Expense Magazine With Associated Traverse Walls For Shell Filling Rooms

1137/2/140 PRIDDY'S HARD 19-JAN-90 Expense Magazine with associated trave rse walls for Shell Filling Rooms (Formerly listed as: PRIDDY'S HARD READY USE MAGAZINE AND ENCLOSING TRAVE RSE RETAINING WALLS)

GV II Expense magazine, for holding small quantities of powder for use in the shell filling rooms. 1886. Brick in English bond; traverse walls in English garden wall bond.

A small gabled structure, with pair of plank doors to segmental brick head beneath a vent; returns have eaves bands, and the rear a further vent. Drawings (Evans, p.82) show that there is a barrel vault to the building, beneath the outer roofing. Enclosing battered traversed walls are faced with brick to a rubble or concrete core, the tops chamfered; the walls slope down either side of the building, and the traverse front is bowed, its return walls sloping down. Vaulted interior.

HISTORICAL NOTE: A unique surviving example of an ordnance depot expense magazine, with surrounding brick traverse walls, for holding small quantities of powder for use in the nearby Shell Filling Rooms. It forms a functionally integral part of this uniquely important shell-filling complex, relating to the shell filling rooms built outside the eighteenth century defences (qv). The surrounding earthworks are included within the Scheduled Ancient Monument constraint area. 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.