Former Weedon Barracks, Inner East of Series of Four Magazines in Magazine Enclosure

This is one of four paired magazines built between 1807 and 1811 within the Magazine Enclosure at Weedon Bec. The magazine is constructed of Flemish bond brick on a rendered plinth, with a chamfered sandstone top course, and dentilled eaves courses to the side elevations. Stone-coped gables finish the structure. It has a rectangular plan, housing two vaulted chambers. The north and south elevations feature double gables, with doorways in the centre of each, each set beneath a segmental arch constructed of gauged brick. Where original, doorways are fitted with beaded six-panelled doors; doorways on the north elevation were widened in the late 20th century. Above each doorway is a ventilator with pulley-operated inner and outer shutters, featuring iron outer frames and timber inner frames. The side elevations have perforated wrought-iron plates to the ventilators, which are baffled internally. Internally, catenary arches support each chamber, with some arched access doorways between the chambers.

These magazines form part of a unique, planned military-industrial complex with a defensible transport system and surrounding walls. They are smaller than the late 18th century example at Priddy’s Hard, Portsmouth, but as a group, they were unparalleled until the magazines at Bull Point, Plymouth, were built in the 1850s. The catenary arches were first used at Tipnor in the 1790s and later at Colonel D’Arcy’s magazine at Upnor. The use of traverses—blast walls of earth, sometimes faced in brick—is highly innovative, and these traverses uniquely assume an architectural form. Original drawings from 1816 (held in the Royal Engineers Library, W140 (D38), along with later plans and drawings) document the construction. Further details regarding the site are available in the description of Storehouse No 2.