Colewort Barracks

Colewort Barracks was a military installation at Portsmouth, Hampshire. It was also known as St Mary's Barracks.[1]

Colewort Barracks
Portsmouth
Colewort Barracks
Colewort Barracks
Location within Hampshire
Coordinates50.79375°N 1.10345°W / 50.79375; -1.10345
TypeBarracks
Site history
Built1694
Built forWar Office
In use1694-late 1920s

History

The facility were originally built as a garrison hospital in 1680 and converted into a barracks in 1694.[2] The barracks were named after a type of wild cabbage which was prevalent in the local area.[3] The barracks were home to the Army Service Corps, responsible for supplies, transport and accommodation, during the First World War.[4] After the war, the barracks fell into disrepair and were demolished to make way for an expansion to Portsmouth Power Station in the late 1920s.[5]

Description

The barracks were described in the Chronicles of Portsmouth (1823) as:

"...presenting a fine range of buildings, three stories high, having in front a parade-ground of large size, at one extremity of which is a building corresponding in style, formerly used as an armoury. In the front is a bold armorial sculpture of the English arms in alto relievo. Behind is a second space of ground with ranges of stabling; and on the opposite side, the apartments of the officers of the Royal Artillery. […] On the site of the barracks anciently stood a Conventual building dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and the large burial-ground called St. Mary's was the colewort or cabbage garden or close".[1]

The aforementioned 'cabbage garden', which gave the barracks its name, was still in use as a burial-ground in the early 19th century, long after the conventual chapel of St Mary had been demolished.[6]

gollark: It seems a perfectly good description.
gollark: It is:- a penalty you apply to people- death
gollark: What? No.
gollark: The ability to lie is important, to guard against some abuses of power mostly.
gollark: I didn't take it that way, no.

References
  1. Slight, Henry & Julian (1828). Chronicles of Portsmouth. London: Lupton Relfe.
  2. Wallis, Steve (2016). Secret Portsmouth. Amberley. ISBN 978-1445655161.
  3. "Gunwaharf Gate". History in Portsmouth. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  4. Quail, Sarah (2014). Portsmouth in the Great War. Pen and Sword Military. p. 29. ISBN 978-1473847804.
  5. "Old Portsmouth map leaves residents stumped". The News. 23 August 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  6. "The liberty of Portsmouth and Portsea Island: Introduction". British History Online. Victoria County History 1908. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
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