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

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONSThe training grounds of the Royal Military Repository were laid out at a critical time inthe evolution of the British armed forces. During the 18th century, through the efforts ofgentleman scholars, military science had emerged as a new discipline, questioning earlierassumptions and analysing the profession of arms. Foremost amongst these scholarswas the elder William Congreve, whose achievements included transforming practicaltraining, improving gun carriages and, through his scientific enquires, revolutionisingBritish gunpowder production (Cocroft 2000, 30-66). Crucially, his official positionsenabled him to enact change, and this is reflected in the training grounds of the RoyalMilitary Repository, where he identified the need for an establishment to address thetheory of the Repository exercises through a teaching collection, but also groundswhere this theory could be put into practice. Congreve's work was spurred on by thecontemporary threats to Britain's security by revolutionary France, threats which werealso reflected in the rapid expansion of the royal powder works and the protectionof the south and east coasts by Martello towers and other coastal fortifications.The development of the Repository and its grounds also represents the growingprofessionalism of the British army during the 19th century, at a time when amateurgentlemen were being replaced skilled professionals, especially in the highly technical fieldof artillery. The Royal Military Academy was also established at the start of the 19thcentury, where young men were educated by some of the leading mathematicians andscientists of the day, in a structure paralleled in France by their academy system.The Royal Military Repository itself appears to have moved from the Warren to the siteto the west of Barrack Field at the start of the 19 th century. This move was probablyprompted by a number of factors, including the need to house a growing teachingcollection of models and historic weaponry and the fire at the Warren in 1802. Perhapsmost significant was the usefulness of the natural topography of the area, with its cliffsand gullies, for teaching the Repository exercises that William Congreve had devisedsome years earlier in 1774. The Repository sheds were constructed by 1804 and by1808 the natural topography had been enhanced by the construction of a series ofponds and training batteries where, as well as learning techiniques for the manoeuvre ofheavy ordnance, cadets could also be trained in the crossing of water bodies and bridgeconstruction. Debates regarding a planned northern boundary wall to the Repositoryrestricting the public’s view of the exercises, and royal visits in 1814, show the regard inwhich the innovative Repository training school was held at this early date. This alsohighlights a level of public accessibility to military training and military landscapes which israrely seen today.In 1818 the decision was taken to move the tent-like Rotunda, previously located in thegrounds of Carlton House, to the eastern side of the Repository which was felt to be anideal picturesque location for the building, with its pleasant woodland and water bodies,albeit artificial ones that had been created for training purposes. The move was part ofa series of developments undertaken by Congreve’s son, also William, when he first tookcharge of the Repository after his father died in 1814. By moving the Rotunda to theRepository the younger Congreve could exploit not only its connection with the recentvictory over Napoleon but also house the spoils of war from the conflict that had been© ENGLISH HERITAGE4214 - 2009