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.

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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'.

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The green painted French cannon was captured at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

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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.

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The main 'hall' where the bulk of the collection is displayed included a 1918 British railway gun (not shown).

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The parade ground contains a lot of ordnance much of it unfortunately without information being provided.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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