A-Z of Gosport project. B is for .....

Sorry for my absence this week - back to work with a bump and a reminder how much work consumes my life. I know we all have the excuse of work and others still manage to blip. But with my new positive outlook - I have learnt that I have to let this go and accept that I can't always blip and photograph during the week. Yesterday I was visiting and meeting an old friend - shame because it was the best day weather wise.

Onto today. Continuing on my weekly project of the a-Z of Gosport - I have approached 'B'. I have chosen one of the forts in Gosport (one which is not contained behind MOD property. Shame as the forts within the MOD properties are nice to look at. Again shame I didn't get this yesterday with the glorious weather - but make the best of the bad weather.

This blip is of Fort Brockhurst - a little history of the site:

'Fort Brockhurst is one of the five forts constructed on the North side of the harbour, known as the Gosport Advanced Line. They superseded the outdated eighteenth century defences around Gosport and were the first of their type to be built in Britain.

The new, polygonal, low profile forts, with thick earth banks designed to absorb the shock from shot and shell, were more easily adapted to the terrain than those of the traditional, star-shape design. More importantly a greatly increased number of heavy guns could be placed on their ramparts, firing in the expected direction of attack.

The fort’s main entrance is through a low circular keep which is reached via a drawbridge over a moat, giving the fort a medieval ‘feel’ and was intended, like a medieval keep, to act as a place of last resort. It was armed with light weapons. A sliding bridge once isolated it from the parade ground. The main part of the fort was designed to carry heavy guns; guns at a lower level were in casemates (vaulted rooms, built as protection from falling fire). The magazines (stores for ammunition) were in the fort’s North and West angles. Enclosing both keep and fort are wet moats. In front of the fort is a triangular projecting earthwork and a covered way intended for use by riflemen in the early stages of a siege. Eleven officers and a garrison of over 300 were accommodated in the keep and in the casemates under the ramparts.

Fort Brockhurst was never completed, never fully armed nor used for its original purpose. Most of its life it was used for military accommodation. A Royal Commission in 1860 recommended that it would make an excellent second line of defence for a new, even more advanced line. The Regimental Institute was built in the centre of the parade ground, forty years after the fort’s completion'.
Information courtesy of English Heritage

Shame I didn't have a helicopter to hand as it wasn't until I was looking for further information about the Fort that I found an amazing aerial shot which showed how vast the site was on. I studied this fort as part of my history coursework for my GCSE's and found the place quite fascinating,
Anyway enjoy your sunday one and all