Description of Activity
Project Office: Bastion 6The existing WW1 Remembrance Centre is currently housed at Fort Widley, Portsdown Hill Road. Set up to display artefacts, reproduction exhibits and memorabilia from World War One, complete with walk through trench system. However, as a Grade 1 listed building, there is limited access via a steep staircase. In order to grow the exhibition to a National collection, the Museum plans to move to a new location at Bastion 6, part of the Hillsea Lines. Completed in 1871 as part the Palmerston Fortification Strategy, Bastion 6 is a Scheduled Monument protected by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The red brick casement, with bombproof vaulted ceilings, was “designed to provide gun emplacements which afforded protection to the guns and their crews. The gun positions were arranged along the front of the casemate in a long room known as the gun gallery. Behind the gun positions were rooms, separated by curved corrugated iron blast shields, each of which provided living accommodation for five men. The guns in the casemates provided cross-fire to prevent the enemy crossing Ports Creek and to provide low profile fire along the front of the lines. A typical layout consisted of 2 gun galleries, various armaments stores, 9 accommodation rooms, a cook house and a wash room.” (Extract from Hillsea Lines leaflet) It is understood that Bastion 6 will be renovated to house the WW1 Remembrance Museum collection, and the move will also facilitate the upgrade of the collection to a National Museum status. Currently the building is in an uninhabitable state, but under continuous renovations to bring the building back to a habitable state. With voluntary contributions from the Armed Forces, Skills Force and other interested parties, tasks such as stripping lead paint from the vaulted ceilings, and woodwork repairs to the fenestration, have already begun. In addition, it is understood that English Heritage and the local council are in full support of the venture. However, it is anticipated that the move will be slow, relying primarily on work carried out on a voluntary basis. The clients are now in need of skilled volunteers to help deliver the project, and keen to involve students of the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries in some way; whether this is by helping to produce design proposals, physical labour etc.
| Period | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Held at | WW1 Remembrance Centre , United Kingdom |