The Fortifications of Portsmouth are extensive, due to its strategic position on the English Channel and role as home to the Royal Navy. For this reason Portsmouth is the most fortified city in the United Kingdom. The fortifications have evolved over the centuries in response to changes in tactics and technology. The area covered by the defences has also increased. While the first defences focused on Portsmouth harbour, in concert with the Fortifications of Gosport, later defensive structures protected the whole of Portsea Island and an increasing distance inland. At the same time the fortifications of Portsmouth and Gosport became just part of the wider Fortifications of the Solent.
Old Portsmouth was a walled town for much of its history.
Contents |
The first fortification in the area was Portchester Castle which ultimately dates back to the Roman Portus Adurni. Its position allowed it to provide a degree of defence for the upper reaches of Portsmouth Harbour. The first recorded fortifications on Portsea island appear to have been a wall constructed in 1212 around a primitive shipyard sited just to the north of the camber.[1] The wall lasted less than twelve years.[1]
Portsmouth was subject to attacks in 1338, 1369, 1377 and 1380.[2] It seems likely that after these attacks a simple earthwork was constructed around the then town.[3] The earthwork aside the first defensive structure built to defend Portsmouth proper was the then wooden Round Tower built between 1418 and 1426 as part of a series of works around the town.[4] A second wooden tower was built on the opposite side of the harbour 4 years later.[5]
During Henry VII's rule the round tower was rebuilt in stone and the Square Tower was added.[5] There is though some question to what extent it was meant as a defensive structure.[6] It appears likely that what is now known as the saluting platform was also built during the reign of Henry VII.[4] His son Henry VIII had Southsea Castle built.[7] To the north of the city it is believed that a small fortification was constructed to defend the bridge across Portsbridge Creek.[8] In 1522 the first of several chains that could be raised in an attempt to block the harbour entrance was ordered.[9] By 1542 Portsmouth was surrounded by defensive ramparts of wood and earth with a number of towers constructed in the same manner.[4] One tower was positioned on the corner where the wall extending from the saluting platform met the wall running along the southeast rampart of the town.[4] The southeast rampart was also equipped with what appears to be a firing platform.[4] Another tower was constructed on the corner where the ramparts to the south east and the northeast of the town met.[4] In the centre of the northwest rampart was the town gate defended by a structure known as The Mount which also acted as a bastion.[4] Finally the wall to the north of the town had a tower at each end one where it joined the northeast wall and one where it met the sea.[4] In an attempt to defend against invasion by sea gabions were constructed along the edge of the Camber.[10] Portsmouth Point was separated from the town by a Palisade.[10] Somewhere around 1545 a wooden wall was constructed from the Round tower to saluting platform.[11]
The next phase of expansion started in the late 1550s and continued through the rest of Elizabeth I's reign.[12] From about 1560 the work was largely under the direction of Richard Popynjay.[11] The ramparts were updated and the gabions along the edge of the Camber and the palisade that cut off Portsmouth point were replaced by stone wall.[12] Other works including improving the various towers with some of them developing into bastions.[11] The Mount defending the town gate was reconstructed, developing into what could be considered a true bastion in the process.[11] The saluting platform also saw some rebuilding work during this period.[11]
Another development during this period is that an increasing number of the names used for the fortifications survived until the present day.[11] The bastion on the corner where the wall extending from the saluting platform met the wall running along the southeast rampart of the town was recorded as Green's Bulwark or Chaterton's Bulwark.[11] Of the two towers on the corners of the north wall of the town the one at the western end was known as the Dock Bulwark while the one at the eastern end is recorded as Guyes Bulwark.[11] The mount is also recorded as being known as the Great Bastion.[11] The gate that controlled access to Portsmouth point was known as the North Gate although by 1571 it (along with other parts of the fortifications) was in a poor state of repair.[13]
The second half of Elizabeth I's reign saw yet more work on the bastions and the first bridge at the Landport gate which was constructed in about 3 years starting 1586.[13] During this time there also appears to have seen a fair amount of repair work.[13] Sometime around 1600 a new gate known as point gate replaced the North Gate in controlling access to Portsmouth point.[14]
At the time of the civil war the fortifications mounted around 100 guns and when properly manned were considered by some to be able to withstand a siege of 40,000 men.[15][16] In one of the first actions of the civil war Parliament managed to capture the city from the royalist forces during the Siege of Portsmouth.
In 1665 Charles II of England ordered Bernard de Gomme to begin the reconstruction of Portsmouth's fortifications a process which was to take many years.[17] The year before this a new chain to block the harbour entrance was ordered at a cost of £200.[9] Starting 1678 Fort James was constructed on Burrow Island.[18] Later in the 1680s Southsea castle was rebuilt.[17] In the same decade the Portsbridge fort was also rebuilt.[8]
The city walls were again rebuilt.[19] A second moat was also added with a new defensive line being constructed between the two moats.[19] A ravelin was added at Landport where the London road entered the city.[19]
On the shoreline a new batter was built at the end of Portsmouth point facing Gosport.[20] Another battery,this one with 18 guns, was built that connected to the round tower with a further battery constructed between the square tower and the saluting platform.[20] Beyond this battery, but connected to it by an underground tunnel, Spur redoubt was constructed.[20]
While the towns defences were being strengthened some thought appears to have been given to their aesthetic appearance.[21] In 1665 Lieutenant-Governor Sir Philip Honeywood ordered that trees be planted on the town walls.[21]
In the 18th century Portsea started to grow up around the dockyard and in the 1770s a series of ramparts and moats were constructed to protect this new settlement.[22]
The shear manpower required by de Gomme's defences meant that after about 1730 the double moat system was abandoned with the outer moat being filled in.[23]
At the same time the defenses started to focus on protecting the whole of Portsea island.[22] The portsbridge fort was again rebuilt in 1746.[8] During 1756 and 1757 the first Hilsea lines were constructed protect the north of Portsea island.[24] The first Fort Cumberland was constructed to prevent hostile forces from sailing to Langstone harbour and the first Lumps Fort and Eastney battery were built to protect Eastney beach.[22]
The city and harbor's most recent comprehensive fortifications were built as a result of the 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom and consist of the Palmerston Forts in the Solent, the line of Forts situated along the top of Portsdown Hill, forts in Gosport and the Hilsea Lines.[25]
Fort Cumberland and Lumps Fort were significantly rebuilt.
The city walls though were for the most part removed in the 1870s and 80s a task accomplished through the use of convict labour.[26][27]
Improvements in artillery technology had rendered the various landward facing fortifications obsolete over the turn of the century and by the end of the first decade they largely disarmed.[28]
After World War 1 the council started to buy various defenses as they were released by the military. The 1920s and 30s saw the purchase of much of the Hilsea lines and Lumps fort by the city.[29][30]
During WW2 anti tank defence blocks were constructed on Fraser Beach.[31] Pill boxes were constructed to defend Portsmouth Airport in the form of Pickett-Hamilton Forts.[28] The sea forts were re-equipped with AA guns.[28]
The remaining defences were deactivated when the UK abandoned coastal artillery in 1956.[28]
Of the four gates in the walls of Old Portsmouth only Landport Gate survives in its original position. Lion Gate and Unicorn Gate have been re-erected slightly further away.
Anti tank defence blocks on Fraser Beach are now a grade 2 listed structure.[31] A pair of links from one of the harbour boom chains are on display at Southsea castle.[32]