Fort Widley is one of the forts built on top of

Portsdown Hill Portsdown Hill is a long chalk ridge in Hampshire, England. The highest point of the hill lies within Fort Southwick at 131m above sea level. The ridge offers good views to the south over Portsmouth, the Solent, Hayling Island and Gosport, with ...

between 1860 and 1868 on the recommendation of the

Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom The Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom was a committee formed in 1859 to enquire into the ability of the United Kingdom to defend itself against an attempted invasion by a foreign power, and to advise the British Government on ...

. It was designed, along with the other

Palmerston Forts The Palmerston Forts are a group of forts and associated structures around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The forts were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the ...

atop Portsdown, to protect

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

from attack from the rear.

Design and construction

Part of the moat, Fort Widley - geograph

Fort Widley, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England

Fort Widley was a polygonal Fort designed by William Crossman, an officer of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, who was part of the staff of the Inspector General of Fortifications at the War Office. The fort was built up from chalk, with red brick and local flint being used for buildings and revetment to the large dry ditch which was also dug at the same time. Armament was fitted into three different categories - the main armament which was mounted on a semi-circular rampart, high angle armament provided by 13-inch mortars, mounted in two protected mortar batteries and close range armament, mounted in one full and two demi-caponiers. Barracks accommodation was also provided for both officers and other ranks.

Armament

Even before they were completed questions arose over the effectiveness of the forts in the face of improving weapons technology and the forts were not fitted with guns until some years after they had been completed. This delay resulted in changes to the fort's planned armament. The originally specified

68-pounder The 68-pounder cannon was an artillery piece designed and used by the British Armed Forces in the mid-19th century. The cannon was a smoothbore muzzle-loading gun manufactured in several weights, the most common being , and fired projectiles of ...

smooth-bore guns were never fitted and instead

RBL 7 inch Armstrong gun The Armstrong RBL 7-inch gun, also known as the 110-pounder, was an early attempt to use William Armstrong's new and innovative rifled breechloading mechanism for heavy rifled guns. Description The Armstrong "screw" breech mechanism used a h ...

s may have been the fort's first armament. In 1885 the fort was reported to have been fitted with some ordnance while the other Portsdown forts were still awaiting their guns. By the 1890s the fort was fitted with five RML 6.6-inch howitzers, ten RBL 7 inch Armstrong guns, two

RML 8 inch howitzer The RML 8-inch howitzer was a British Rifled, Muzzle Loading (RML) Howitzer manufactured in England in the 19th century, which fired a projectile weighing approximately . It was used in siege batteries and in fortifications. Design and manufact ...

s and nine

RBL 40 pounder Armstrong gun The Armstrong RBL 40-pounder gun was introduced into use in 1860 for service on both land and sea. It used William Armstrong's new and innovative rifled breechloading mechanism. It remained in use until 1902 when replaced by more modern Breech ...

s on carriages that could be moved to wherever they were needed. Fort Widley had its guns removed in 1902.

History and use

During the Victorian period Fort Widley and the other Portsdown Forts were used to accommodate various infantry units in the barracks. For example, in 1875 the 30th Regiment of foot were quartered there. By 1886 the

South Lancashire Regiment The South Lancashire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment, which recruited, as its title suggests, primarily from the South Lancashire area, was created as part of the Childers Ref ...

was stationed there. In First World War it was used as a transit depot. During the Second World War it was modified to provide more accommodation. It was then used by a number of units before housing members of the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

and

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...

supporting the navy command at

Fort Southwick Fort Southwick is one of the forts found on Portsdown Hill, which overlooks the naval base of Portsmouth in the county of Hampshire, England. History Fort Southwick was built to defend the landward approaches to the naval base on the recommenda ...

. In 1952 the fort became home to a bomb disposal squadron and a year later an emergency civil control centre for Portsmouth was constructed in the fort's magazine. The fort was leased to

Portsmouth City Council Portsmouth City Council is the local authority of the city of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government s ...

(then the Portsmouth Corporation) in 1961 and was sold outright to the council in 1972. In 1990 the Fort was taken into use as an activity centre for the Peter Ashley charity, providing a number of activities, including an equestrian centre. In September 2010 the fort was used to host a search and rescue exercise based around a simulated earthquake. Titled Exercise Orion, the event involved teams from seven countries dealing with 35 scenarios over 2 days. Both the Fort and a gun in front of it have been designated

Listed Building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s, at Grades II* and II respectively. In 2018, the fort was used as a setting for the Hollywood film The Last Vermeer. Today the Fort is home to an equestrian centre run by Peter Ashley Activity Centres.

References

Bibliography

*{{cite book, first=Ian V, last=Hogg, title=Coast Defences of England and Wales 1856-1956, publisher=David & Charles, year=1974, isbn=0-7153 6353-0

Widley Widley is an area of the Greater Portsmouth conurbation in the South East of England near Waterlooville and Purbrook. It is on the dip slope of the South Downs just north of the ridge called Portsdown Hill. Widley is served by the A3(T), tru ...

Grade II* listed buildings in Hampshire Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire Grade II* listed forts

Design and construction

Armament

History and use

See also

References

Bibliography