page_title: Gunpowder magazine
section_title: Priddy's Hard, Gosport
hierarchical_section_title: Gunpowder magazine / In the United Kingdom / In England / Portsmouth / Priddy's Hard, Gosport
caption_attribution_description: English: Museum of Naval Firepower, Gosport, Hampshire
context_page_description: A gunpowder magazine is a magazine designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications required storage magazines. Most magazines were purely functional and tended to be in remote and secure locations. They are the successor to the earlier powder towers and powder houses.
context_section_description: Priddy's Hard began life as Priddy's Hard Fort; however in 1768 King George III authorised the construction of a gunpowder magazine inside the ramparts to avoid having to store gunpowder in the Square Tower, Portsmouth. Construction was begun in 1771 and the magazine was in use by 1777. A cooperage and shifting house were built alongside at the same time, together with a 'rolling way' for moving gunpowder barrels between the magazine and a nearby wharf; together with the Magazine they are all Grade I listed structures.
  Both the fort and the magazine came under the control of the Board of Ordnance until 1855; control passing, first to the War Office, and then the Admiralty in 1891. Priddy's Hard became a Naval Armaments Depot, finally closing in 1977. The magazine now forms part of the Explosion! Museum of Naval Firepower.
caption: The 18th-century 'A' Magazine at Priddy's Hard
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