Gosport Tower

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Fort Blockhouse; Lymdens Bulwark; Chiderodd

In the civil parish of Gosport.
In the historic county of Hampshire (Modern Authority of Hampshire, 1974 county of Hampshire).

Vanished. A blockhouse was first build on the Gosport side of Portsmouth harbour in 1495, with 5 guns. Henry VIII ordered it replaced with an 8 gun battery as part of his Device Forts in 1539. At the Harbour mouth opposite the Round Tower and at W end of the chain boom. No record of it since C.16. Fort Blockhouse C18 and C19 fortification on or about it's site. PastScape record as "Blockhouse, probably built in 1417, bastion added in C16. Position shown as a mound on a C17 plan. No physical evidence found." Held east end of harbour chain, west end held by Round Tower, Portsmouth (qv)

This site has been described as a;
Artillery Fort
Chain Tower.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Nothing visible remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SZ626992

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 462026, 462035

County Sites and Monuments Record number; 19017

• Web site links
  • http://www.hants.gov.uk/hampshiretreasures/entries/v12p010e01.html
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern) p50
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p93 [slight]
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p195
    Williams, G.H., 1979, The Western Defences of Portsmouth Harbour 1400-1800 (Portsmouth City Council)
    Williams, G.H., 1974, Earlier Fortifications of Gosport (Gosport Historic Records and Museum Soc) p10-14
    Comey, A., 1966, Fortifications in Old Portsmouth p30
    Page, Wm (ed), 1908, VCH, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Vol3 p187
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p208, 209