h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Icy
I have not forgotton. I have attempted to sort into period/era divided bt ..........or,,,,,,,
I haveattempted to answer questions as asked and suggest several entries. see what you think and come back..

Regards bs

Roman/Saxon period:
Portchester and map reuse in other periods eg:
Emperor Vespasian in the 1st century A.D. embarked for the seige of Jerusalem after subduing S.E. Britain & the Isle of Wight.
St. Paul landed, A clump of trees near Portchester was in an area now known as Paulsgrove.
Henry I found its position fortuitous when travelling to France,secure lodging and a safe depository for treasury bullion.
Henry II made several visits to Portchester Castle. During the 14th century, Portchester Castle was well maintained for fear of constant threats from France throughout The Hundred Year War
Richard II made peace with France in 1396, he rebuilt much of the castle, transforming part of it into a palace.
Henry V used Portchester as a departure point for Agincourt in 1415
……………………………….................................................................
Norman Period:
motte near Gosport municipal dump.
Other information/trivia
1066 landing at Fareham creek
………………………………..................................................................
Mediaeval period:
refurbishment
Southampton Water Protection
………………………………...................................................................
Tudor period:
Southsea Castle
Calshot Castle
Hurst Castle
Round Tower/Square Tower, Old Portsmouth
"move from longbows to cannon"
………………………………..................................................................
Stwerst and Civil War:
Island forts in Portsmouth Harbour (what period?) Stewart
Fort James
Fort Charles
Seige of Portsmouth Alton Basing House battle of Cherrton Southwick House ( Parliamentary HQ during ECW)

………………………………......................................................................
Napoleonic period:
dockyard defences ("wooden wall"?)
19th century forts on Portsdown Hill & Gosport approaches (aka Palmerston's Follies):
Fort Nelson (artillery museum)
Fort Purbrook
Fort Southwick
Fort Widley
Farlington Redoubt
Fort Fareham +5 (incl.Elson?)
Offshore forts ((what period?)This one)
Spitbank
Horse Sand
No Mans Land
St Helens
Gosport
Brockhurst Blockhouse as near Southsea
Monkton
Gilkicker
Stokes Bay Lines
Brown Down Battery
The service railway

Southsea Lumps
Fort Cumberland
Eastney Battery
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
World War 1:
(anything?)

World War 2:
Tank traps / Pill boxes / Gun emplacements re use of prior years The training camps
Southwick House (D-Day HQ)
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Recent Defences:
Admiralty Research Establishment (aka ASWE, DERA, etc)









Isle of Wight fortifications (need list)

OK here goes Clockwise
West Cowes
East Cowes (now part of yacht club)
8 miles
Puckpool mortar battery
9 miles round the coast
Bembribge Rort
Rabcliff Battery
Yaverland Battery
Sandow Fort
Barrack Battery
2 miles
Ventnor radar station
12 miles
Freshwater redoubt
2 miles
Needles battery
Heatherwood point battery
Warden point battery
Golden hill fort
Cliff End battery
Fort Albert (Opposite Hurst Castle)
Fort Victori
Boulder? Battey
Yarmouth Castle
8 miles
Return to West Cowes

Carisbroke Castle in the middle




INLAND RING
Forts
Gomer
Grange
Rowner
Brockhurst elson
Farehamwallington
Nelson
Southwick
Widley
Purbrook
Farlington battery
Hilsea Lines opposite Purbrook and Farlington battery

COSTAL WEST TO EAST
Hurst Castle
Calshot Castle
Gods House Tower
Netley Castle
Browndown battery
Stokes Bat Lines
Gilkicker Fort
Fort Moncton

Fort James
Fort Charles

Fort Blockhouse
Portsmouth Point Battery
Sothsea Castle
Lumps Fort
Eastney Battery
Fort Cumberland



Bob stafford

Sorry Icy
Oops This should read
INLAND RING
Forts
Gomer
Grange
Rowner
Brockhurst
Elson
Fareham
Wallington
Nelson
Southwick
Widley
Purbrook
Farlington battery
Hilsea Lines opposite Purbrook and Farlington battery


bs

Found another few I O W fortification

Opposite St Helens Fort Needles Point Bttery, then Steneywood Battery and Culver Battery.

And also Fort Purbrook had asecond Redoubt to the north of Faflington Crookhorn Reboubt.
S0rry I missed them..

bs

Hi Icy

I found another needs research.

St Andrew's Castle (Hamble parish; SU4806?) = Sct Andros cast.

bs

Hi Icy

Are these links and other ideas of any use. I have played with the multimap link and it looks fine..

Have you got any other ideas

bs

I'm going to be a bit busy with work for a while Bob. I've got some references at home which I'm going through slowly, and I'll post something when I've finished.

Ok
No problem this is a work of sime size and cant be rushed let me no, it will allow time to gather odd's and end's together......

bs

Hello - did anything further happen with this?

<BB<

No, I confess I got sidetracked and wrote about a lot of other things instead!

Bob's still around, so he may be subscribed to this.

Not a lot I still have some notes but the first thing is how to order the entry, there so many that were used over many periods they cant just be lumped into 1 entry

The choices are
Date (of construction)
Geography (area in which they are located)
Type (castle, fort, hill fort, pillbox, gun emplacement.......)
What they were built for (Roman, Norman, E civil war, Palmastons follies Napolian, WWI or WWII
Or whatever other you can think of, any ideas chaps.

So that is up to the committee (<BB< and Icy) to decide as to approach and are we going to list everything or just the touristy things.

I have other entries I'm writing, Bob, so I'll duck out of this project for the moment. Happy to help research anything online, though - let me know if there's anything you might need.

Layout ideas Icy please

Well, there are lots of ways you could do it, but the best advice I can give would be to first make it enthusiastic in style. If you've enjoyed visiting or studying these defences, explain why. The layout can come afterwards, but there's no point in competing with Wikipedia and it's rigid layout.

Imagine you're describing them over the phone to someone in Australia - what would you say?

I'd be inclined to tackle an easy one first - maybe the Portsdown Hill forts or the solent sea forts?

Good advice are you in for this <BB<

Yep, I sure am. Did you want to write just one article, then, or have this as a project of many articles? I'd be inclined to go for writing many articles, if not one per castle/fort at least one for each region or period. Ie - one about the sea forts, one about the defences of Sandown Bay, one about Freshwater & west Wight, one about Portsdown Hill etc. Having them all in one article would be too confusing.

<BB<

Right here is what I think
Introduction and aims of the project with index

then
Pre History to Rome
Rome to Saxon
Saxon to Tudor
Tudor to the last Stewart
Stewart to Victoria
Victoria to WWI
WWI to WWII
WWII to Now

All will include modifications list eg Portchester (I hope I remember them in the correct order)
Mod 1 the Normans keep,
Mod 2 the 12c priory,
Mod 3 the Tudor store,
Mod 4 the ECW garrison,
Mod 5 the Napolinaic War Prison
Mod 6 the Hospital

these will be mentioned in the "castles modified in this period" section at the end of each entry.


What do you think

And I also think that we open this out to contributions from others so they can include a complete castle description a just a good idea or even a few lines of text.

Oops should read

Saxon to Tudor
Tudor to the last Stewart
William and Mary to Victoria
Victoria to WWI

Not

Saxon to Tudor
Tudor to the last Stewart
Stewart to Victoria
Victoria to WWI

And what do you think we should call the south I think we should look at the coast from Bristol to Gravesend, the IOW and the Channel Islands.

That's ambitious! So who is going to write what? I'm happy to do the Isle of Wight forts as I've been to most of them as well as the Solent seaforts.

<BB<