Yet again the day started badly. Woke up feeling exhausted having been kept awake by Bertie's constant farting throughout the night. A quick shower I thought would do me good. Whilst soaping myself up it felt as if I was scrubbing a wire brush over my skin. That useless man called my hubby had only left his pubes stuck to the soap bar. Sometimes I wonder if I married a Neanderthal caveman. So once again it was domestic time, and with much shouting and throwing of dinner plates across the room I just had to get in the car and escape.
So that's how I arrived at Fort Gilkicker in the county of Hampshire just one of many Palmerston forts that protected the Solent.
History
The Palmerston forts are a group of forts built around the coastline of Britain, with many concentrated around the Portsmouth / Solent area. The forts were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom following concerns about the strength of the French Navy. The name comes from their association with Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister at the time and promoted the idea.
They were criticized because by the time they were completed, any threat had passed, largely due to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and because the technology of the guns had become out-of-date. They were the most costly and extensive system of fixed defences undertaken in Britain in peacetime and often referred to as Palmerston's Follies.
Fort Gilkicker was erected between 1863 and 1871 as a semi-circular arc with 22 casemates, to be armed with five 12" guns, seventeen 10" guns and five 9" guns (the 5 largest guns being in the open on the roof). Its purpose was to defend the deep water anchorage at Spithead and to protect the western approach to Portsmouth harbour. The estimated cost of Fort Gilkicker in 1869 was £61,395, the actual cost on completion being £58,766.
Each of the twenty two gun casemates on the main gun floor consists of a brick vaulted chamber behind a granite face fourteen feet thick. Each gun fired though an armoured embrasure with a shield hung on a massive shield frame. To the rear of each gun casemate is the barrack room for the gun crew with space for folding barrack room beds and a fireplace. The barrack rooms open on to a verandah, or walkway, that connects all of the barrack rooms. Beneath the gun casemates are a series of magazines appropriated for shells and cartridges. Vertical lifts from the shell and cartridge passages open onto each gun casemate allowing efficient supply of ammunition for the guns.
The rear, or gorge, of the fort is closed by a two storey barrack block that was originally occupied by the officers. It included Officer’s bedrooms, the officers’ mess with kitchen and pantry, a field officer’s quarters, and officer’s servant’s quarters. At each end was an artillery store. At the western end was the laboratory for filling shells and cartridges.
An earth embankment was built around the front of the fort in 1902-6 to provide protection to the masonry of the fort from improved naval weaponry. The fort was used in World War II as a communications centre for D-Day preparations and was finally declared surplus for defence purposes in 1956
The fort is currently awaiting development into modern apartments. Here is the plan:
Whether that will happen is of course another matter.
The Explore:
Entry is straightforward and to be honest it seemed as if half of Gosport were wandering around inside.
I made my way to the parade ground
I started with the officer's accomodation block
Which was rather homely inside
Making my way to the front of the fort, I found the veranda linking each of casemates. Each casemate had beautiful vaulted ceilings
and here we see the fireplace at the rear of the casement where the soldiers would had slept
Climbing downstairs, I found the armouries with a long curved narrow passage
and several ammunition lifts to the casements above
And that ended the explore, it was time to return home and feed that caveman called hubby. Bertie if you reading this, when we do get to the divorce court you can keep that strange blow up doll thingy you keep under the bed as well as the fridge. I'm taking the house though.
Thanks for reading
So that's how I arrived at Fort Gilkicker in the county of Hampshire just one of many Palmerston forts that protected the Solent.
History
The Palmerston forts are a group of forts built around the coastline of Britain, with many concentrated around the Portsmouth / Solent area. The forts were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom following concerns about the strength of the French Navy. The name comes from their association with Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister at the time and promoted the idea.
They were criticized because by the time they were completed, any threat had passed, largely due to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and because the technology of the guns had become out-of-date. They were the most costly and extensive system of fixed defences undertaken in Britain in peacetime and often referred to as Palmerston's Follies.
Fort Gilkicker was erected between 1863 and 1871 as a semi-circular arc with 22 casemates, to be armed with five 12" guns, seventeen 10" guns and five 9" guns (the 5 largest guns being in the open on the roof). Its purpose was to defend the deep water anchorage at Spithead and to protect the western approach to Portsmouth harbour. The estimated cost of Fort Gilkicker in 1869 was £61,395, the actual cost on completion being £58,766.
Each of the twenty two gun casemates on the main gun floor consists of a brick vaulted chamber behind a granite face fourteen feet thick. Each gun fired though an armoured embrasure with a shield hung on a massive shield frame. To the rear of each gun casemate is the barrack room for the gun crew with space for folding barrack room beds and a fireplace. The barrack rooms open on to a verandah, or walkway, that connects all of the barrack rooms. Beneath the gun casemates are a series of magazines appropriated for shells and cartridges. Vertical lifts from the shell and cartridge passages open onto each gun casemate allowing efficient supply of ammunition for the guns.
The rear, or gorge, of the fort is closed by a two storey barrack block that was originally occupied by the officers. It included Officer’s bedrooms, the officers’ mess with kitchen and pantry, a field officer’s quarters, and officer’s servant’s quarters. At each end was an artillery store. At the western end was the laboratory for filling shells and cartridges.
An earth embankment was built around the front of the fort in 1902-6 to provide protection to the masonry of the fort from improved naval weaponry. The fort was used in World War II as a communications centre for D-Day preparations and was finally declared surplus for defence purposes in 1956
The fort is currently awaiting development into modern apartments. Here is the plan:
Whether that will happen is of course another matter.
The Explore:
Entry is straightforward and to be honest it seemed as if half of Gosport were wandering around inside.
I made my way to the parade ground
I started with the officer's accomodation block
Which was rather homely inside
Making my way to the front of the fort, I found the veranda linking each of casemates. Each casemate had beautiful vaulted ceilings
and here we see the fireplace at the rear of the casement where the soldiers would had slept
Climbing downstairs, I found the armouries with a long curved narrow passage
and several ammunition lifts to the casements above
And that ended the explore, it was time to return home and feed that caveman called hubby. Bertie if you reading this, when we do get to the divorce court you can keep that strange blow up doll thingy you keep under the bed as well as the fridge. I'm taking the house though.
Thanks for reading
