Gosport Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Fort Blockhouse; Chiderodd

In the civil parish of Gosport.
In the historic county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Modern Authority of Hampshire.
1974 county of Hampshire.
Medieval County of Hampshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SZ626992
Latitude 50.79039° Longitude -1.11299°

Gosport Tower has been described as a certain Artillery Fort, and also as a certain Chain Tower.

There are no visible remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

One of the original defences of the principal entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, Blockhouse began as a boom tower erected in the reign of Edward VI to hold one end of a boom chain. It was subsequently improved and enlarged and became known by its present title some time in the eighteenth century (Hogg).
The Henrician tower was in a state of decay by 1585 and although proposals were made to replace it, little seems to have been done. As the Western end of the 'harbour chain', it appears to have been replaced by a fixed point or perhaps capstan to hold the chain until de Gomme redesigned the harbour defences. In 1667 he built an L-shaped battery there with 17 or 18 guns facing South-East and 2 South-West (Williams 1979). (PastScape)

he original Blockhouse was constructed between 1420-1422 at the north-eastern end of the spit in a natural position for defending the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, opposite the still surviving Round Tower on the Portsmouth side. Both were connected by a chain which could be raised to close the harbour entrance. in 1542 Leland described The Blockhouse as a round stone tower with ordnance. Both the Blockhouse and Bulwark are shown on a portrait of 1545 as a round tower with supporting buttresses and battlements and a larger two-tiered circular fortification respectively, although the accuracy of this portrait is open to question. However, an armament list of c.1547 mentions the Bulwark but not the Blockhouse, possibly suggesting that the latter had been disarmed by this date. Indeed, the Blockhouse is not shown on a map of c.1588 the Bulwark was described as old and decayed and its remains were still visible as a mound in early-mid 17th century. (Hampshire AHBR)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1001873, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ha276
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 462035.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 19017.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Fortified Places
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 50
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 93 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 195
  Williams, G.H., 1979, The Western Defences of Portsmouth Harbour 1400-1800 (Portsmouth City Council)
  Williams, G.H., 1974, Earlier Fortifications of Gosport (Gosport Historic Records and Museum Soc) p. 10-14
  Hogg, I.V., 1974, Coast Defences of England and Wales, 1856-1956 (David & Charles) p. 139
  Comey, A., 1966, Fortifications in Old Portsmouth p. 30
  Page, Wm (ed), 1908, VCH Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Vol. 3 p. 187 online transcription
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Gairdner, J. and Brodie, R.H. (eds), 1896, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII Vol. 15 p. 131 no. 323 online copy
  c. 1548, The Encampment of the English forces near Portsmouth, Together with a view of the English and French fleets at commencement of the action between them on the XIXth July MDXLV (Cowdray picture) For a discussion of this picture see Dominic Fontana, The Cowdray engravings and the loss of the Mary Rose
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 208, 209
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 282 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dave Hopkins, 2004, Extensive Urban Survey - Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (English Heritage) Download copy
  C. Donnithorne, 1999, Fort Blockhouse

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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