Shell Store Approximately 5M Se Of Shell Stores And Transfer Shed (Building 303)

Shell Store, approximately 5 metres south-east of Shell Stores and Transfer Shed (Building 303)

A shell store built in 1879 and extended northwards in 1892. The building is constructed of brick in English bond with a slate roof carried on metal trusses. It is a long, free-standing gabled structure built in 8 bays plus 4 bays (added during the 1892 extension), with the roof trusses carried on internal brick piers.

The gable ends feature a central framed plank door with a brick segmental head, flanked by high-level arched windows containing 12 large panes set in voussoirs with stone sills. A similar central light with a louvred lower section is positioned above, and a small oculus sits at the gable peak. The long sides have seven pairs of evenly spaced 6-pane lights with segmental heads, each pair set to a continuous stone sill. All openings have three rows of brick headers as voussoirs. All lights appear to have an inner armature or second window in small-pane format. The long east side has a central pair of doors and a similar pair in the first bay from the south, with corresponding openings on the west side (though one of these is now blocked). Five evenly spaced steel vents run along the ridge, added in the early 20th century.

The interior originally contained transit cranes, which have been removed, leaving only the metal trusses. An 1892 plan documents the rail transit system that was in place during the northernmost four-bay extension and remained in situ at least until 1899.

The shell store was built in 1879 as part of a major expansion in British naval ordnance requirements. Enlarged in 1892, it represents the most significant surviving example of this building type among ordnance yards, with its plan and form clearly reflecting its function within the site's transit system. The development of complex shell-filling systems at Priddy's Hard was unique nationally, and the survival of such a complete complex is without parallel. Seven shell stores were built around the Camber to house empty cases for individual shell packing and supply to ships, dating from 1859 to the 1890s. This store was part of an integrated system: tramways connected the Powder Pier and the new E Magazine (built 1878-79) to the Shell Filling Room (now demolished) and finally to this Shell Store and its associated pier. Following an explosion at the Shell Filling Room in 1883, shell-filling activities were relocated outside Priddy's Hard's historic fortified boundaries and distributed among several small buildings. This store continued to play a key role in the filling system as it developed through the early 1900s Dreadnought era, situated close to the Shell Stores of 1896-97 and the Mine Store of the same date.