Entrance Gates And Wall To East Side Of Rnad Bull Point

740-1/0/10044 RNAD BULL POINT 17-APR-09 Entrance gates and wall to east side o f RNAD Bull Point

GV II Walls and gatepiers at ordnance store. 1851-4, designed by Commanding Royal Engineer, Devonport for the Board of Ordnance. Plymouth limestone squared rubble and ashlar piers. Wall extends approx. 750 m from NW to SE, reflecting the secure nature of the site. N entrance has square granite capped piers and later metal gate. E gateway has square granite piers and late C20 gates; the wall alongside is pierced with rifle slits.

HISTORY: This defensible wall encloses the landward side of this important ordnance yard. 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).