Workshop Range N Of No. 244A

839-1/18/238 SOUTHTOWN ROAD 05-AUG-74 SOUTHTOWN AND GORLESTON (East side) Workshop range N of No. 244A (Formerly listed as: SOUTHTOWN ROAD SOUTHTOWN AND GORLESTON 244A and adjoining workshop buildings)

GV II Militia Barracks. 1853-5. Converted to light engineering works 1971. Red brick with Welsh slate roofs. U-shaped plan round a courtyard. One storey. Two sash windows remain to north side,otherwise fenestration is of late C20 casements. Gabled roof, hipped to ends. Internal plan opened out in C20. HISTORY: The Lodges, Barrack Block, Armoury and Workshop survive from the original Board of Ordnance store of 1806-c1815, built to serve the fleet anchored in Yarmouth Roads during the war with France from 1793 to 1815. This was originally planned with parallel ranges of storehouses extending westwards from a quay on the River Yare to enclose a working area which included a small magazine. The probable designer was James Wyatt (1746-1813), Architect to the Board of Ordnance from 1782. One of two barrack blocks survive from its conversion into Militia Barracks in the 1850s, and further alterations to the site were made after its purchase by Coleman's (the food manufacturers) in the 1890s. Some of the Napoleonic buildings, including the storehouses and magazine, were destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.

(Adam Menuge and Andrew Williams, The Royal Ordnance Store, Great Yarmouth, RCHME, 1999 (NBR No. 44260)