Building 63 (Empty Barrel And Case Store), Rnad Bull Point

740-1/0/10050 RNAD BULL POINT 17-APR-09 Building 63 (Empty Barrel and Case Sto re), RNAD Bull Point

GV II Empty Barrel and Case store, now store. 1856-7. Limestone ashlar with rock-faced quoins and dressings, and corrugated sheet roof.

PLAN: rectangular plan.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 2-gable ends. Wide, shallow, coped gables have central segmental-arched doorways with recessed, boarded doors, and a narrow ventilation slit to either side, and 3 flat-headed windows above with mid-C20 glazing. SW end has a central lean-to with two doorways. Windowless sides.

INTERIOR: early C20 steel trusses.

HISTORY: This comprises one of the key functional buildings at Bull Point, one of a group built around a road extending from the magazine enclosure. With Building 43 (qv), this survives as the most architecturally-distinguished example of this key building type in any of the ordnance yards. Case stores are associated with the introduction of shells into naval service, each shell being individually packed into its own wooden box.

Bull Point, located just to the north of the Royal Navy's new Steam Yard at Keyham, was the last great project of the Board of Ordnance, which was abolished in 1856. It provided storage for 40,000 barrels of powder in an integrated complex including a floating magazine where powder was unloaded and the 1805 St Budeaux laboratory where it was checked and processed, before being taken to the Bull Point magazines (SAM). In contrast to other yards, Bull Point was from the outset provided with a set of buildings planned and dedicated to the various functions for the processing as well as the storage of the new types of ordnance which had a revolutionary impact on the design of naval ships and fortifications. All the buildings - mostly in ashlar with rock-faced dressings and fronting an avenue to the S of the magazines - are stylistically coherent with the magazines themselves. They comprise both the finest ensemble in any of the Ordnance Yards, consistent with the high standards practised by the Ordnance Board in its designs for fortifications and barracks from the C17 and a remarkable example of integrated factory planning of the period.

For a full history of the site, see Building 13 (qv).