Fort Nelson is currently undergoing a £3.5M development of its galleries and fortifications, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The newly developed site is scheduled for completion in 2011. Existing galleries and fortifications will remain open as much as possible during the building work.
Built in the 1860s as one of a ring of Victorian artillery forts to guard the naval dockyard against a feared French invasion that never materialised, this fort now houses one of the finest displays of historical artillery pieces on display for public viewing anywhere in Europe.
Fort Nelson was built as a response to invasion fears at a time of rapidly changing military technology and of British suspicion of the ambitions of France under Emperor Napoleon III. Fort Nelson is an extensive artillery fortification forming part of the defences of the Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth.
The Royal Armouries is home to the United Kingdom’s national collection of arms and armour, including artillery. As a museum we have a duty of care for these objects, to keep them, study them and increase our knowledge of them, so that this can be passed to future generations along with the objects themselves.
Image: Aerial photograph of Fort Nelson © Board of Trustees of Armouries, 2010.
Royal Armouries Museum
Fort Nelson
Portsdown Hill Road
Fareham
PO17 6AN
Tel: 01329 233 734
Email: [email protected]
www.royalarmouries.org