Description

1137/0/10095 PRIDDY'S HARD
17-APR-09 Case Store Exhibition and Conference R
ooms and Rolling Way to S of 'B' Magaz
ine

GV II
Stores for empty shell cases, with part of Rolling Way attached. This Case Store of 1865 was rebuilt 1877-83 in brick, the roof being reused. Brick in modified Flemish bond, with slate roof. It is a long narrow range with low-pitched hipped roof, and has four 6-pane and one 8-pane lights. Attached to the S end is a 2-storeyed gabled unit of 1901, in brick with slate roof. It is in four bays, with vertical lights set to concrete lintels. The later building, which is now a conference centre and includes a further mid C20 addition, is thought to replace an earlier one on the site, and retains the previous wood-block floor, and king-post trusses.

To the E side of the 1865 Case Store, comprising a brick-walled lean-to, is the former Rolling Way that enabled explosives to be transported from the Camber to the Laboratory complex (qqv).

HISTORICAL NOTE: This building comprises a prominent part of the core group at Priddy's Hard, forming the eastern boundary to this part of the site. Case stores are associated with the introduction of shells into naval service, each shell being individually packed into its own wooden box. It is one of a series of such rooms, comprising one of the core group of buildings on this uniquely important site. The later Rolling Way at Priddy's Hard (the original one being part of 'B' Magazine, qv) formed part of the tramway system that from the 1860s was devised in order to link 'C' Magazine to the Laboratory and its associated shell-filling complex, and this section is an important surviving remnant that relates to the great expansion and important historical role of this site.

The case stores at Priddy's Hard are all grouped around the magazine complex that developed from the late 18th century around its small harbour. They all date from the second half of the 19th century and are associated with the introduction into naval service of shells, a type of ordnance which revolutionised both the operations of the key naval depots and the development of naval ships and fortifications. Each shell was individually packed into its own wooden box before being taken aboard ship.

The magazines and related structures at Priddy's Hard date from the late 18th century. The site's expansion from the mid 19th century was closely related to the development of land and sea artillery and the navy's transition from the age of sail, powder and solid shot to the Dreadnought class of the early 1900s. Priddy's Hard retains the best-preserved range of structures that relate to this remarkable history of continual enlargement and adaptation, one that encompasses that of Britain's dominance as a sea power on a global scale. For further historical details on this site, see the description for 'A' Magazine.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672448

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

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)