Editing Board of Ordnance (section)

===Storage and supply: the Ordnance Yards===
====Headquarters: the Tower of London====
[[File:Tower of London (HDR) (8145459210).jpg|thumbnail|left|Arms of the Board of Ordnance at the Tower of London, New Armouries.]]
In the medieval period, storage and supply of weapons and armaments was the responsibility of the King's [[Wardrobe (government)|Wardrobe]]. Royal palaces (including the Tower of London) were therefore used for storage of armour, weapons and (in time) gunpowder. When the Office of Ordnance came into being, the Tower of London was already established as the main repository, and it remained the administrative centre of the new Board. Gunpowder was stored in the White Tower (and continued to be kept there until the mid-19th century). Small arms, ammunition, armour and other equipment were stored elsewhere within the Tower precinct, a succession of Storehouses and Armouries having been built for such purposes since the fourteenth century. From the mid-16th century bulkier items began to be stored in warehouses in the nearby [[Minories]]<ref name=Stewart96>{{cite book|last1=Stewart|first1=Richard W.|title=The English Ordnance Office: a case-study in bureaucracy|date=1996|publisher=Royal Historical Society (Boydell Press)|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk}}</ref> and cannons were [[Proof test|proof-tested]] on the '[[Old Artillery Ground]]' to the north.

Within the Tower, the New Armouries of 1664 served the Board as a small arms store (it can still be seen today in the Inner Ward). The vast Grand Storehouse of 1692 served not just as a store, but also as a museum of ordnance, precursor to today's [[Royal Armouries]]. (It was destroyed (along with its contents, some 60,000 objects) in a fire in 1841).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/stories/buildinghistory/office-of-the-ordnance |title=Tower of London website |access-date=2014-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722232620/http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/stories/buildinghistory/office-of-the-ordnance |archive-date=2014-07-22 }}</ref>

The Board's administrative staff had expanded during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] to such an extent that in 1806 it purchased the lease of [[Cumberland House]] in Pall Mall and moved its main offices there, subsequently expanding into neighbouring properties. The Board itself also began to hold its meetings there, in preference to the Tower or Woolwich or other locations where it had previously been accustomed to meet. At the same time the Tower, though still technically the Board's headquarters, was mostly given over to storage.

====Central store depots: Woolwich and Weedon====
[[File:Woolwich, Royal Arsenal, J Hinchcliff 1841 LMA.jpg|250px|thumb|The Grand Store, Woolwich, in 1841: cannons and shot were routinely stored in the open, while gun carriages and other perishable items were kept indoors.]]
In the mid-17th century the Board began to use land at Woolwich for storing and proving its guns. The land (known as [[Royal Arsenal|The Warren]]) was purchased in 1671 and in 1682 a thousand cannons and ten thousand cannonballs were transferred to Woolwich from the Tower and the Minories. At the same time, the Old Artillery Ground was sold and the staff and equipment involved in proof testing moved to Woolwich.<ref name="arrows" /> From 1688 all new ordnance items were ordered to be delivered to Woolwich rather than the Tower (thereafter the Tower continued to be used as the Board's main repository for general stores).<ref>Major General A Forbes 'A History of the Army Ordnance Services' Medici Society, London 1929. Vol II</ref>

The Woolwich Warren (later renamed the [[Royal Arsenal]]) continued to serve as Britain's principal ordnance depot until the mid-twentieth century. It also developed into a major manufacturing site (see below).

During the [[Napoleonic Wars]], concerns were expressed about the vulnerability of the nation's ordnance stores to attack from the sea. One response was the establishment of a Royal Ordnance Depot at [[Weedon Bec]], well away from the coast in Northamptonshire: a sizeable complex of storehouses and gunpowder magazines constructed along a waterway, it was connected to the [[Grand Union Canal]] to facilitate access and distribution. At the same time a similar (but short-lived) facility was also built alongside the [[Grand Junction Canal]] at [[North Hyde]], west of London.

====Distribution points: the Royal Dockyards====
{{See also|Royal Naval Armaments Depot#History}}
[[File:Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth - geograph.org.uk - 493179.jpg|thumbnail|Part of the former Ordnance Yard at Portsmouth]]
The Board established storage and maintenance areas close to the [[Royal Navy Dockyard|Royal Dockyards]] to enable easy transfer of guns, ammunition, powder, etc. on board ships (for use by the Navy at sea or for delivery to the Army in areas of conflict). They also provided ordnance supplies for the defensive fortifications of the Dockyard itself, and secure storage space for ships in port (Royal Naval ships returning from duties at sea were obliged to unload their stores of powder and ammunition; if a ship was to spend time '[[in ordinary]]' (i.e. out of commission) it had its guns removed as well).

In the 16th century the Ordnance Office had established 'annexes' in Chatham, Deptford and Woolwich; others were to follow in the vicinity of the other major Dockyards. These facilities, generally known as Gun Wharves, developed into purpose-built Ordnance Yards in the course of the 18th century. Built alongside deep-water quays, they usually comprised an assortment of buildings for storage, administration blocks, workshops (for woodwork, paintwork and metalwork) together with accommodation for officers, usually built around a central Grand Storehouse (primarily used for gun carriages). Exterior courtyards were laid out for the storage of cannonballs.<ref>[https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/...48/cb4816naval.pdf English Heritage survey of Naval Dockyards]</ref>

The principal home Yards included:  
[[File:Canon in front of Chatham Library - geograph.org.uk - 1492075.jpg|thumbnail|Some of the few surviving buildings of Chatham Gun Wharf]]
*[[Chatham Dockyard#The Gun Wharf|HM Gun Wharf, Chatham]]
*[[HMNB Devonport#Morice Yard (New Gun Wharf)|Morice Yard, Devonport]] (replaced an earlier gun wharf just east of Mount Wise)
*[[Gunwharf Quays|Gunwharf, Portsmouth]]
*[[Sheerness Dockyard|Gun Wharf, Sheerness]]
*[[Woolwich Dockyard#The Gun Wharf|Gun Wharf, Woolwich]]. (In the late 17th century Woolwich Gun Wharf expanded to the east, where it developed into the [[Royal Arsenal]]: a key Ordnance Board facility.)

Smaller Yards were built in parts of Britain to serve particular strategic purposes at particular times (such as the Yard in [[Great Yarmouth]],<ref>[http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-468636-244-southtown-road-norfolk 244, Southtown Road]; [http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-468640-244b-southtown-road-norfolk 244b, Southtown Road]; [http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-468641-245-southtown-road-norfolk 245, Southtown Road] Listed building descriptions</ref> built to service the fleet stationed in Yarmouth Roads during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]).<ref name="m.english-heritage.org.uk">[http://m.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/thematic-survey-ordnance/ English Heritage: Thematic History of Ordnance Yards and Magazine Depots] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822013505/http://m.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/thematic-survey-ordnance/ |date=2014-08-22 }}</ref>

[[File:BMMentry.JPG|thumbnail|Part of Bermuda's Ordnance Yard within the bastioned defences of Keep Yard; other Dockyard buildings lie beyond.]]
Ordnance Yards were also constructed in colonial ports overseas; like their counterparts in Britain, these were usually built in the vicinity of naval dockyards. [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda|Bermuda's]], begun in the 1830s, remains largely intact behind the dockyard fortifications; its magazines and storehouses are arranged around a small pool, where boats would arrive by way of a tunnel through the ramparts to be loaded with ammunition.<ref name=Coad2013>{{cite book|last1=Coad|first1=Jonathan|title=Support for the Fleet: Architecture and engineering of the Royal Navy's bases, 1700-1914|date=2013|publisher=English Heritage|location=Swindon}}</ref>

====Gunpowder storage====
{{See also|Gunpowder magazine#United Kingdom}}
For storage of gunpowder, a nearby fortified building was often used initially: the [[Square Tower]] at Portsmouth, the [[Royal Citadel, Plymouth|Citadel]] at Plymouth, [[Upnor Castle]] at Chatham; later, the Ordnance Board created purpose-built [[Gunpowder magazine|Gunpowder Magazines]], often apart from the Yards, and at a safe distance from inhabited areas.<ref name="m.english-heritage.org.uk"/> There were also smaller magazines, supervised by Ordnance Board staff, at several fortified locations around the British Isles (from [[Star Castle, Isles of Scilly|Star Castle]] on the [[Scilly Isles]], to [[Fort George, Scotland|Fort George]] near [[Inverness]]).

The Tower of London remained the main, central repository until 1694, when a new gunpowder depot was established on the banks of the Thames at [[Greenwich Peninsula]]. The location was chosen both for reasons of safety (it was largely uninhabited marshland) and for convenience (because gunpowder barrels were invariably delivered by boat). The powder arrived at Greenwich from the manufacturers. Once there it was not only stored, prior to being despatched to wherever it might be needed, but a sample from each batch was [[proof test]]ed. This took place in one of a pair of smaller buildings alongside and linked to the main magazine (which was a windowless quadrangle).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mills|first1=Mary|title=Greenwich Marsh: the 300 years before the Dome|url=https://greenwichpeninsulahistory.wordpress.com/homepage/greenwich-marsh-by-mary-mills/chapter-2-early-industry-on-the-marsh/|website=Greenwich Peninsula History|date=21 August 2013 |access-date=31 August 2015}}</ref>

[[File:Former powder magazine, Purfleet (geograph 3606951).jpg|thumb|The Board's surviving former magazine at Purfleet.]]
Very soon, however, the Board was coming under pressure from local residents to remove the gunpowder store from Greenwich. Eventually, in 1763, a new set of magazines were built, along with a new proof-house, further downriver at [[Purfleet]]. Named the [[Gunpowder magazine#Purfleet, Essex|Royal Gunpowder Magazine]], it was likewise used as a central store, to receive and approve gunpowder from the manufacturers prior to distribution around the country. (Soon afterwards the Greenwich magazine closed, and it was later demolished.)

At around the same time, significant improvements were made to the gunpowder depots at the Dockyards (where the Board was still often using old buildings in built-up areas). New purpose-built storage facilities were constructed close to the principal Dockyards at Portsmouth ([[Priddy's Hard]]) and  Devonport (Keyham Point), and at Chatham the Upnor facility was (eventually) expanded. These centres continued to grow, as the processes for refining and preserving gunpowder became more complicated and as new explosives began to be used, requiring their own storage and maintenance areas.

In 1850, Devonport's magazine depot was moved from Keyham to a new complex at Bull Point (where it was integrated with a nearby proofing and purifying facility) - this proved to be the last major construction project of the Board of Ordnance before its disestablishment.

====Other items====
The Board of Ordnance was responsible, throughout its existence, for supplying the Army and Navy with weapons and ammunition. Other items were provided by various other boards and agencies (or, in earlier times, by private contractors). From 1822, however, the Board was given responsibility for sourcing, storing and supplying a variety of other items for the Army, including tents and camp equipment (formerly the remit of the Army's Storekeeper-General) and 'barrack stores' (for which the [[Commissariat#British Army|Commissariat]] had been responsible since 1807). Later, in 1834, the Board inherited (also from the Commissariat) the task of providing food and 'fuel' (namely coal and candles for use in barracks) for all homeland troops, as well as [[forage]] for cavalry regiments.<ref name="Roper1998" />