Fredericks Battery

SU 60 SW CIRCULAR ROAD (North side) 774-1/3/191 HM Naval Base Frederick's Battery

GV II

Part of dockyard sea defence wall. Built 1843-48, under direction of Captain H James, RE; dismantled and re-erected in present position 1867 (Patterson, p28). Coursed squared stone, laid randomly, with ashlar dressings. Approx. 50 metre length of wall with end towers. Towers of 2 stages (to north) and 3 stages (to south), battered, and with round- arched openings (some blocked), and vertical and looped cruciform slits. Wall has walkway backed by parapet wall carried on 7 vaulted casemates (6 segmental-arched, 1 round-arched), the rear wall of each casemate having a blocked rectangular opening, probably coal shute hole (the casements were used as coal stores at one stage), and the central one a large entrance way. Projecting section of walling at right end has slits over 4 round-arched entrances, the 2 at centre blocked, the outer 2 with ashlar tympana carved with date 1886, and cipher. HISTORY: the battery was located originally just to the west of the present No.15 dock (not listed, Patterson, p25). At the time of the re- erection of the battery, it extended to the Round Tower (qv) but the northern end was demolished in 1912 to make way for a rail link (Riley). (Sources: The Buildings of England: Lloyd D: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight: Harmondsworth: 1985: 417 ; The Portsmouth Papers: Riley RC: The Evolution of the Docks & Industrial Buildings in Portsmouth: Portsmouth: 1985: 21, 25, 26 ; A Military Heritage: Patterson BH: A History of Portsmouth & Portsea Town Fortifications: Portsmouth: 1984: 25,28).

Listing NGR: SU6299200361