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

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