By Kasey
This season at the Redoubt Fortress, our raison d’etre is to encourage visitors to uncover the secrets of the building and the people who lived here throughout the years. As part of our effort to bring people closer to the building’s history we are opening two spaces that have previously been inaccessible: the main magazine room, and the staircase.
It is hard to imagine it as the significant, bustling place it once was – but being there, among its original features, makes it a lot easier to envision. The history of the room itself makes it an intriguing site for exploration, but in addition, it also proves to be an effective space to tell modern stories. This season, it is hosting a travelling exhibition about WWI shipwrecks off the coast of Sussex.
This season at the Redoubt Fortress, our raison d’etre is to encourage visitors to uncover the secrets of the building and the people who lived here throughout the years. As part of our effort to bring people closer to the building’s history we are opening two spaces that have previously been inaccessible: the main magazine room, and the staircase.
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| I wonder what's up there? Come on a tour and find out. |
During our winter program, I was busy locating and
repackaging Eastbourne Heritage objects for transport. My workspace during that
time was Casemate 11, which differs from all of the other casemates in terms of
its design. During the Napoleonic wars, it was used as the main magazine room.
Its function was threefold. Firstly, it acted as a repository for gun powder
(350 barrels approximately). Gun powder was also maintained in this room. If
the powder got damp, the charge would be less reactionary, which would in turn, limit the distance of cannon fire. Finally,
the magazine room was where the powder was bagged into cartridges and made ready for use.
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Looking a bit awestruck at how my workspace has changed
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With gun powder covering everything and anything in the room
(including the workers), the risk of accidental explosion was high. Notable features in the space illumine an
understanding on the part of the men that all precautions had to be taken to
avoid this. The space was partitioned to accommodate the shifting room, where
working soldiers would change into special anti-spark clothing: white calico, with
whale-bone buttons; no hobnails, no belt buckles, no pockets. They would have to pass through a bar, wearing a
white hat with a red dot, and this would indicate that they were fit to work in
the space.
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| Admiring objects from various shipwrecks (in an enormous fleece, I might add) |
It is hard to imagine it as the significant, bustling place it once was – but being there, among its original features, makes it a lot easier to envision. The history of the room itself makes it an intriguing site for exploration, but in addition, it also proves to be an effective space to tell modern stories. This season, it is hosting a travelling exhibition about WWI shipwrecks off the coast of Sussex.
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| A recovered sextant One of the other spaces that has opened this season is the spiralling staircase between Casemates 6 and 7. It was designed to be a safe route of access to the gun platform in case the fortress came under fire from above. |
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| Conveniently, the stairs make a good stop on our October Twilight tours.
If you would like to visit these spaces and uncover their
secrets, you are welcome to come along on one of our tours. Tours at the
Redoubt Fortress are daily at 11:00 and 14:30. We look forward to seeing you!
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