A report on Royal Naval Armaments Depot and Upnor

RNAD Dean Hill: photograph taken inside Magazine No. 16 during the Second World War.
Arethusa Venture Centre, with figure-head, Lower Upnor.
Upnor Castle served as a magazine and store from 1668 to 1913, and continued in military use (as part of RNAD Upnor) until 1945.
The Older London Stone standing in front of the fence of the Arethusa Venture Centre.
Building 21, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich: Headquarters of the Naval Ordnance Store Department and its successors until 1967.
A Thames Barge sails past the depot: Upnor Castle (left), 'B' Magazine (centre), No. 5 Shell Store (right).
Entrance to one of the underground magazines at Dean Hill in the early 1940s.
RE assault boat training at Upper Upnor
Former 'B' Magazine (1857) undergoing refurbishment.
Former Dry Guncotton Store (right, 1895)
Left to right: former No 3 Shell Store (1883), Mine Testing Room (1905) and Wet Guncotton Store (1895)
Left to right: Main entrance, former Filled Mine Store (1904), former Filled Shell Store (1904)

In times of conflict the demand for provision (and therefore storage) of gunpowder grew, so additional magazines were built during the French Revolutionary Wars at Tipner (from 1788) and Weedon (from 1802), and during the Napoleonic Wars at Upnor (from 1806) and Marchwood (from 1811).

- Royal Naval Armaments Depot

The three sites, Upnor, Lodge Hill and Chattenden, were active as Royal Naval Armaments Depots until the mid-1960s.

- Upnor
RNAD Dean Hill: photograph taken inside Magazine No. 16 during the Second World War.

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Upnor Castle on the River Medway

Upnor Castle

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Elizabethan artillery fort located on the west bank of the River Medway in Kent.

Elizabethan artillery fort located on the west bank of the River Medway in Kent.

Upnor Castle on the River Medway
Upnor Castle on the River Medway
Map of fortifications on the Rivers Thames and Medway
A picture by Willem Schellincks of the raid. The view is from the south. On the left Upnor Castle is silhouetted against the flames; on the opposite side of the river more to the front the burning dockyard of Chatham. To the north the conflagration near the chain is shown and on the horizon the ruins of Sheerness Fort are still smoking.
Display of gunpowder barrels and naval howitzers in the magazine block
View of Upnor Castle from the Medway in 1845
Annotated map of Upnor Castle
Upnor Castle House, behind the perimeter wall
The barracks inside the perimeter wall.
South side of the curtain wall
North side of the curtain wall
Water bastion, main building and north tower
West side showing the gatehouse
Magazine, south tower and inner courtyard, viewed from the gatehouse

It is in the village of Upnor, opposite and a short distance downriver from the Chatham Dockyard, at one time a key naval facility.

After the First World War, Upnor became a Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD), one of a group of such facilities around the country.

Chattenden Barracks

Chattenden and Lodge Hill Military Camps

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Chattenden and Lodge Hill Military Camps were British Army training camps in Chattenden and Hoo St Werburgh in Kent.

Chattenden and Lodge Hill Military Camps were British Army training camps in Chattenden and Hoo St Werburgh in Kent.

Chattenden Barracks
Narrow-gauge locomotive in front of Chattenden barracks
Central Terrace: built as Police Quarters for those guarding the depot at Chattenden, later used for Explosive Ordnance Search & Disposal training.
Entrance to Lodge Hill Camp Firing Range
Former Police Office by the outer gate of the magazine compound at Chattenden.

During the Napoleonic Wars a gunpowder magazine was built alongside the castle at Lower Upnor designed to store a further 10,000 barrels of gunpowder, followed in 1857 by another, larger magazine which could hold up to 23,000 barrels.

Lodge Hill was initially known as Chattenden Royal Naval Ordnance Depot; but in 1903 the Navy took over the older Chattenden magazines as well, whereupon Upnor, Chattenden and Lodge Hill were each named Royal Naval Ordnance Depots.

1809 drawing by Benjamin Henry Latrobe showing the elevation, cross-section, and plan of a proposed gunpowder magazine

Gunpowder magazine

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Magazine designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety.

Magazine designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety.

1809 drawing by Benjamin Henry Latrobe showing the elevation, cross-section, and plan of a proposed gunpowder magazine
Fort William gunpowder magazine
Camden Fort Meagher Magazine
Gunpowder magazine on St Helen's Bastion at Fort Manoel
Gunpowder magazine on Guardian Angel Bastion at Fort Chambray
A drawing of the Barout khaneh, a Powder tower in Tehran, by Eugène Flandin, 1840
Bathurst Old Powder Magazine
Tilbury: a unique pair of early 18th-century magazines within the Fort
Gunpowder magazine, Berwick
HMS Talbot at Beckton, London
Royal Gunpowder Magazine No. 5, Purfleet, Essex
The Magazine, Hyde Park
Bull Point Barracks Gatehouse
The 18th-century 'A' Magazine at Priddy's Hard
Magazine, the old gunpowder store at Sedgeford
Magazine of 1857 (centre) alongside Upnor Castle (left)
Alternating magazine and traverse buildings (left) inside the boundary wall (right) at Weedon Bec
The remote situation of a gunpowder magazine near Kilmarnock in 1819. It had gone by 1880 because of the expansion of the town.
Irvine circa 1870. The Old parish kirk, manse and gunpowder magazine are prominent on the right bank of the river.
The old Powder or Pouther magazine at Irvine dating from 1642.
Dumbarton Castle magazine
Internal detail of Dockra Powder House
The door of Dockra Powder House
Detail of locking mechanism of Dockra Powder House
The gunpowder magazine of Dockra Powder House
Camp Parapet Powder Magazine, Louisiana

The Royal Navy Ordnance Base (later RNAD) Bull Point was the last great work of the Board of Ordnance before its disbandment in 1856.

Upnor, Chattenden and Lodge Hill depots remained in military ownership until the mid-2010s, when the MOD marketed the land for housing and commercial use.