Portsmouth Dockyard

The dockyard at Portsmouth was established in 1495. It was used throughout the reign of Henry VIII but was thereafter neglected until the Civil War when new buildings were erected and permanent officers appointed. The extension and improvement of yard facilities continued through the Dutch wars. Further periods of expansion followed between 1684 and 1690, 1694 and 1704 and 1716 and 1723. This expansion and the movement of the centre of naval operations into the Western approaches made Portsmouth the most important dockyard from the mid-eighteenth century. During the eighteenth century the area of the yard more than doubled in size; in the nineteenth century it trebled. The most notable additions were the Steam Basin, built between 1843 and 1848, and a further extension between 1863 and 1868 which added two locks, three docks and three basins. Expansion continued in the twentieth century. The dockyard remains operational today, and the Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command is based there. See H. Kitson, 'The Early History of Portsmouth Dockyard, 1496-1800', parts 1-4, The Mariner's Mirror, 33 (1947), 256-65, 34 (1948), 3-11, 87-97, 271-9.