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Report - - Priddys Hard, 12/06/2010 | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Priddys Hard, 12/06/2010

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GDog

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Well last weekend I finally decided to get off my arse and start having a look around some of our local sites. Priddys Hard is literally on my door step so I called up 2 of my friends who we shall call Jonny and Alex (because that's their names...) and after building up their interest we decided we'd have a look around. The photographs in this report were all taken by Jonny as he is a much better photographer than I, and did suffer a little due to the failing light - we decided to do it now rather than wait till we've got some better equipment (plus he forgot his tripod!).

A little history about the site can be found here:
http://www.priddyshard.com/history.htm

We made our way there and got access pretty easily, and saw no security the whole time we were there. We got just over 40 pictures in all, but I've just bunged in my favourite in this report, the rest can be found on my photobucket.

So in chronological order...

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The obligatory group shot. This was taken next to some old munitions storage buildings I can see on google earth, but which have sadly now been flattened and are being turned into apartments as we speak.

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This building was pitch black and utterly infested with spiders - our best guess is it was some kind of shelter since the walls and roof are pretty thick, and the brackets along the walls look like they are meant for benches.

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This room was a bit more odd. It has coat hooks all round the outside, and then what appeared at first to be a water pipe. However upon closer inspection it became apparent that once the pipe drops down, it goes nowhere expect back to itself. So of course that means it's doubtful that it's for heating or similar. Anybody who has an idea, we'd be grateful to find out!

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This pic was taken outside one of the harder to reach buildings up near what I believe is an engine shed - we had to drop down quite far to get to it but the chavs have already made their way there, we found signs of a fire and empty beer cans here, as well as graffiti. It's a nice pic though.

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Here we have conclusive proof of the Priddys Hard ghost, I always knew it was real :p

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And finally, this is a shot of two of us on a bridge that runs over the top of the suspended roadway (I believe it was a narrow gauge tram to take munitions to the storage buildings)

Another slightly odd thing we saw was a large tunnel that seems to disappear under the housing estate, but it's all been backfilled and covered with mesh. We intend to go back at some point in the near future as we covered only a small part of the site this time round before it was too dark and hopefully will get a look at a few of the larger buildings on the site. This time the other two will also be wearing boots and long sleeves rather than trainers and t-shirts :p

Any criticism, praise, advice, or info about the site is more than welcome.
 
Last edited:

Styru

Admin
28DL Full Member
Cheers for sharing - but you've got to invest in a tripod mate.

You're using over a grands worth of camera (Nikon D200) and for the want of a £10 argos tripod your pics are blurred to f*ck.

Go on - treat yourself :p

.
 

Tree

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Gdog, Haslar is now privatly owned - I normally park up along the Solent side at a lunchtime to walk the dog and generally see people within the grounds - infact they filmed a good portion of Casualty or something like that there a few months ago.

That track you saw at Priddys Hard, used to run out to "rat" Island - you can see the old WW2 mines that have been removed of explosive along its foreshore. Where the tracks ran out to the island where the sea could come over it - they were made out of Bronze, suffice to say they were removed years ago!
 

GDog

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Tree, thanks for the info! Rat Island is somewhere to avoid apparently (even though there's nothing there) as it's technically part of the Forton Fuel Depot so the MDP Boaties will respond if anyone calls you in. It's interesting about the rails though. I suspect if they hadn't been removed the local pikies would have had them for scrap by now anyway...

As for Haslar, I didn't know that - I knew the MGS and MDP no longer did even roving patrols there but I just assumed it was because it was empty. Thanks for the heads up :)

On another note if anyone has anything particular they want pictures of, I shall be going there again in the near future so let me know and I'll try and accomodate!
 

GDog

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I'll have a look at that too, much appreciated. I know the MDP respond to Peewit Island and Rat Island, but I think Peewit island is because it's technically part of the Fuel depot, and Rat Island is because people get themselves stuck there when the tide comes in :P

Apparently there's a few remains of Fort James (?) there too on Rat Island. Infact I've been amazed at how much hidden history there is in just the immediate area, let alone when you expand to cover Portsmouth and in particular the Hill.

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge, I shall put it all to good use!
 

Tree

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I'm pretty sure you are right on the remains of a fort on the island - be about your wits if you do venture into the middle of it - I can't tell if they are live or not but there used to be some very big power cables running through the island - may well have been a priddys hard to dockyard connection of some type.

One other explore in that area that might require some thinking about is the old Shell Pier - you'll spot it a mile off, its between Priddys Hard and Hardway.

Anything else you need to know about the Harbour, just drop me a PM or something - i've been mucking about in the harbour for the best part of 25 years and my father has worked in Priddy's Hard and Frater since before the cold war (hence the missle silos that can bee seen from the Harbour)
 

Ordnance

Stay Safe
Staff member
Moderator
The red poles with 'bell things' were fire points with extinguishers & fire beaters, the bells were I think old fire extinguishers which were used as fire alarms!

The whole area was a Royal Naval Armaments Depot which was also used as an Army Regional Depot till the late 80's and was part of RNAD Gosport. Last time I visited it when open in 1986 it contained a large number of obsolete Bofers 40mm AA Guns awaiting refurbishment for export by BMARCO.


Priddy's Hard - Wikipedia
 

Lilly85

28DL Member
28DL Member
Hi, I’ve been looking for someone to help. I occupy a building on San Diego Road, which has a brick built tunnel approx 5ft deep of water, which runs the full length of my shop towards Priddy’s Hard (along five post lane). We would love to know more, and see if anyone would like to investigate? Waders needed!
 
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