Description

MARCHWOOD

1860/5/32 MAGAZINE LANE
21-MAY-85 Frobisher Court and attached wall

(Formerly listed as:
MAGAZINE LANE
Former Police Barracks at former Royal
Naval Armaments Depot)

GV II
Barracks flanked by officers' quarters, now houses. 1816, restored 1990-5 with new buildings in matching style added to rear. Walls of red brick on Portland stone plinth; rendered to left flank. Roof covering of grey slate laid to diminishing courses; brick chimneys. Two storeys with attic lit by roof dormers. Main block of 7 bays (original barracks, originally 4 rooms) flanked by returns of 3 bays (original officers' quarters) with roof hipped to front and stair string courses of first floor level. Main block entered by central doors (2 x 6 panel),
flanked by fluted pilasters and surmounted by fanlight all in recessed
panel. Sash windows (2 x 6 pane) under cambered gauged brick arches,
Portland stone cills. Two windows replaced by pair of smaller sashes under
segmental arches, and one blocked in C20. Flanking blocks entered from
side. Main roof has two chimneys and two ventilators, symmetrically
placed; returns have dormers facing inwards. The interior of the right
hand block retains its original stair with stick balusters and column
newels, also much internal joinery and some original fireplaces. A
contemporary boundary wall extends from the right (north) of the building in the
line of the front elevation. Wall has brick piers with stone caps inscribed ORDNANCE HOUSE, a reference to the demolished Storekeeper's House of 1815.
HISTORY: Marchwood was conceived in 1811 as a store depot like Tipner (Porstmouth). Potential canal communications from Southampton water were the Redbridge-Andover, Northampton-Winchester and Bursledon-Botley navigations. This was to be a 20,000 barrel magazine with two 10,000 barrel magazines the preferred disposition. In the event, and after deliberation resulting in the adoption of plans submitted in 1811 by Sir William Congreve (the Comptroller of the Royal Laboratory in Woolwich) over those by General Fisher (commanding officer of the Portsmouth Royal Engineers' Department), 3 magazines each with a 6,800 capacity were built, with a small internal L-shaped canal for moving barrels by barge and a centrally-placed Shifting House. The shortcomings revealed through the Crimean War brought about the decision to increase storage capability, and additional magazines were built at Marchwood, Tipner and Upnor. In July 1853, the CRE Portsmouth had been asked to prepare a report on the expense of making Marchwood serviceable again. The magazines were ordered in September to be made fit to receive powder from Dover, and in November the floor of No. 3 Magazine was ordered to be made good before the establishment was re-established as a Powder Station and Officers appointed. This, effectively the second foundation of Marchwood, was marked by a vast increase in its storage: four new magazines, three of 14,400 and one of 9,600 barrels capacity, were built in 1856-7. A Times article of 1864 noted that Marchwood was 'the largest magazine in the Kingdom', with a capacity of 76,000 barrels of powder. The establishment began to be wound down soon afterwards, there being 45 employees in 1898. B, E, F and G magazines were destroyed by the Luftwaffe in June 1940, and the Admiralty's use of the depot declined steeply after 1945: it was closed in 1961.

(Roger Bowdler, Former Board of Ordnance Gunpowder Magazines, Magazine Lane, Marchwood, Hampshire, Historical Analysis and Research Team, English Heritage, 1997)

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26473488

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)