Laboratory Cottages

1137/0/10099 PRIDDY'S HARD 17-APR-09 Laboratory Cottages

GV II

Also Known As: Buildings 216, 217, 404 and 806, PRIDDY'S HARD Workers' cottages, by Colonel Lewis, Commanding Royal Engineer of the Portsmouth District. Stores 1847, altered 1877 and reroofed 1892. Brick in Flemish bond; slate roofs on timber trusses, replacing original flat roof.

A long narrow hipped range in one storey, with one small hipped wing to the rear. The entrance front has two groups of three 12-pane sashes to rubbed brick voussoir heads and stone sills, between which are two framed plank doors to a stone step; to the right the fenestration has been modified, and there are 3 small square lights to a concrete lintel, a 4-panelled door, with 3-pane overlight, and a door flanked by modified sashes. The rear retains good 12-pane sashes to the right of the projecting wing with a single sash, but windows have been modified to the left.

INTERIOR: Originally there were three cottages, each with a small single-room rear wing; the fireplaces and stacks were removed at the 1877 alterations.

HISTORICAL NOTE: This range of small cottages was designed with flat roofs, at the same time the Laboratory buildings (qv). Externally the two left-hand units remain unchanged, both back and front, and the group is of special historic interest as the only such accommodation to survive at any of the ordnance depots. Its later conversion (1877) into a tube and rocket store and subsequent enlargement (1892) directly relates to the unique historical importance of this site, and the manner in which it expanded in order to process new types of naval ordnance in the 19th century ordnance. 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.