 1860, Watering Island, Chain Test House,
King’s Stairs, Semaphore Tower, Storehouses 9-11, Boathouse No.4, Ropery, No. 1
Basin
The
history of the naval base and of past and present buildings and engineering
structures is described in detail in Wessex Archaeology’s two volumes
(2004). ‘The
development and growth of the dockyard has continued to be a response to
external political conditions and real or perceived military threats (and
ambitions), as well as strategic judgements about the merits of the different
dockyards around the coast’ [
Wessex
Archaeology Map showing approximate date
of construction of extant buildings and docks in part of HM Naval Base
No.
6 Boathouse, Hemp House and Ropery, Mary Rose shiphall (top left) Celia Clark
Victory
Gate and Dockyard wall
Grade II*. The
Former
Detention Centre (
Grade
II. Former cell block of 1882-3, two
storeys in red brick, with a passage along the north-west side with entrances
to six brick vaulted cells with think doors with spy-holes. Staircase removed when Victory Gate was
widened; row of cells above with cast iron lavatory fittings on seaward end.
Porter’s Lodge
(1708)
Grade
II* Largely as built, the Porter’s Lodge is the oldest surviving building in
the dockyard, though not the oldest extant dockyard building used by the Royal
Navy, which is the Officers’ Terrace at Devonport of 1696 - almost destroyed by
WWII bombing. The employment of a dockyard porter was initiated in 1649 by the
first Admiralty Commissioner for
Visitor
Reception Centre 1993-4
New
building designed by John Winter & Associates, a contemporary design ‘to
echo some of the more striking features of the industrial buildings in the
Dockyard. Constructed in galvanized steel framing with a glazed outer skin, it
has a shallow pitched roof covered in corrugated metal and low emissivity
double glazing set in metal frames. The
rear of the building was converted from a gift shop to a coffee shop in
2001. It provides a comfortable space
for visitors to discover what is on offer, gather information and purchase
tickets’ (Portsmouth Naval Base Property
Trust 2007).
Boathouse No. 4
1938-40
Celia Clark
A C20
addition to the earlier boathouses Boathouse 4 was built in the run up to WWII
for the maintenance and repair of small motor craft up to 40 tons. It was not
technically innovative for its date, nor is it considered by Wessex Archaeology
‘as stylish as some contemporary civilian factory buildings, but it does
demonstrate naval adoption of contemporary building technology and the
‘international modern’ style. It is the
only boathouse known to have been constructed in a home dockyard during the
rapid rearmament period of the late 1930s.
Historically it stands testimony to that crucial period, and indeed to
the outbreak of war itself. Thus it is a
significant C20 contribution to the overall history of the dockyard and a rare
example of Naval architecture from a period which mostly comprised dock
widening. In a more practical sense it
protects the space and the older buildings to the east from sea winds’ (Wessex
Archaeology Appendix 1). The soaring
interior was built round four massive cranes. It has an internal steel frame
and ferro-concrete perimeter walls to three sides. The south side has a ‘temporary’ elevation of
corrugated iron dating from May 1940.
The building was planned to extend to Victory Gate in two phases, but
construction was interrupted by the outbreak of WWII and only the first phase
was completed. Its four bays are divided
internally by six steel lattice pillars.
The concrete floor extends over the sea supported on a substructure of concrete
V beams supported by pre-case concrete piles and caps. The riveted steel roof trusses support a
predominantly saw tooth glazed roof; one bay has a pitched roof. The original large steel windows to three
elevations are still in situ. Internally
the large riveted steel frame construction is exposed, and much natural light
enters the building through the large windows and rooflights. The boathouse was
designed by four in-house engineers in the Civil Engineer-in-Chief’s Office,
Admiralty Department. E A Scott designed
the Modern Movement elevations with their bands of horizontal windows and K F
Buchanan J W D Ball and J Angell the interior structure.. There are two direct
accesses to the sea inside. A tall dock gate opens to the dock 80 feet by 61 feet
where craft could be lifted out and there are two locks to the Mast Pond
behind. During WWII the boathouse was
used for the manufacture of midget submarines and D-Day landing craft for June
1944 as well as some experimental work.
During the Cold War, it was used for servicing and re-fitting small
craft, although by 1995 this requirement had disappeared and the building
ceased to be operational. In 1999 the mast pond lock gates were renewed. It is currently used to restore the
collection of small boats and other items belonging to Portsmouth Naval Base
Property Trust and for special events such as the Victorian Christmas Fair and
film-making. In 2007 Eric Parry
Associates designed a new future for it commissioned by the Naval Base Property
Trust.
Proposed extension of Boathouse 4 Eric Parry
Associates
Chain & Cable Test House and Store (Building
No. 1/41) South Railway Jetty, Watering
Grade II Naval chain
and cable test house and store with capstan and chain haulage-way on north
side. Large single-storey building in
red and brown brick, mid C20 work in pink brick. The building was designed to be fireproof.
The interior has a cast iron frame of two aisles and a wooden block and granite
setts floor, with haulage ways of iron ballast castings bearing the arrowhead
design and letters ‘
The
original
The
Grade
II. Cast-iron frame railway shelter of 1885 with 7 bays, built for the Royal
Family’s comfort and convenience when leaving and boarding trains arriving in
the dockyard from a spur from
Railway Station
& Waiting Room - South Railway Jetty (Building No. 1.47)
Grade
II. Railway station and waiting room of
1888 in redbrick with cast-iron columns supporting the wooden canopy.
Kings
Stairs
Earliest
part of the dockyard, originally called Coopers Jetty - where the barrels or
casks made at Clarence Yard cooperage were delivered. Renamed the King’s Stairs
after King George III in 1794 after the
Statue of
Grade
II. Designed by his widow, Lady Katherine
Scott in bronze; granite and concrete plinth.
Statue of
William II
Grade
II, dated 1718 by Van Noss: gilt, aslar plnth and concrete podium. Originally stood on parade ground in front of
Long Row then in front of Admiralty House, moved to Main Road and then to
College Road to the end of the Porter’s Garden.
Porter’s Garden
Modern
Millennium garden designed and planted by volunteer members of the Hampshire
Gardens Trust
Navy Pay Office
(Building No. 1/11)
Grade
II. Former Pay Office reputedly 1796 extended in
1808 by Edward Holl in brick vaulting supported by cast iron columns, strong
room and safe. Originally two storeys,
now one, it is one of the earliest fireproof buildings in the south of
Royal Naval
Academy (Buildings No.1/14, 1/16-19)
Grade
II* 1732 Education became increasingly
important: naval academies such as those in Portsmouth, Poros, and Den Helder -
offered education to officers, and the wide range of skilled craftsmen were
trained through sought after apprenticeships and training schools. The finest
educational building in the British dockyards is the first
Admiralty House
(Building No. 1.20) and attached railings,
Grade II*. By the middle of the eighteenth century the
Commissioners at
Grade
II. Also known as the School for
Superior Apprentices, it was built in 1815-17 in yellow brick with limestone
dressings in two storeys with a cellar.
Some panelled window and door reveals survive but the principal feature
is the central imperial stair. The
building provided classrooms and accommodation for up to 25 apprentice shipwrights.
No. 5 Boathouse
(Buildings Nos. 1/27 and 1/28)
Grade
II. Few early British boathouses survive;
but of those that do, the Chatham Lower Boat Store of 1844 and No. 5 of 1882 on site of earlier boathouse and
No.7 of 1885 in
Mast Pond,
Docks 1-6, Quay walls and bollards including N & S Camber, Mast Pond and
tunnel (under Boathouse4).
Grade
I 1665, mostly mid C18-early C19 with C19 and C20 repairs. A complete complex of late C18 and early C19
ship building and repairing docks, with associated quay walls and mooring
fixtures such as bollards and fairleads.
The basin and docks are on eh site of the late C15 dockyard, the
existing basin incorporates parts of the 1690 basin. Quayside capstans were originally steam
powered till converted to compressed air early in the C.20. Noted by Coad as “the finest surviving group
of such C18 structures in
No. 7 Boathouse
(Building No. 1/29)
Grade
II. Mast house of 1875 then boathouse,
built over the Mast Pond on the site of an earlier boathouse. Timber framed with weatherboard cladding.
Restored and converted in 1993-4 ‘to multi-use including a 400-seat restaurant,
children’s adventure play facilities, an education area, the Dockyard
Apprentice exhibition, and a gift shop.
All partitions were restricted in height to preserve the sense of
openness and to give visitors a better understanding of the building’s purpose. This was further enhanced by the paint stains
on the wooden floor which were left as testimony to many years of boat repair
work. The Trust replaced the corrugated
iron roof with grey slate, similar to its original roof material (Naval Base
Property Trust 2007)
Ropery, No. 15
Store (Building No. 1/62) Anchor Lane
Grade
II* Listed 13/08/99
Hemp
House No. 17 Store (Building No. 1/64)
Grade II* Dated 1781 red brick
three storey with cannon barrel bollards at NW and SW corners of building.
St. Ann’s
Church, (Building No. 1/65)
Listed
Grade 11, the first chapel inside
Nos. 18 & 19 Stores Stony Lane
Grade
II*. Known as the Double Ropehouse and
Hatchelling House. Hemp Store of 1771,
linking bridge late C18 to early C19, the double ropehouse of 1771-75 was
remodelled as a storehouse in 1868. No.
19 Store is two storeys and No. 18, the former ropehouse which is 1095 feet
long has three storeys and an attic.
This is the sixth great ropehouse to stand on the site since 1665.
Short Row Buildings Nos. 10-14
Grade II (1787), a terrace of
five redbrick houses, three storeys and a basement, with a Portland stone first
floor band course, was built under the supervision of Thomas Telford. No. 14 has a large amount of original
fittings still in place. Attached
railings and garden walls are included in the listing.
Fire Station (Building No. 1.77)
Grade II* The Fire Station in
Portsmouth Dockyard, designed by Captain Beatson and Blake, the Master
Shipwright was built in 1843-5 by Bramah and Fox of the London Works Birmingham
to replace the timber tank serving the salt water ring main installed by
Brigadier-General Bentham in 1800. It is an early example of a free standing
iron-framed structure and it represents one of the earliest uses of cast iron
columns in British dockyards (Coad p.23). Two tiers of cast iron columns
with arched girders supported a water tank with a capacity of 840 tons.
It incorporated a feature derived from greenhouse design, the use of the hollow
cast column as a water pipe. Water from the cistern was conveyed into the
ring main through hollow columns placed on either side (Evans 2004 p.49). The
structure was originally open-sided and the space beneath the tank used as a
timber-seasoning shed, though only deal, because oak, especially, produced a
chemical reaction with iron. The space under the tank was originally left
open, but later enclosed in corrugated iron sheet, some of it of very early type.
It has two tiers of classical linked by girders with elliptical lower chords
and open spandrels, including the wrought iron stays added to reinforce the
structure - making the interior a forest of columns. The tank they supported
was removed in 1950Water tower with timber store below and then fire station
1843-44, water tank removed in 1950. the
free standing iron frame tower replaced a wooden structure of about 1800 used
for the salt water main. The water tank
held 840 tons of salt water.
The Parade Nos.
1-9
Grade II* The Parade (or Long
Row) was built in 1717, In Portsmouth dockyard, domestic buildings are as grand
as their civilian equivalents, whilst Admiralty House is by Samuel Wyatt
1782-66 (Lloyd 1974 p.66; Wessex Archaeology 2003 p.91). A plain brick
terrace for nine Principal Officers, The Parade or Long Row almost certainly
designed by master shipwrights in a traditional square plan, in red brick with
recessed panels, was built between 1710 and 1715, in three storeys with a
basement and panelled parapet. Between 1770 and 1840 the west elevation
was stuccoed with plain coursing joints. At about the same time, enclosed
glazed entrance porches approached via a short flight of steps were
added. To the rear of each house, which is still in the original brick,
were detached kitchens and servants' quarters in long gardens. When the houses
were complete the Navy Board ordered that the old houses should be taken down
with care 'so that the material might be reused...in building four additional
houses'. Economy rather than conservation was presumably the reason for this
example of architectural salvage.
Commissioner's
Grade II. Dockyard
Commissioner’s stables of 1740, two storey red brick and some C18 panelling on
both floors; C.19 and C20 alterations.
Grade II* Spithead House
(renamed Mountbatten House) was remodelled at right angles to the southern end
of the Parade in
an ice house of
c.1840 in the garden.
Iron and Brass Foundry (Building No. 1.142)
Grade II (1854) In red brick, it has two tiers of recessed
round-headed windows emphasised in banded brick rustication. The
patternmaker's shop is on the top floor with a cleverly constructed water tank
above which is an early sprinkler system. The building ceased to be used as a
foundry in the 1980s; in 2004 it was converted to an office and laboratory by
BAe systems.
The handsome Vanbrugh-style
Dock No.8 & Dock No. 11 1863
Dockyard Laboratory 1848
Grade II*. A major advance in technology is represented by
No.6 Boathouse at the back of the
The conventional exterior of the boathouse contains one of
the earliest buildings to use load-bearing iron framed construction on such a
massive and sophisticated scale. Its great glory is the dramatic interior of
massive iron columns supporting the shorter spans with arched girders and the
longer ones with trussed girders. The timber floor boards rest on cast
iron joists. The magnificent ground
floor has a regular march of cast iron columns, cast iron segmental arch beams
across short spans and cast iron trussed beams for the wider spans to enable
the upper floors to store small craft. The cast iron beams have wrought
iron tie bars tensioned to resist bending.
‘Each girder is trussed with iron tie bars of the designed used by
Robert Stephenson in some of his early bridges’ (Wessex Archaeology Appendix
1). Instructions on the beams state:
‘The load on each girder should not exceed 40 tons equally distributed over its
length’ (Riley 1985,16) - far exceeding the weight of ships’ boats at the
time. The building was in fact massively over-engineered. ‘Probably
one of the last uses of trussed beams before the
Opening Banquet inside No. 6 Boathouse 1845
Storehouses 9,
10 and 11
The British 'functional
tradition' of large scale late Georgian buildings of brick and timber
construction had its origins in the ropehouses and storehouses of the naval
dockyards, exemplified as a group and in their scale, by the surviving
buildings at Portsmouth (Wessex Archaeology 2003 p.89).
A huge variety of raw materials
and goods needed to be stored in the English dockyards: "hemp from the
Baltic, iron from
and repair of ships.
In
Mary Rose.
Built
as a part of the major programme of reconstruction of the dockyard in 1760, when wooden storehouses were replaced by more
substantial ones in brick. No 9 1772, No
19 1776 central, plus cupola, No 11 1763 prototype (Riley 1985). Handsome Palladian style in Fareham red brick
and Portland stone dressings to store hemp from the Baltic, iron from
Build
by
The
young Thomas Telford, the great Scottish engineer, worked on the storehouses,
possibly as a stonemason. On June 8 2007
a plaque to him was unveiled by the President of the Institution of Civil
Engineers South East branch.
Listed
Grade I. No. 10 restored and reconstruction
of the Clock Tower in 1991-2, and No. 11 restored by Portsmouth Naval Base
Property Trust from 1988-1992
Victory Gallery
South Office
Block In 1786 the west wing of what is now the South Office Block was built,
the earliest surviving example of specialist dockyard offices in
At Gunwharf on
No.
1 Basin
Examples of outstanding
innovation in dockyards perhaps reached a peak in
Block
Mill & No.s. 35 & 36 Stores (Building No. 1/153)
Grade I. Site of a world first: the first steam
powered mass production factory using metal machine tools to make the hundreds
of thousands of pulley blocks required by sailing ships. It was developed by a constellation of
brilliant engineers led by Marc Isambard Brunel, a French émigré who left his
job as Chief engineer to marry
Coad 2006
Site
of No 3 Ship Shop
“The mighty No. 3 Ship Shop” was
built of prefabricated iron parts made in
No
2 Steam Basin
Many navies
developed considerable manufacturing capacity inside the yards, especially of
rope. This was replaced by wire for hawsers from the 1850s. Foundries
with their associated pattern shops and moulding floors, smitheries, chain
testing shops and sail- and colour-lofts in large yards employed thousands of
skilled people. Steam engine factories and associated basins were developed.
Nasmyth’s steam hammers were introduced, first based on his design in
Opened in 1848 by Queen
Parallel to the steam basin is
the No. 2 Ship Shop of 1847-9 in the style of Vanbrugh to construct ships’
steam engines. Immense façade 25 bays in
red brick with Portland stone dressings.
More elaborate decorations including pediments and stone quoins every
fifth bay: “the Architecture of Power, truly symbolising the strength of the
Navy in its nineteenth century heyday” Lloyd 1974.
Construction
of C Lock ?
No.
3 Basin – the Great Extension
North
Wall of dockyard
Area 6 Old
Spur
Redoubt
Small triangular fortification
1680 by Sir Bernard de Gomme to strengthen a vulnerable area in the
fortifications of
Royal
Garrison Church
Originally a Pilgrim’s hospice
founded about 1212. Charles II married
Catherine of Braganza, Portuguese Princess in 1662. Nave badly damaged by bombing in 1941, roof
completely destroyed. Open to sky as a
tribute to those who lost their lives.
In care of English Heritage.
Saluting
Platform an 10 Gun
Constructed late 15th century to
provide elevated gun sights near harbour mouth.
Outline of main guardhouse visible in Grand Parade where troops
assembled for attendance at Garrison Church.
Nelson’s stature moved in 2006 from further east to commemorate the
200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar 1805.
10 Gun battery adapted in C18
C19 to serve as additional defence with 10 guns.
Designed as a gun platform in
1494. One of
Victoria
Pier on site of earlier jetty from which gunpowder, and later meat, was
ferried to wooden ships anchored at
Gradually becoming more
sandy. Defended by Flanking
Sallyports
Sallyports are openings in the
fortifications gave access to the beach and the sea. Often used by sailors waiting with their
boats for orders.
18
Gun
The last section of Sir Bernard
de Gomme’s fortifications to be completed in the 1680s. Although this is
disputed, some associate the name Hot Walls with the battery - where hot shot
was said to be prepared during the Spithead Mutiny of 1797.
Round
Tower
Built in 1415 to defend the
narrowest part of the harbour. Henry V
ordered construction of the tower and another across the harbour in Gosport
after the French had attacked
Tower
House
Home of renowned marine artist
William Wyllie. The green spire is based on a village church in
Capstan
Square: cross-harbour chain
Links of the Tudor chain were
discovered in the beach below the round tower in the 1930s - now on display in
Southsea castle. In the early 20th century, a steam powered floating pontoon
was installed opposite Blackhorse Cottage replacing the chain. The brick engine house is still there in the
sailing club’s yard.
Portsmouth
Cathedral of St. Thomas
‘The
Church of St. Thomas à Becket, now the Cathedral at Portsmouth was founded
about 1180, at the instigation of John de Gisors, a merchant who had interests
in the incipient port, as well as, probably, in London. It was in the established parish of St. Mary,
Portsea (whose small rural church stood in the middle of
The architecture of the chancel
(now the sanctuary of the enlarged Cathedral) is, in many ways, unusual. It is small in scale but has a decided
monastic, rather than a parochial, quality.
The most remarkable feature is the arrangement of the arches between the
main space of the chancel and the aisles.
These (four on each side) are paired, each pair being contained within a
much wider framing arch (the arches proper are pointed, the framing arch is
rounded). This is an almost unique
arrangement – it is only found elsewhere (in
‘The chancel was originally
stone-vaulted; the present vaulting is a convincing substitute in plaster
executed by the architect Thomas Ellis Owen in 1843. The vaulting of the aisles is, however,
entirely original, with diagonal and transverse ribs, moulded like the arches,
springing from the piers of the arches on one side, and from the tops of
elegant trefoil shafts on the other.
The effect, as one looks along these vaulted aisles, is particularly
satisfying, since each bay is square, the aisle being (roughly at least) as
wide as each of the arches into the chancel.
By contrast, each vaulting bay of the main chancel corresponds in width
with the wider containing arches on either side – a very neat arrangement
possible only with the peculiar system of paired arches at
‘The capitals of the arches and
vaulting shafts are variedly interesting.
Some of them illustrate an early development towards the more realistic
foliage capitals of High Gothic architecture; some are in the shape of slightly
curving spearheads; others resemble ‘spades’ (on playing cards). Other capitals are simply roundly moulded. Much of the detailing in the chancel has
strong affinities with the work carried out in Chichester Cathedral after the
fire of 1186, suggesting that some, at least, of the same craftsmen or
designers worked on both churches. If
this is so, the fact that work on the building of St. Thomas’ started earlier
than that at Chichester suggests that the influence may have been from
Portsmouth (initially Southwick) to Chichester rather than, or as well as, from
Chichester to Portsmouth.’
‘The transepts of
‘The old chancel of