Fort Nelson

  

    Once upon a time, we were afraid of invasion. From the French.
   So in 1859 the prime minister, Lord Palmerston, commissioned a series of forts to defend the navy's main anchorage at Portsmouth. These huge structures still stand, surrounded by suburban houses or looming over thhe town on Portadown hill. And one of them, Fort Nelson, has been restored. It's in the hands of the Royal Armouries, and it's where they keep the big guns. The one at the top is one of two Mallett's Mortars. With a calibre of 914mm - about three feet - it shares with the American Little David mortar the title of biggest gun ever.

       The fort's guns weren't trained on the harbour. The worry was that the sneaky French wouuld land further down the coast and attack the anchorage from the landward side. So the forts effectively defend Portsmouth from the rest of England. Of course by the time they were finished, at stupendous cost, the threat had vanished - courtesy of the Germans, ironically, after their victory in the Franco - Prussian war. So they became known as 'Palmerston's follies'. Defence procurement foul - ups aren't just a modern phenomenon.
   Entry is free - as it is to the other Royal Armouries outbase at Leeds. Well worth a visit.