Number 16 Store the Powder House (MO 42)

NUMBER 16 STORE THE POWDER HOUSE (MO 42), MORICE YARD

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1378553
Date first listed:
13-Aug-1999
List Entry Name:
Number 16 Store the Powder House (MO 42)
Statutory Address:
NUMBER 16 STORE THE POWDER HOUSE (MO 42), MORICE YARD

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Location

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1378553
Date first listed:
13-Aug-1999
List Entry Name:
Number 16 Store the Powder House (MO 42)
Statutory Address 1:
NUMBER 16 STORE THE POWDER HOUSE (MO 42), MORICE YARD

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
NUMBER 16 STORE THE POWDER HOUSE (MO 42), MORICE YARD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
City of Plymouth (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
SX 44905 54958

Details

SX 4454 NE PLYMOUTH MORICE YARD, Devonport
Dockyard
740-1/95/189
No.16 Store, the Powder
House (MO 42)

GV II*


Powder magazine, now store. 1744. Coursed rubble with brick dressings, vaulted roof not visible. Rectangular single-depth plan.
EXTERIOR: single storey; 7 -bay range. Parapeted front with brick corners, 3-bay centre has brick pilasters to a raised parapet and central pediment, small C20 doorway and loops to the flanking bays; C19 inserted casements either side with brick dressings. Returns have blind round arches in projected full-height panels, that to the left has a round- arched doorway. Above the central entrance is a good gilded cartouche of the Duke of Montague.
INTERIOR: divided by brick baffle walls with 5 segmental-arched openings, smaller at each end, into 4 bays with round-arched stone vaults, each with a channelled timber beam extending from front to back along the top, part of a former all-wood traveller. The walls are reported to have a double skin, to contain blast and maintain an even temperature.
HISTORY: originally designed with a surrounding wall intended, like the internal baffles, to deflect blast. The Yard was laid out by the Board of Ordnance from 1720, and Lord Montague was Master General of the Ordnance from 1739-49. This is the earliest surviving naval ordnance magazine, illustrative of the way Ordnance Yard magazines were sited close to dockyards prior to the establishment of Priddy's Hard, 1773, (qv) near Portsmouth. Of considerable historic importance, within the best surviving naval ordnance yard in the country. (Sources: The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989: 653; Coad J: Historic Architecture of the Royal Navy: London: 1983: 133-5).


Listing NGR: SX4490554958

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
476503
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Devon North, (1952), 653
Coad, J, Historic Architecture of the Royal Navy, (1983), 133-135

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Number 16 Store the Powder House (MO 42)

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 28-Jun-2026 at 04:45:00.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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