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Portsmouth Square Tower

In the civil parish of Portsmouth. In the historic county of Hampshire (Modern Authority of Portsmouth; City of, 1974 county of Hampshire).

This site has been described as a;
Artillery Fort.
  Confidence: This site was certainly a medieval fortification or palace.   Masonry ruins/remnants remains.
The Square Tower stands at the south-west end of the High Street. Stone and brick tower standing 9m tall. Built in 1494 as a gun platform and house, it was used as a powder magazine from the late C16 to the early C18. Rebuilt in C19 and used as an admiralty semaphore telegraph station between 1822 and 1833, medieval work mainly buried inside.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 474317)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SZ63079925

Air Photo from multimap logo

Air Photo and general mapping

1st edition OS Map from old maps logo

Mid to late 19th century maps

Modern Map from Ordnance Survey logo

Landscape form and features

Modern Map from streetmap logo

General location and route planning

Geograph British Isles geography.org.uk logo
occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 462079
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 6504 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes. I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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This record last updated on Thursday, December 17, 2009

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