| Both Robert Hogg (from 1803 to 1816)
and his son Robert Armstrong Hogg (from 1811 to 1813 - he was only
10 years old) served in the Royal Artillery. |
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Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, c. 1900 |
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| FirePower
- the museum of the Royal Artillery and Royal Arsenal |
| James
Clavell Library - library and archive of RA |
| Royal
Artillery Regiment web-site |
| Royal
Arsenal Historical Society |
| Facelift
for Historic Woolwich |
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| The Royal Regiment of Artillery was formed in the Royal
Arsenal in 1716 and the soldiers were billeted in barracks there.
Between 1776 and 1802 these splendid new barracks were built on Woolwich
Common. The buildings still house soldiers from the Royal Artillery. |
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The Royal Arsenal
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The area had great military and naval importance. In 1515 Henry
VIII (r.1509 – 1547) ordered the building of the warship Henri Grace
à Dieu as part of an effort to improve and enlarge the English Navy
and to this end established a major dockyard at Woolwich, very close
to the area now occupied by Thamesmead. It was from this point onwards
that the area became an important naval and military centre. The
Thamesmead site, mostly on the Greenwich side of the boundary, was
used for storing ordnance or ammunition from as early as 1565 and
gradually more and more land was given over to what became the Royal
Arsenal. This institution made and tested guns and ammunition.
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| The land was ideal for this purpose, as there were still very few
people living in the area. In addition the marshy ground deadened
the impact of explosions and therefore was safer when testing ammunition.
One of the weapons tested on the marshes near Plumstead was called
Mallet’s Mortar. It was meant to be portable but ended up weighing
42 tons! Mallet’s Mortar was not a successful invention – on its
first test firing in October 1857 a fracture appeared in the metal
and the project was abandoned. |
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| The Royal Arsenal brought much-needed trade to the area as people
employed in the munitions factories came to live in the nearby towns
and villages. The area became more and more important militarily
throughout the 18th and 19th centuries – England was at war with
many countries, including France and Spain. The Crimean War of 1854
– 56 placed big demands on the Arsenal. |
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| By the beginning of the First World War the Arsenal was operating
at full capacity, providing employment for 73,000 people. However,
partly because of isolated Zeppelin raids on the Arsenal during
the First World War, officials became worried about the manufacture
and testing of guns and ammunition so close to densely populated
areas. The Arsenal was now surrounded by residential developments
as London expanded further and further outwards. Therefore from
the 1920s onwards the site was scaled down. Both the testing and
manufacture of weapons were moved to more remote and secret areas. |
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| The Second World War merely confirmed the need to move the Arsenal
elsewhere. Its location was well known and it was easily visible,
with the result that the Luftwaffe could target it for bombing raids
– and this meant that surrounding residential areas were also badly
damaged. |
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| After the Second World War the Arsenal was less and less used.
By the late 1950s the London County Council (LCC) had earmarked
part of the land – together with about 500 acres of virgin marshland
at Erith – to form the site for a new riverside town development
to help cope with the demand for housing in the London area. |
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An alternative story
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| A rope yard followed the establishment of the royal dockyard, and
in 1695 the Royal Laboratory was set up adjacent to Tower place
on Woolwich Warren. The Royal Laboratory, producing explosives,
fuses, and shot, was the beginning of the Royal Arsenal. Early in
the following century the Brass Foundry and Dial Square were built
almost at the same time as the building which was to become the
Royal Military Academy, later the Model Room. |
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| The Regiment of Artillery was formed in the Arsenal in 1716 and
in 1741 the Royal Military Academy. The Royal artillery moved from
the Arsenal to new barracks on the Common between 1776 and 1802
and the Academy moved to another new building also on the Common
in 1808. The presence of these great institutions had a profound
effect on the development of the town creating an industrialised
garrison town. The town grew very rapidly occupying all vacant land
except Woolwich Common which was owned and used by the Royal Artillery.
The focus of the town moved from the old town centre on the riverside
to fields which lay to the south. The new town centre with its impressive
range of shops grew to become the principal shopping area in South
East London and North Kent. The demand for houses greatly outstripped
the amount of vacant land so, in the 19th century, Woolwich expanded
into the adjacent village of Plumstead, and then in the early 20th
century onto the fields of rural Eltham. |
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| The dockyard closed in 1869, the Academy moved to Sandhurst in
1945, and the manufacturing element of the Arsenal shut down in
1967. The subsequent closure in 1968 of the great Siemens factory
on the Woolwich/Charlton borders brought about a downturn in the
town’s economy with serious effects on the success of Woolwich as
a shopping centre. |
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| The final closure of the Royal Arsenal in 1994 created the opportunity
to open up the Arsenal site with its fine buildings and river views
for housing, business, leisure, and heritage. |
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| “Firepower” the Museum of the Royal Artillery has already opened
on the Arsenal site (but has closed in 2016), and the Greenwich Heritage Centre is due to
open in 2003. It is hoped that the Royal Arsenal will provide a
springboard for the regeneration of Woolwich’s economy. |
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Dockyard, Royal Arsenal, Royal Artillery - History of
Woolwich
(excerpt
- see full story) |
| |
| In 1512 .... Henry VIII chose Woolwich as the site ..... From then
until its closure in 1869 Woolwich had a royal dockyard of considerable
distinction. |
| |
| A rope yard followed the establishment of the royal dockyard, and
in 1695 the Royal Laboratory was set up adjacent to Tower place
on Woolwich Warren. The Royal Laboratory, producing explosives,
fuses, and shot, was the beginning of the Royal Arsenal. Early in
the following century the Brass Foundry and Dial Square were built
almost at the same time as the building which was to become the
Royal Military Academy, later the Model Room. |
| |
| The Regiment of Artillery was formed in the Arsenal in 1716 and
in 1741 the Royal Military Academy. The Royal artillery moved from
the Arsenal to new barracks on the Common between 1776 and 1802
and the Academy moved to another new building also on the Common
in 1808. |
| |
| The presence of these great institutions had a profound effect
on the development of the town creating an industrialised garrison
town. The town grew very rapidly occupying all vacant land except
Woolwich Common which was owned and used by the Royal Artillery. |
 |
| Old map of Woolwich and Royal Arsenal c. 1940 |
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| Plumstead
1800 - 1900 |
| Charlton |
| Woolwich |
| Welling
and East Wickham (and Welling) |
