Pat Coulter investigates Hampshire’s maritime heritage
Pat Coulter embarks on a mind-blowing trip to scenic coastal Hampshire and its Naval wartime museums.
IT’S fun, discovering new museums, and today our voyage of exploration begins in Portsmouth. We’re heading away from the museums familiar to so many within the Historic Dockyard, home to HMS Victory, Henry VIII’s warship the Mary Rose and the many other maritime attractions which thrill visitors the world over.
We’ve discovered the Dockyard has even more Royal Navy museums to explore across the harbour.
We are boarding the Gosport Ferry, close to Portsmouth Harbour railway station and Spinnaker Tower.
Wherrymen y have pliedp this short stretch of water since the 1600s. A floating bridge then came along.
Nowadays, residents board the ferry just as readily as we’d hop on a bus to make the sevenminute crossing between Portsmouth and Gosport.
It certainly gives us a whole new perspective of Portsmouth and it’s a fabulous way to view the array of gunmetal grey battleships in Portsmouth Naval Base.
We disembark by the Falklands Gardens with the pyramidal tide clock made of steel and glass.
It’s understandably a popular spot with Gosport folk to sit with a coffee or fish and chips, watching the maritime world go by.
There’s also the wow factor backdrop of the Portsmouth skyline with its mixture of modern-day architecture and centuriesold maritime buildings, not forgetting the landmark cathedral which would have been a familiar sight to Nelson as he set sail for the Battle of Trafalgar.
As first-time visitors in Gosport, we make our way towards our first museum, Explosion! The Museum of Naval Firepower.
Our harbour edge route takes us through the Royal Clarence Yard.
Opened in 1827, it was one of the country’s premier Naval victualling establishments.
It contained a rum store, granary, bakery and even a slaughterhouse.
The Yard suffered bomb damage in World War II but continued its vital role, supplying the huge armada in the Solent awaiting
D-Day in June 1944.
The many handsome Grade II listed buildings have now been redeveloped into luxurious apartments, retail outlets and convivial restaurants with wonderful harbour views.
Crossing the impressive Millennium Footbridge spanning Forton Creek, we arrive at Explosion!
The 18th century was a period of conflict between Great Britain and France.
The Ordnance, for safety reasons, relocated from Portsmouth to here at Priddy’s Hard, Gosport.
This is a place that would have had Guy Fawkes himself rubbing his hands!
For over 100 years Priddy’s Hard supplied gunpowder to the wooden sailing ships of the Royal Navy, historically providing the firepower for HMS Victory.
The most incredible structure at the museum still surviving from those war-torn cannon ball days is the Grand Magazine, purpose-built to house the wooden gunpower barrels.
Stepping over the threshold, its enormity is fortress-like, with high, curvaceous ceilings and eight-foot-thick brick walls.
Built in the 1750s, it had
to dry out for three years before gunpowder could be safely stored there.
The museum has an impressive array of armaments on display, from cannons to nuclear bombs and underwater mines.
But ultimately, it’s the story of the industrious, brave individuals, mostly women, throughout two world wars, who worked here that truly brings the museum to life.
Women were just as keen as men to contribute to the war effort in 1914, but opportunities were limited.
Women were initially banned from military service, so instead worked in munitions factories.
At the end of 1915, Priddy’s Hard became the first armament depot to employ women.
By 1918 there were 71 female clerical staff and a labour force of 781.
These women were at that time dubbed Munitionettes.
To help boost sailors’ morale they would often hide love letters in the ammunition boxes they were filling, which led to many a distant relationship being forged.
By WWII, 2,500 women toiled in the workshops and laboratories at Priddy’s Hard, packing shells full of explosive material.
They were also known as the “Canary Girls”, not for their cheerful singing, but more soberly because of the explosive powder they handled which caused them to look jaundiced.
It’s poignant to read the chronicles in the museum from the women workers.
“It was like lemonade powder and turned my skin yellow and my hair orange.
“We had to be sure we did not wear rings or anything that caused a spark.”
Utilitarian white overalls and protective headgear were the order of the day, and leather shoes to avoid kicking a spark.
Great care had to be taken whilst crossing over for duty from the “dirty” civilian area to the “clean” threshold where danger lurked if procedures were not followed.
The girls got through their tedious, stressful 12-hour shifts with camaraderie and fortitude.
Nearly one million women worked in munitions factories across the UK doing their bit for the war effort.
These were the girls music hall singer Gracie Fields famously paid tribute to in her own inimitable way in the humorous “Thing-Ummy-Bob” song.
The museum’s Camber Lights Café with its outdoor seating area is the perfect viewpoint for marvelling at the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
Nearby Portsdown Hill, with its exposed chalk face, has been a natural barrier and repellent to invaders over the centuries.
The crest of the hill has a variety of Palmerston Forts dating from the mid-19th century.
Forts Southwick and Widley were the HQ for the massive 1944 D-Day operations.
Time to retrace our steps back beyond the Gosport Ferry terminal to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum.
HMS Dolphin in Gosport was the traditional home of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.
Nowadays, the visitor experience includes the opportunity to board HMS Alliance, the last surviving WWII submarine, which patrolled the world’s oceans for three decades.
Out of the water, at nearly 100 metres long, its enormous size can really be appreciated.
However, the interior still seems cramped. Just one narrow passageway runs the length of submarine, with every inch of limited space used.
Months at sea meant water had to be carefully rationed.
Men could brush their teeth, but forget showers and shaving!
The cook had to produce three meals a day from a tiny galley.
Fresh food was soon used, replaced by tinned goods. The crew drew up a rota for potato peeling and washing up.
Back outside, exploration of the submarine museum and film theatre reveals a collection of often poignant exhibits in tribute to the Royal Navy’s submariners.
And none more so than a cake baked by a proud mother in WWII for the homecoming of her son. Sadly, he never returned.
The heartbroken mother left the cake uneaten, a poignant memorial to all those brave lads who never returned from the deep.