By Charlie Wilkinson Southsea’s well was built in 1544, abandoned in 1814, covered over during later modifications and then rediscovered in the 1960s. That means it sat unused for over 150 years, during which: the garrison changed, the fort was remodelled, obsolete artillery (including stone shot) was discarded, domestic waste accumulated. This blog discusses three objects that were discovered inside the well at Southsea Castle: a wooden bucket and pulley, stone cannon balls and pottery flask fragments. Object 1: Wooden bucket and pulley system The original well was built against the inside of the Tudor curtain wall and equipped with a simple pulley block, an oak bucket, and a […]
Tag Archives | sixteenth century
Portsmouth history students launch interactive trails for Southsea Castle
UOP History students studying the second-year Working with the Past module have launched an interactive trail for Southsea Castle, which was built for Henry VIII in the then fashionable trace italienne style of angled star-shaped fort, examples of which you can find all across Europe. Click here to read a post about how the Castle was captured by the parliamentarians at the start of the English Civil War from its drunken royalist commander! The trail follows the launch of a student-written trail for Portsmouth Cathedral last year. Each of the students – Ben Whiteman, Charlie Wilkinson, Madi East and Magdalena Djakovic – worked on a different part of the structure: […]
Southsea Castle Keep
By Fiona McCall on May 14, 2026 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized
By Madi East In the 16th century, England faced growing threats, particularly from France and Spain. In recognition of this, King Henry the 8th ordered the construction of new coastal defences, including Southsea Castle. The location of Southsea Castle was strategically chosen to overlook the main navigable channel into Portsmouth harbour, through the Solent. It was accompanied by a range of defences such as artillery, chain booms, and the use of natural features (like the sandbanks of the Solent) to their advantage. Any ship that attempted to reach the harbour would be forced into the range of the castle’s guns, making it an ideal artillery platform. [1] It is suggested […]
Do not seek pleasure – guidelines for 17th-century widows
Last year our own Dr Maria Cannon won a fellowship to study at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. While there she came across a manuscript book, Of the Commendable Estate of Widowehoode, a translation of a 16th century Italian work which advises widows on suitable behaviour, and afterwards wrote this blog piece for the Folger Library blog. Let’s just say that having any kind of fun is out. While its lessons can appear restrictive and depressing to modern tastes, this lengthy guide reveals that women were responsible for negotiating their own behaviour, spirituality and relationship to God. https://www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/how-to-be-a-true-widow/
An Elizabethan clergyman side-steps scandal
After the Protestant Reformation, clergymen could marry, and increasing numbers did so out of inclination and to show they were committed to Protestantism. The Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 placed regulatory conditions on clerical behaviour, including marriage, although it was still controversial to the public and disliked by Queen Elizabeth I. Second-year UoP history student Madeleine East discusses this historical context using witness depositions from the Winchester Consistory Court, dated March 1571, relating to the marriage proposals of one Hampshire clergyman, a document that she studied for the second-year module Underworlds: Crime, Deviance & Punishment in Britain, 1500-1900 The document was made by ecclesiastical courts, which regulated moral behaviour in Early […]
Guiding the next generation of history students to become their best selves
James Farrar finished his history studies at Portsmouth in 2021. Although James had always been set on a career in teaching, he decided to gain some hands on experience before studying for his PGCert, which he is planning to gain next year, via the more practical School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) route. Below he describes some of the highs and lows of his past four years gaining experience as a teaching assistant, student engagement worker, and cover supervisor, an honest and humorous appraisal (there seems to be a lavatorial theme!) which should be invaluable to current students aiming to follow a similar career trajectory. Time flies when you are having […]