A day out near Portsmouth - Fort Nelson
in Anything that's not Eriba-related. Wed May 02, 2018 3:09 pmby Aaron Calder • | 3.834 Posts
Although Mrs C and I have lived on the South Coast for nearly 40 years, we had never previously visited Fort Nelson which is one of a string of Victorian fortresses designed to protect Portsmouth and its naval base from landward invasion by the French. The huge forts were built in the 1860s on the hills overlooking Portsmouth Harbour and all their guns were pointed inland so they could cover all approaches and also shell each other should one or more be captured. This was a revelation to me as I had thought that their purpose was to lob shells down onto enemy shipping that had entered the harbour when in fact it was to prevent French gunners doing just that to our ships and naval installations.
As the threat of invasion diminished following the Franco-Prussian War, the forts never fired a shot in anger and thus became known as 'Palmerston's Follies.' Fort Nelson has been fully restored and now houses part of the Royal Armouries collection of heavy guns some of which are occasionally fired during public displays.
On the day of our visit it was freezing cold, windy and with torrential rain showers but as admission is free I can't complain. If you are at all interested in military history, you will enjoy exploring the buildings and tunnels and a fascinating collection of ancient and modern firepower.
Fort Nelson01.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
This is the main entrance hall. The shiny steel tube at the bottom left of the picture is a section of the infamous Iraqi 'Supergun'.
Fort Nelson02.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
The green painted French cannon was captured at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Fort Nelson03.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
This huge bronze cannon (Turkish, I think) fired the enormous stone balls shown in the foreground. It must have had an incredibly slow rate of fire as it was breech loading with the two sections simply screwing together.
Fort Nelson04.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
The main 'hall' where the bulk of the collection is displayed included a 1918 British railway gun (not shown).
Fort Nelson05.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
The parade ground contains a lot of ordnance much of it unfortunately without information being provided.
Fort Nelson06.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
There was no information on these two imposing (Armstrong?) muzzle-loading coastal defence guns. I'd love to know why it was necessary to reinforce the breech to that extent assuming the propellant to have been black powder.
Fort Nelson07.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
This gun started out as a 32 pounder muzzle-loader and was later converted to a 64 pounder by boring out the barrel and inserting a rifled sleeve. This meant that in place of cast iron balls, heavier conical shells with brass studs that engaged the rifling could be loaded from the muzzle significantly increasing its destructive power.
Fort Nelson08.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
This gun shows how cannon were traversed on the gun platforms of the forts.
If you are in the area and at a loose end, I can thoroughly recommend a day out at the fort. Live firings take place on Sundays so far as I'm aware.
Forum Administrator
2003 Triton 420 and Audi A4 2.0Tfsi S-line SE Cabriolet
RE: A day out near Portsmouth - Fort Nelson
in Anything that's not Eriba-related. Wed May 02, 2018 3:42 pmby Randa france • | 13.258 Posts
Will have to keep an eye out for that one when we're next in the area.
Mrs R has just responded and said she wouldn't give her right arm to go there. Women, I ask you. No interest in History at all.
Randa
ERIBAFOLK POP UP EVERYWHERE 1999 Eriba Troll 530 pushing a VW Touran 2L TDi Match
RE: A day out near Portsmouth - Fort Nelson
in Anything that's not Eriba-related. Thu May 03, 2018 5:27 pmby addisb • | 184 Posts
Brilliant photos. I would really like to see that exhibition.
Some of the guns in the Parade Ground photo look like guns recovered from our West Coast from the Spanish Armada. Currently our National Museum are preserving a further 10 Bronze Armada Cannons. original.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
Visitors
10 Members and 322 Guests are online. |
Board Statistics
The forum has 12872
topics
and
107953
posts.
|