In 1858 after a lengthy and heated debate work began on the Palmerston fortifications, a project that turned Portsmouth into one of the most strongly defended places in the world. Two of the great bulwarks then built are open to the public, one from the line of six which ran from Stokes Bay to Fareham, Fort Brockhurst, and one from the further six along Portsdown Hill, named Fort Widley.
The story of these Victorian castles and the many other defences around the Solent is the subject of a fine exhibition at Fort Brockhurst. Despite its rather unattractive urban setting between Fareham and Gosport a visit to Brockhurst is well worthwhile. It has in some respects the atmosphere of a medieval fortress for the way in is across a drawbridge over a water-filled moat which surrounds the whole castle. The keep is a circular building and beyond it is a large parade ground surrounded by the ramparts. Here cannon were placed to command the local approaches to Portsmouth Harbour in the event of an invasion of Southern England.
The form and positioning of the Fort was designed to defend a large area of ground across which a powerful enemy might otherwise advance towards the Navy's arsenal, anchorages and dockyards. Building took place during several years of panic after the Crimean War when the French fleet modernised more quickly than our own. Meanwhile in this country a rifled cannon had just been developed, which could double the range of fire to 4.5 miles and it was thought inevitable that these recent allies would develop the same arms and be able to bombard the naval docks from comparative safety unless new forts were built. Such forts could give protection with limited manpower, few guns covering each gap, for at this time the bulk of Britain's army was overseas, spread throughout the Empire.
Widley, Brockhurst and the other forts were never even fully armed let alone put to the test, but one could argue that their presence did help to ensure the security and the peace that resulted. Over the years their facilities and accommodation were put to a variety of uses including the reception of soldiers back from the Front in World War I. With models and even a sound and light show, as well as many fascinating historical pictures, the story of the evolution of defences of Portsmouth is displayed here in a late Victorian army building in the centre of the parade ground. Such forts have a look of invulnerability, for complete defeat could only be achieved at great cost and, as in mediaeval castles, the defenders could retreat to keep and pull up the final drawbridge. But the exhibition shows the dreadful devastation of similar French forts which were held with such sacrifice during the defence of the Verdun in 1914-18 war.
19 February 2005
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