Empty Package Store (Building 428), Museum Buildings

1137/0/10091 PRIDDY'S HARD 17-APR-09 Empty Package Store (Building 428), Mu seum Buildings

GV II Empty package store. 1896/7. Brick in English bond, slate roof on timber trusses.

A small gabled building, lying parallel with and against the NE end of 'B' Magazine (qv), in 5 bays, with entrance at the N end. At the N end is a pair of plank doors, and the opposite gable has a multi-pane window; the long E side has central plank doors flanked by small 18-pane lights, all to cambered heads with brick headers in three rows, and stone sills.

INTERIOR: has king-post trusses on internal brick piers, with rafters and close boarding; boarded floor. It was originally served by the narrow gauge tramway system.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Prominently sited between the main magazine group and the Camber. These stores are associated with the introduction of shells into naval service, each shell being individually packed into its own wooden box. It is one of a series of such rooms, comprising one of the core group of buildings on this uniquely important site.

The magazines and related structures at Priddy's Hard date from the late 18th century. The site's expansion from the mid 19th century was closely related to the development of land and sea artillery and the navy's transition from the age of sail, powder and solid shot to the Dreadnought class of the early 1900s. Priddy's Hard retains the best-preserved range of structures that relate to this remarkable history of continual enlargement and adaptation, one that encompasses that of Britain's dominance as a sea power on a global scale. For further historical details on this site, see the description for 'A' Magazine.

A small building, but part of the overall magazine operation, and surviving practically unchanged.