Former Artillery Barracks (Building 40), Fulwood Barracks

SD53SW FULWOOD WATLING STREET ROAD (North side )

1023/7/10012 Former Artillery barracks (Building 40), Fulwood 29.3.1982 Barracks

GV II

Infantry barrack. 1842-48, by Major T Foster RE, for the Ordnance Board. Rock-faced sandstone ashlar with ashlar cross-axial ridge stacks and slate roof. Late Georgian style single-depth plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 29-window range. Long range of uneven 1:6:6:7:6:3-window sections divided by coped party walls with a ridge stack, the long sections each with a pair of central ridge stacks, ends slightly recessed. Outer sections have plain ashlar surrounds to doorways with mid C20 doors; original doorways, with canted lintels inscribed from 1-12, to front and rear elevations replaced by windows, end flat-headed and inner segmental-arched windows with 6/6-pane sashes, most replaced by matching late C20 top-hung casements. In the centre are 3 small ground- and first-floor inserted mid C20 windows, probably in a formerly blind wall; tethering hooks survive. Similar rear elevation. 3-window N gable with original doorway and flanking mid C20 casements; S gable obscured by ground floor single storey 2-bay block with a shallow leaded roof INTERIOR: not inspected, but reported to have dogleg stairs from the entrances with metal balusters. HISTORY: One of a matching pair of barracks on either side of Cavalry Square, for either a squadron of cavalry or a demi-battalion of artillery. The central section may have contained stables, with first-floor troop rooms. The barracks was built in response to anxiety over Chartist agitation. Although the south-east barrack range has been lost, the original plan of two parade squares within a defensible perimeter wall is substantially intact, making Fulwood the most complete example in England of the late C18 concept of barracks design. (PSA Drawings Collection, NMR: MCR 58).

Listing NGR: SD5476731759