Quick Fire Shell Store (Building 433) Approx. 12M N Of 'A' Magazine, Museum Buildings

This is a shell store, part of a museum complex and formerly an ammunition store, located approximately 12 metres north of 'A' Magazine at Priddy's Hard. The building incorporates a section of the north wall of the former 'A' Magazine enclosure, dating back to 1770-6. The shell store itself was constructed in 1889, with a slate roof supported by timber trusses.

It's a simple gabled structure, with the original magazine enclosure wall forming its southern boundary. The building has ten bays, expressed externally on the north side by piers connected by a brick eaves cornice, creating a series of panels. These panels contain square nine-pane casement windows set within brick voussoirs and stone sills in eight bays, and pairs of plank doors with segmental heads in bays two and eight. The west end features a central pair of recessed doors beneath a gable loading door, now a window with fixed plain glass, and a square twelve-pane window to the left. The south return is plain, with the original wall raised by eight courses of brick to match the new eaves level. The east end has a pair of doors with nine-pane overlights set within a rubbed brick arch, below a small oculus. A blocked nine-pane window is situated to the right. Decorative cast-iron gutters and moulded wood barge boards are also present.

Inside, the building retains original queen-post trusses and lateral sliding derrick cranes incorporated into longitudinal cradling. The rafters have diagonal boarding, all limewashed or painted.

This shell store, constructed around 1889, served as an ammunition store for quick-firing guns used on naval vessels. It is considered the best-preserved example of an ordnance yard shell store, after the 1879 shell store (Building 303). The structure includes a portion of the original magazine enclosure wall and retains its original traveller crane.

The magazines and related structures at Priddy’s Hard date from the late 18th century and reflect the site's expansion from the mid-19th century, related to the development of both land and sea artillery and the navy's transition to new technologies. The site represents a significant legacy of Britain's naval dominance. Further historical details can be found in the description for 'A' Magazine.