What is Fort Purbrook? Palmerston's Folly, the Who's Tommy and rock climbing
A fort built to stop a French invasion that never came ended up as a holiday camp on film. The story of Fort Purbrook and its neighbours on Portsdown Hill.
Fort Purbrook is a Victorian fort on Portsdown Hill, one of six planned after 1859 to protect Portsmouth from an attack inland by France. The threat faded soon after they were finished, and the forts were nicknamed Palmerston's Folly. Today Fort Purbrook offers archery, rifle shooting and indoor rock climbing.
A Purbrook fort built to stop a French invasion ended up as Tommy's Holiday Camp. It sounds like a joke, but it is a real piece of Hampshire history.
Why the forts were built
After 1859, six forts were planned along Portsdown Hill to protect Portsmouth from an attack inland. The main fear was Napoleon III of France. Fort Purbrook was one of them. Wikipedia's Portsdown Hill and Palmerston Forts pages are the source for this.
Palmerston's Folly
The threat faded soon after the forts were finished, and they got a nickname: Palmerston's Folly. That fits what we found elsewhere. The Hilsea Lines, a separate set of defences nearer the harbour, were built between 1858 and 1871, and according to Wikipedia the 1859 Royal Commission and new rifled artillery made them obsolete before they were completed. They have never been used in battle.
A second life in the Second World War
The forts did find a use as anti-aircraft gun positions in the Second World War.
Tommy's Holiday Camp
Then Fort Purbrook played Tommy's holiday camp in the Who's film Tommy, released in 1975. Ken Russell directed it, and the film also used Hilsea Lido as Bernie's Holiday Camp, so Portsmouth's defences and swimming pool both made it to the big screen.
What it is today
Today Fort Purbrook has archery, rifle shooting and indoor rock climbing. We have not checked opening times or booking arrangements, so check with the operator before you go.
The hill beneath
Portsdown Hill's highest point is 131 metres (430 feet), inside Fort Southwick, according to Wikipedia. That figure is from one source. Fort Southwick was an Admiralty research establishment and was sold for housing in 2003. The earliest recorded form of the name is Portesdone, in 1086, meaning the hill above the port. Over 50 hectares of the south face is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for chalk grassland, and Wikipedia says it probably has the UK's largest small blue butterfly population.
Fort Southwick's tunnels
Beneath Fort Southwick, Royal Engineers dug a secret tunnel network about 100 feet underground between February and December 1942. Subbrit says there are three main tunnels, each 110 yards long, and the eastern entrance has 179 steps. It was not Eisenhower's headquarters. That was Southwick House, about a mile north. The fort handled communications for the Allied Naval Commander during Overlord. A new prefabricated communications centre was built on the parade ground in 1974 and used until 2001. Subbrit is our only source for these details.
Nelson on the hill
The Nelson Monument on Portsdown Hill, built 1807 to 1808, was paid for by a subscription of officers and men who served under Nelson at Trafalgar, and served as a seamark for ships entering Portsmouth Harbour. It stands at the Fareham end of the hill.
A fair that Parliament closed
In 1862, Parliament passed an Act for the Discontinuance of Portsdown Fair. Wikipedia says the fair had been held on Easter Mondays since 1716 and was by then in decline. We do not claim why it ended.
Watch the reel
Folly, or the best insurance job ever? We asked you to pick a side. Watch the Fort Purbrook reel on the Waterlooville.co Facebook page, and follow us there for a new local history story every day.
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