Racquet Court, Fulwood Barracks

SD53SW FULWOOD WATLING STREET ROAD (North side)

1023/7/10008 Racquet Court, Fulwood Barracks 29.3.1982

GV II

Racquet court, disused. 1842-1848. Snecked rock-faced sandstone, roofless court and corrugated sheet lean-to roof. Single-depth court with side lean-to and rear heated room. EXTERIOR: single storey; windowless range court. Coped open court has raking side walls up to the rear wall, a round-arched doorway with recessed door and boarded fanlight in the lower side, and on the opposite side a single-storey lean-to with mid C20 windows and outer doors. Coped wall to an enclosed room forms the outer wall, with a square lateral stack. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORY: forms part of the projecting SW comer which gave a field of fire along the W wall. Fives courts were common in barracks for officers' games. The barracks was built in response to anxiety over Chartist agitation. Although the south-east barrack range has been lost, the original barracks plan of 2 parade squares within a defensible perimeter wall is substantially intact, making Fulwood the most complete surviving example in England of the late C18 concept of barracks design. (PSA Drawings Collection, NMR: MCR 58).

Listing NGR: SD5479531526