Shell Filling Rooms, Fuzing Rooms And Associated Traverse Walls, Approx. 60M Sw Of Southern Demi-Bastion To Priddy'S Hard Ramparts

Shell Filling Rooms, Fuzing Rooms and associated traverse walls, approximately 60 metres south-west of the southern demi-bastion to Priddy's Hard Ramparts

A suite of shell filling and fuzing rooms built in 1886-7 to the designs of Colonels Overy and Pridham, Royal Engineers, with a later addition in 1898. The buildings are constructed in brick using English bond with slate roofs on timber trusses.

The complex comprises four small gabled buildings, each approximately 8 metres by 6 metres. Each entrance gable features a central pair of framed plank doors flanked by a 12-pane sash window on each side, all with brick segmental heads. Above the door is a central multi-pane arched window. The rear gable repeats this arrangement. The sides have a pair of doors with a large overlight. The later structure (formerly known as Building 346d) is similar in design but smaller, and lacks the arched central light between the buildings. Substantial traverse walls in brick surround the entire group, with the walls between the buildings being battered and having raked outer ends.

The interior retains timber trusses, plank lining and hot water pipe systems. The flooring was originally of tanned hides fixed with copper nails.

Historical Context

This complex represents the first and most complete suite of purpose-built rooms for filling and fuzing shells in an ordnance yard, with all units separated by substantial brick traverse walls for protection against blast. Following an explosion at the Shell Filling Room in 1883, the decision was made to relocate this activity outside the historic fortified boundaries of Priddy's Hard and distribute it among several small buildings. In 1886-7, the Shell Filling Rooms and Fuzing Room were constructed beyond the ramparts along the edge of Forton Creek, later joined by a Shell Filling Room for quick-firing shells, an Expense Magazine and an Unheading Room. All filling rooms were heated by hot water pipe supplied from a boiler house. The buildings were not only protected by traverse walling but also isolated within a moat at the site's periphery and outside the earlier ramparts. They were served by a narrow-gauge tramway which passed through each building and was linked front and rear, passing through arched passages formed in the traverse walls.

This unique surviving group reflects contemporary developments in naval ordnance and changes in the Royal Navy's character, forming a model for later developments elsewhere. The late 19th-century development of artillery necessitated more sophisticated facilities than existing laboratories for the emptying and filling of shells. New propellants and projectiles developed from the mid-19th century onwards occurred against the background of the arms race of the second half of the century. The construction of armour-clad, steam-powered fleets, followed by steel guns and rotating turrets, was accompanied by ordnance development that rendered the Palmerston forts—initiated in 1859 in response to a perceived French threat—obsolete within only 20 years. The smooth-bore 68-pounder had been the largest gun in service at the time of the Crimean War. Vast quantities of powder were needed as propellant and explosive filling for shells of the 110-ton monster guns of the 1880s, a decade which saw the development of more effective breech-loading systems and the emergence of the 12-inch gun as the standard naval armament.

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 relating to this remarkable history of continual enlargement and adaptation encompassing Britain's dominance as a sea power on a global scale.