REPOSITORy wOODS, wOOlwICH, gREATER ... - English Heritage

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Barrack Field at Woolwich, on which the Royal Artillery was reviewed the 9 th July 1788’leaves a question mark over the exact date of the survey.Figure 3: Map from circa 1788 showing the area that was later to become the site of theRoyal Military Repository. NB North is to the bottom of the image. The National Archives:Public Record Office MPHH 1/571 (1)Despite suggestions that the Repository Grounds were formerly part of Bowater Park(Anon. 1913, 64) the 1788 map shows hedged fields, some of which contain light treecover (TNA:PRO MPHH 1/571). This suggests a mixed landscape of arable cultivationand pasture. The land may have been attached to ‘Mr Bowater’s Farm’, which asmentioned above, is marked on the same plan. It is worth noting that the ponds shownon this 1788 plan are not those which were constructed and survive in the Repository,© ENGLISH HERITAGE14 - 2009
ut historic Ordnance Survey maps (3rd edition 25 inch 1916) suggest that the largest,located immediately to the west of the gun park, survived into the 20 th century. It hadbeen infilled by 1946 when aerial photographs show it had been in use as allotmentgardens for some time (RAF CPE/UK1803 5290 25-OCT-46).The development of the Royal Military RepositoryThe Royal Military Repository at Woolwich was developed by William Congreve theelder (1743-1814) as a ‘school of methods of mounting and dismounting ordnance’(Marsh 1986, 413). He had been heavily influenced by his experiences whilst a Captainin the Royal Artillery and by the difficulties in manoeuvring heavy ordnance that hehad encountered in Canada during the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) (Skedd 2008, 5).Consequently in 1774, Congreve devised an illustrated programme of exercises whichinvolved manoeuvring:Field Pieces over Ditches, Ravines, Inclosures or Lines … To mountor dismount heavy Guns, when no Gyn is at hand; to get the Guns onBatteries with a far less number of Men than are usually employed indrawing them upon their platforms by bodily strength only. To raiseany Carriages that may be overset on a march etc. (RAHT CollectionRA/20) (Skedd 2008, 6),and which became compulsory at the end of 1778 (Skedd 2008, 6).Figure 4: Cadets undertaking ‘Field gun drill’ for an ‘Armstrong 12 pound breech loader’ atthe eastern end of the northern-most Repository shed. Though not signed the photographis probably one of the series taken by John Spiller around 1858 to illustrate the RepositoryExercises (see RAHT Collection AL 933). Courtesy of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust (RAHTCollection AL27/10)© ENGLISH HERITAGE14 - 2009
Page 2 and 3: Research Department Report Series14
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTSINTRODUCTION 1Background to
Page 6 and 7: Figure 1: The location of the surve
Page 8 and 9: PREVIOUS RESEARCHThe area has been
Page 12 and 13: The Repository exercises have been
Page 14 and 15: tracks around the grounds and featu
Page 16 and 17: The arrival of the RotundaBy the en
Page 18: from 1820 by RW Lucas shows guns ar
Page 21 and 22: Figure 11: A photograph taken in 18
Page 23 and 24: Commissioned Officers, Royal Artill
Page 25 and 26: demonstrated by the coloured map dr
Page 27 and 28: the right to cut hay in the grounds
Page 29 and 30: of structures that are discussed in
Page 31 and 32: it may now appear perched on top of
Page 33 and 34: (Figure 22). The ditch appears to d
Page 35 and 36: particular detail. Photographs from
Page 37 and 38: to the Field Officers’ and Staff
Page 39 and 40: A structure related to the drainage
Page 41 and 42: Figure 30: Zigzag trench which is s
Page 43 and 44: later addition and that the scarp i
Page 45 and 46: Later 20 th century training facili
Page 47 and 48: added to the Repository’s teachin
Page 49 and 50: METHODOLOGYTotal StationDetail was
Page 51 and 52: Maurice-Jones, RA 1959 The History
Page 53 and 54: 1 inch to 10 feet. Surveyed under d
Page 55 and 56: © ENGLISH HERITAGE 5114-2009Figure
Page 57 and 58: Figure 36B: 1867 survey by Lt. Col.
Page 59 and 60: © ENGLISH HERITAGE 5514-2009Figure
Page 61 and 62:
ReferenceNumberDescriptionDirection
Page 63:
© ENGLISH HERITAGE 5914-2009AL27/6
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REPOSITORy wOODS, wOOlwICH, gREATER ... - English Heritage

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