Laboratory Building, E Range and Attached Rolling Way

Details

1137/0/10098 PRIDDY'S HARD 17-APR-09 Laboratory Building, E Range and attac hed Rolling Way

GV II

Also Known As: Buildings 412, 413 and 416, PRIDDY'S HARD Laboratory block and attached Rolling Way. 1847/8, and c1879 (Rolling Way). Brick in Flemish bond, stone plinth to earlier buildings, slate roofs, some corrugated steel.

Two storeys, with five large casements at each level, to brick voussoir heads, and plain gable-ends, but on the outer - harbour - side the lower storey is covered by the later roofed Rolling Way, which returns across the SE end to an outer gable over a pair of framed plank doors to cambered brick voussoir head, and on the long return includes a similar pair of doors, right, and a 4-pane light; in the section along the flank of the laboratory the roof is in corrugated steel, and the way has blocked lights.

INTERIOR: Rolling Way has timber king-post trusses.

HISTORICAL NOTE: This is the only surviving building - a carpenters' shop converted into an Examining Room by 1880 - from the east range of the Laboratory (for further details see Laboratory North Range, qv). The two-storey block was intended originally to be of a single storey, but soon had the extra floor added; it was to start with a carpenters' shop, and became an examining room by 1880. The Rolling Way connected the northernmost 'C' Magazine (qv) with the Shell Store (qv) of 1879 at the S end of the site; it is of special historic interest in relation to the operations on the site. The Rolling Way formed part of the tramway system that from the 1860s was devised in order to link 'C' Magazine to the Laboratory and its associated shell-filling complex. It extends both to the front and rear of this building, the latter section being joined to the Case Store (qv) to the south of 'B' Magazine. The magazines and related structures at Priddy's Hard date from the late 18th century. The site's expansion from the mid 19th century was closely related to the development of land and sea artillery and the navy's transition from the age of sail, powder and solid shot to the Dreadnought class of the early 1900s. Priddy's Hard retains the best-preserved range of structures that relate to this remarkable history of continual enlargement and adaptation, one that encompasses that of Britain's dominance as a sea power on a global scale. For further historical details on this site, see the description for 'A' Magazine.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

499953

Legacy System:

LBS

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