Portsmouth’s Military Legacy | Britain’s Most Historic Towns

Portsmouth, the heart of Britain’s naval power, played a crucial role in shaping the British Empire. From HMS Victory at Trafalgar to the city’s vast fortifications, this episode explores Portsmouth’s military legacy, its connection to Nelson, and the hidden stories of those who built and defended an empire.

Britain’s Most Historic Towns S03 E03

0:00 – Portsmouth: The Heart of the Royal Navy
4:03 – Building an Empire at Sea
8:31 – HMS Victory and the Battle of Trafalgar
13:05 – Life and Death on a Warship
18:32 – The Harsh Reality of Sailor Town
25:36 – Queen Victoria’s Ties to Portsmouth
32:03 – Portsmouth’s Hidden Railway for Royals
36:39 – Forgotten Prisoners of the Empire
41:00 – Portsmouth Fortifications and Coastal Defenses
44:18 – The Dreadnought Revolution and the End of Empire

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the secrets of the past are all around us hidden in our streets buried under our feet and in this series I’ll be uncovering those Secrets as I explore Britain’s most historic towns I’ll decipher physical Clues look at that it’s covered with lizard likee scales and get to know some extraordinary characters who are often over looked he operated like a spy Master they lied they deceived they cheated with the help of Ben Robinson’s Eye in the Sky I’ll discover Which towns across the UK reveal the most about each period in British history and find out how those stories still resonate today 3,880 more and more individuals are still dying from the plague oh my goodness from the adventurous elizabethans to The Elegant Georgians from Medieval Nights through to the height of Empire I’ll tell the story of an era through the story of a single [Music] town today I’m in the town that for a century provided the brutal force that created the British Empire it really is sort of a thriving War Machine and launched Britain’s most celebrated hero into an epic battle with Europe’s greatest powers by the time we get to Trafalga Nelson Has attained This semi goodhood status a town that epitomized the unimaginably cruel treatment of the poor there’s an 8-year-old that gets put on one of the prison Hulks and he gets seven years for stealing 12 Shillings worth of copper and where the Empire’s figurehead formed a relationship that scandalized the royal family Victoria is not going to be silenced or bullied you are all racist she calls him racialist is she if you want to understand Britain’s relationship with its Navy its monarchy its Empire Portsmouth is the place to come when I come to Portsmouth I’m always struck by its energetic sprawl it is the most dense ly populated city in the UK outside London with over 200,000 inhabitants speaking a 100 different languages all concentrated on and around porty [Music] Island the city’s new high-tech Beacon is the Glorious sail likee Spa Tower but it’s the ocean and ships which still dominate The View every year Millions millions of Travelers passed through this city on route to its ports ships set off to France and Spain hovercraft to the aisle of white and smaller craft sail off to who knows where but the biggest ships here belong to the institution which has shaped this city through the centuries Portsmouth is every inch a Navy town there’s been a settlement on the southwest corner of py Island since the late 12th century but it was the chudah who decided that the large protected Harbor at the mouth of the solent was the perfect location for a naval base but it was over a roughly 100e time span from the Napoleonic Wars through to the first world war that Portsmouth really gained its status as the most important Naval port in the world it was the PowerHouse of the British EMP Empire from here the Royal Navy spearheaded Britain’s mission to become the most powerful Nation on Earth and astonishingly from the Battle of Trafalga in 1805 through Queen Victoria’s 60-year Reign up to the shocking birth of the modern era in 1914 it succeeded this island became the greatest modern superpower violently establishing an Empire that encompassed near nearly a quarter of the world’s total land area and population it brought obscene wealth to a few and unimaginable misery to Millions we’re at a point in time where we’re re-evaluating Empire and coming to terms with some deeply uncomfortable truths about what our country did in the 19th century today if we see a country exploiting even invading another we see that as deeply objectionable and yet that is part of our history now the Navy was crucial to that Empire Building business and aerial archaeologist Ben Robinson is taking a look at why the Navy chose Portsmouth as its base I’ve got a great view of old Portsmouth here in the harbor a wonderful natural Harbor based on a drowned River Valley with deep channels running into it but the real secret to this place is just coming up now the aisle of white there on the horizon this creates a magnificent natural barrier and it prevents the worst of the weather the wind and the waves crashing into this embayment area the solent this is a perfect place to base your Navy geography may have made Portsmouth a Natural Choice as the home of the royal Navy but global politics brought Portsmouth center stage in the 19th century I’m meeting historian Dr Carl Bell to understand the forces that stood between Britain and world’s domination Carl what was Britain’s place in the world at the beginning of the 19th century so Britain is in the middle of a 25-year war with France France is its major rival as both of them emerg as the dominant Imperial powers of of the age and the Napoleonic Wars leads to a very strange situation whereby you have Napoleon Mighty armies controlling the continent and yet very weak at Sea and you have Britain with this massive Naval power but very weak Army if you’re trying to maintain uh an increasingly globalized Empire surely Naval power is where it’s at right I mean that’s vital to Britain’s expansion as an Empire after its loss of the American colonies Britain’s interest is fending off Invasion from Napoleon and then also using their Naval Supremacy to start expanding their empire in New Directions developing their Holdings in in India newly discovered Australia and places like that if the Royal Navy was the chosen vehicle of British Empire Building Portsmouth dockyard was its engine and by 1800 this had become the largest most advanced industrial complex in the world presumably 19th century Portsmouth docs would have been even louder than it is today yes it really is a sort of a thriving War Machine you’ve got about 4,000 people working here that must been a fascinating time because having had ship building going on here for centuries it’s now being utterly transformed by the Industrial Revolution you have got the development of steam powerered mass production in Marcus andard brunell’s blockhous Mill but that’s not the more famous isard Kingdom Brunell no it’s his dad right um Mark isard Brunell was a a French royalist who had to leave France during the French Revolution oh he’s Brunell and while he was working on this isard Kingdom Brunell was born in Portsmouth and as well as this uh manufacturing there’s there’s R&D going on yeah you’ve also got the introduction of steam pumps to remove water from the dry docks that we’re we’re in at the moment and then you also have circular SS being used so they can cut timber faster as well the result of all this industrious Innovation was a mighty Fleet led by one of history’s most iconic warships HMS Victory launched in 1765 she was reconstructed in 1803 making her one of the most technologically advanced warships in the vast Fleet of the royal Navy and at her Helm was one of History’s Greatest if least likely Naval commanders he’s 5’4 he’s blinding one eye he’s missing an arm and perhaps most surprisingly he suffered from crippling seasickness I refer of course to Admiral horao Nelson but both ship and Commander were to become icons of the British Empire after the battle of Trafalga in 1805 I’m meeting historian Dr Ryan Hanley on board HMS Victory to find out a little more about the reality of The Man Behind the myth the neelon we know is this commander of the fleet he’s famous but what’s his background how how does he get there throughout the 1790s he’s increasingly being seen as a bit of a rising star in the Royal Navy but it’s only after the battle of the Nile in 1798 that it took it to another level so by the time we get to Trafalga Nelson is has attained this kind of semi godhood status and here we are talking about the Battle of Chala sitting on the deck of HMS and I think it’s one of those moments where you just feel that kind of physicality of history and of course Victory left from here left from Portsmouth absolutely and when uh Nelson was making his way uh to uh HMS Victory there were reports that uh crowds were lining the streets there were people dropping to their knees and saying prayers of thanks that you know Britain had this uh legendary tactical genius going out and defending them from the horrors of a French invasion what was so crucial about trala what did that Victory mean for Britain it really secures Britain’s sort of international Supremacy in Naval Combat they wouldn’t be challenged seriously for maybe a 100 years the Battle of Trafalga became an imperial Foundation myth but as school children learn by heart Nelson died at Trafalga ensuring his status as a martyr of the British Empire with this martyrdom at the Battle of trala you can understand why we still know his name so well today but of course there is another side to him he wasn’t a fan of the abolitionists was he no absolutely not slavery at the time was seen uh as something that was very beneficial to the Royal Navy partly because it uh was known as the nursery of the royal Navy where a lot of young Sailors on their first voyages would take part in the transatlantic slaving Expeditions and those Sailors then could be fed into the Royal Navy um but secondly because Britain’s trade policy at the time uh meant that uh British ships needed to be protected by the Royal Navy and that the profits that were generated could feed into tax revenue which of course helped to support the war effort but there’s another reason that Nelson may have felt sort of supportive towards the slave system his wife Francis Nisbet he met her in the Caribbean island of nevas he married Francis on a slaveholding estate so he was completely part of that Plantation owning slave holding slice of British Society absolutely that was his Social Circle and he wasn’t exemplary in his own personal life either was he no we used to think that his wife was cold and unfeeling and uncaring of course her fault but in the past sort of 10 years or so new documentary evidence has come to light that suggest that actually Nelson treated his wife very very shoddily indeed how do you feel about him I think that we are mature enough now to perhaps dispense with the idea of a national hero and for me as somebody who spends a lot of time looking at the transatlantic slave trade his connections are too many and too deeply held um for us to continue to celebrate him straightforward as a National military hero I do think it’s curious that history quite often feels as though it gets boiled down to this Essence where we just remember a few important names and if we’re to learn anything from history I think we need to take a more rounded approach and that also involves looking away from just those Heroes so it’s undeniable that Nelson had a decisive victory that paved the way for further expansion of the British Empire however you feel about that but what about everybody else what about those ordinary British Sailors I’m in Portsmouth to learn about the astonishing period when Britain became the world’s greatest superpower from Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalga in 1805 to the start of World War War 1 in 1914 I’ve heard how Trafalga secured a naval domination that drove the expansion of the Empire now I’m Keen to learn what life and death would have been like aboard the ships of the royal Navy for regular sailers I’ve actually driven quite a way out of Portsmouth to an outpost of Campfield universities ordinance testing and evaluation center but there’s a very good reason for being here because this is one of the few places in the country where I can really get to see the harsh realities of life in the 19th century Navy I’m meeting Nick Hall of the royal armories he’s got his hands on a brutal looking example of 19th century Firepower tell me about this gun this is this is a similar gun to the ones that would have be on the victory then it’s a replica that fires exactly the same weight of shot as the 34 12 Pounders on HMS victory at the Battle of Trafalga but we’re very lucky today because no one’s firing back at us and it’s difficult really to make the leap of imagination knowing that cannonballs just the same are flying in from the enemy and so you’ll be next to a crew mate who’s suddenly blown to bits and you carry on so hopefully what we’re going to experience erience is the firing of a of a cannon like this as as would have happened on board the victory with with all of the how many cannons did it have on board just over a hundred 100 of them so we’re just going to get a glimpse of that and we’ve got a a fragment of potentially a warship that we’re coming alongside over there the fragment of Warship is 50 m away and made of oak Timbers that replicate the density of an early 19th century ships hole and actually we’ve got our amazing high-speed camera over there so we’ll capture it and we’ll be able to slow it down as well well I’m going to leave you to it I’m going to retreat to safe [Music] distance load British gun Crees at Trafalga could load and fire their cannons every 90 seconds they were the fastest gun Crees in the world their speed and accuracy were vital defeat at trafala would have meant French control of the channel and the inevitable invasion of England by Napoleon’s Grand AR but the weight of the shot fired by victory in its first broadside alone was 1 and a/4 [Music] tons okay all station end 5 Seconds Four 3 2 1 follow I was ready for that and it still freaked me a this thunderous bombardment would continue for 5 hours by the end of the battle 4,48 French and Spanish Sailors were killed and 2 and a half th000 wounded Ed 19 French and Spanish ships were lost the British lost none director of operations Trevor Lawrence is going to talk me through the damage Cannonball fire did to ships and sailors on both sides oh Trevor look a bit different on the back here it certainly does so that’s the exit wound this is very typical of what you see at the at the back of any sort of armor nice symmetrical hole at the back much more broken up and this spoiling effect these splinters flying off at high speed and you can see we’ve got some on the ground here and also all over our witness screen so those impacts all over that that’s the wood that’s the wood that’s come off here I mean the thing is with the Cannonball it’s great for punching holes in things but it’s not too dangerous to people unless you get a direct hit from it these would cause horrendous injuries all over the body it’s enough to put anyone off isn’t it but you know if Empire was going to continue expanding there was a constant need for fresh recruits into the Navy during the Napoleonic Wars The Royal Navy recorded the deaths of 103,000 sailors but only 6,000 of them died in battle the majority were lost to various forms of disease and quite a lot of those could be picked up in any of Britain’s sailor ghettos during the 19th century places where sexually transmitted diseases also destroyed the lives of destitute women for whom sex work was a means of survival I’m meeting historian Dr Melanie Basset in what used to be Portsmouth sailor town so what would this road have been like both sides there would have been pubs lodging houses there’s a brewery over that side and sailor Town span all the way from the doco gates right on the waterfront all the way up to the center of town so a lot busier actually noisier than it is today oh yes in the 1850s around 3,500 Sailors were living in Sailor Town an area that also housed 300 Brussels that looks like a completely modern building yes so this is now the Royal Maritime Club it’s still a place where the Royal Navy would stay but back in 1851 this was built as a dedicated lodgings four Sailors so it’s on the same site yes yes so this was set up the way to s the tides of of the immorality but what was interesting about it is that it became a landmark where prostitutes were don’t congregate to get catch of the men as they were coming out of an evening but the Grim reality of life in all of Britain’s ports was a million miles from the cartoonish images of drunken Sailors and bardy wenches in 19 century Prince and movies we still watch today this is a Time where you’ve got no contraception safe sex doesn’t really exist and sexually transmitted diseases must have been absolutely R so Portsmouth was identified as one of the areas to uh bring under the contagious diseases act in the first of the acts in 1864 so these acts are really motivated by trying to protect the health of sailors what do they mean well they actually meant um incarcerating women women in Portsmouth were incarcerated on average for for 50 days 50 days yeah and presumably this act was designed as a deterrent to to prostitution did it work what was found was that the uh women once they had a cleaning certificate they were able to go out onto the streets with their certificate and use it as a unique selling point to attract business over other prostitutes by the late 1800s work in the new factories of the Industrial Revolution was providing a far more attractive alternative to a life at sea for the British poor but the naval Defense Act required the Royal Navy to be at least the size of the combined fleets of its two major Rivals that meant the Navy needed even more Sailors and help came from a brand new form of public relations created in Portsmouth this is Portsmouth New Theater world and I’m here for a very special performance I can’t want [Music] wait what I’m watching is a magic lantern show it’s really lovely projected from a machine that was the most advanced of its kind in the 1890s [Music] oh this is fantastic it’s like very early [Music] animation oh yes so the power of images to transport you this is the IMAX of the Victorian era these are brilliant it’s essentially just a bright light in a box with slides passed in front of it but it creates astonishing beautiful effects oh and it’s blown up and Nelson himself he’s almost saying your country needs you oh and there’s Nelson on his deathbed so this is the creation of the Nelson [Music] myth really beautiful Jeremy Brooker is the man who’s been treating me to this wonderful [Music] show a Jeremy that was amazing I loved it and I loved the live aspect of that I knew that you were doing that back here the sophistication of this comes from the fact that all these three images Converge on one point so you’re building up one composite picture on the screen I mean for Victoria TNS to go and see these places that you were showing me you know places that they would wouldn’t even dream of going to typically people probably didn’t travel more than 50 miles from their birthplace in their whole life so to see these pictures must have been um more extraordinary than we can really imagine I thought the images of Nelson were fascinating there’s Nelson’s death and I think that was most powerfully represented in that slide where his dead body is being carried off I think in the arms of Victory is that right yes this a sort of allegorical yeah yeah which is very much bound up with uh the idea of britania and Britannia ruling the waves well absolutely and I think all these themes come together particularly if you think of Alfred West who was um based in Portsmouth and he developed this entertainment which came to be called our Navy he had access to the Navy and naval ships people would allow him to take initially photographs later on Films very much what we would call propaganda but of course we still have Navy recruitment ad this is still going on but even if they didn’t sign up even if they didn’t join the Navy perhaps they’re going to go away from watching that with a I don’t know a sense of pride in the Empire that was absolutely his intention and in his lifetime he was compared to Kipling and the way that Kipling with with literature he was doing the same thing in a different medium but serving very much the same purpose and it’s a little uncomfortable perhaps today in the same way that some aspects of Kipling are uncomfortable for us I think it’s a great interest to have I think if I was going to to collect anything it might be magic lanterns it’s hard to think of anything more quintessentially Victorian than the Magic Lantern except that is perhaps for the person who gave the era her name there is one British monic he’s practically synonymous with the idea of Empire and that’s of course Queen Victoria and she was particularly fond of Portsmouth and the aisle of white I’m in Portsmouth the town whose story is inextricably linked to that of the royal Navy and the expansion of the British Empire in the 19th century if the British Empire had a poster girl then it is Queen Victoria she’s practically synonymous with that that myth that image of britania it’s extraordinary to think that this one woman ruled nearly a quarter of the world’s population and her 63-year rule encompassed the AP of Britain’s interests overseas but when it came to holidaying she chose a station she would have done this so many times taking a trip from Portsmith across the sent to the aisle of white just as I am [Music] now what Drew her back was this place Osborne house the Magnificent property her husband Albert designed himself in the classical form of an Italian Paz a style which belies a rather surprising interior wow look at that ceiling it’s extraordinary it’s so on eight this is all based on Indian architecture there’s just so much decoration everywhere and it’s kind of every Indian influence you could imagine lots of different styles all kind of crammed together I think that’s Ganesha up there that elephant headed good it’s quite overwhelming the durbar room certainly reflects a passion for India and it might also reflect another kind of passion it was begun in 1890 just 3 years after Victoria met an Indian servant called Abdul kareim I’m meeting historian and author shrub Basu in the Magnificent Public Gardens of Osborne ha her study of the private papers of the Queen’s H hold revealed amazing new information about Victoria and Abdul’s relationship tell me more about Abdul kareim you’ve studied him you found these amazing diaries that nobody had really looked at before what was that relationship about how did how did they come to meet he was sent as a jubilee present and this is he himself here and there’s another servant as well so two of them are sent and their only job is to stand behind her at table look Grand and sort of represent Empire very quickly we know you know it’s Abdul that’s her chosen one he C her eye and absolutely did Charmed her clearly and within weeks her world has changed he makes her a curry she eats her first authentic Indian curry and describes it as delicious and guess what her favorite was chicken curry and Dal and so nothing’s changed really it is interesting that she becomes very politicized and aware of Indian politics uh thanks to Abdul kareim you know the household Victoria’s own family her son and Heir berti Edward iith then hates Abdul they’ve done everything to get rid of him he even tries to get rid of her on grounds of insanity saying we might ask you to step down which is very absolutely I found this Abdul because of Abdul yeah yeah and this is a little note in her do diary and nobody had seen it you know I just found it and I said this is incredible as a historian finding something like that I mean that’s amazing you’ve just suddenly opened a window onto the past that nobody’s been aware of before it is it’s those moments you get Goose pimples and you think how could they do this and they do and then of course Victoria is not going to be silenced or bullied by her son or anybody else so she gives them a year full sends them a 30 page memo and says you know Abdul is staying you are all racist she calls him racialist and so when she dies what happens to Abdel then within hours of her funeral there’s a knock on his door and they take everything that she’s written postcards little notes saying come and say good night to me with little crosses for kisses take everything and they make a big fire outside and they burn it he’s treated like a common criminal not just him all the other Indians are all sent back I think Edward didn’t want to see a turban anymore in in this place he didn’t want to smell curries they used to call them the black Brigade so anyway that is the start of the adoran era then and this very intimate story of Victoria and abil what does that tell us about the British Raj what does it tell us about Britain and India well it tells us that it was a pretty racist setup because he faced real racism so much racism I think Abdul has got his place by because he was always painted as such a rogue at the end of it is also a story about two human beings a very lonely elderly woman who relates to a young man who you know just gives her a new sense of Life a sense of joy and friendship Osborne house givs us this incredible insight into Queen Victoria’s relationship with India and it’s such a gorgeous small Palace I can see why she loved coming here so much now Ben Robinson is looking for Clues as to how the royal family got here in [Music] style we’ve just launched the Drone here in goport just across the Harbor from Portsmouth and I’m on the hunt for a railway and here you can see the blue line coming down that’s the main Railway line and it terminates here at gosport station intriguingly there’s another line running from it that’s the line I’m interested in Queen Victoria had this little EX exension of a line here running out to a private Jetty could any evidence of this survive in the modern landscape I think the drone’s in about the right position now so I’ll have a look oh there we go they’ve got it that is definitely the old station there two parallel buildings there The Arches and you can see where the track used to run through now I’ve lost it in the trees there but wait wait a second there it is again there’s still sleepers and Rail lines there and the car’s just crossing a sort of speed bump which is also on the line of the track but here this margin this grassy margin that is definitely the line of the track and it’s never been built on where does it go that’s it spin round and then it seems to terminate there but according to the map it’s at this point that it went off yeah that’s the jetty that’s the shape I saw on the map so the Royal station somewhere in here the Royal waiting room it’s incredible to think that the route still survives and people walk by this this every day and maybe are not aware of its Royal associations the Royals may have arrived in style but theirs was a lifestyle far removed from that of the British working class for whom basic survival was a struggle poverty would often lead to petty crime but Falling foul of the law was something best avoided I’m heading to burrow Island also known as rat Island which lies on the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor I’ve come to meet an old friend archaeologist Richard osid I know you’ve been digging here for quite a few years I’m really excited to be here and it is completely different from what I expected actually so why are you here this is an island is owned by the ministry of defense and I had a phone call from the defense police saying can you come and deal with the human remains that are visible on the island so I went there expecting to find I don’t know part of a sheep or a cow or something but they gave me a a very obvious L human skull in an Evidence bag and I had a quick look around the island and you could see that there were skeletons eroding from this Cliff face seems a bit of a weird place to have a cemetery it is odd because it’s not consecrated ground either so this isn’t a kind of religious area but the question is why why put them here do you have an AR well I I think it’s very difficult to tell because the diseases don’t remain on the human bones but I think these probably are people that have died of of the diseases of the time can I get a closer L then yeah let’s have a look human remains were first uncovered here by heavy storms in 2014 so far Richard and his team have recovered the skeletons of 22 individuals including the remains of one child there we [Music] go so this is an adult and you can see there’s quite a lot of wear on those and sizes in the front but it’s quite a robust looking jawer isn’t it quite prominent chin early indications from the labs suggest that the burials took place in the mid to late 1800s and that none of those buried here were over 40 years old safely take our mask off now we’re away from the de so that mandible I’m pleased with that so that’s nearly completed the skeleton I would go for a probable male so I think he’s a young man they’ve all been males so far so who are they Richard I think these are prisoners that were on these big prison hulks in the in the harbor in the late 18th early 19th century these These are people that knew what Portsmith was like when when the victory was an active ship and I think these are these are local local people that are committed I mean often very very small crimes for example there’s a an 8-year-old that gets put on one of the prison Hulks and he gets seven years for stealing 12 Shillings worth of copper um I mean it’s just such a brutal side of that part of British history yeah if you were in the wrong layer of society that this this could be your fate I imagine there must have been infectious diseases outbreaks all the time on those ships it’s a real Petry dish in many ways you’ve got so many people in enclosed space with these diseases that are absolutely virent um it’s probably the worst possible environment to have been based I think what you’re doing is is is really respectful with these remains I mean these are people who probably had difficult Lives who probably suffered a lot have ended up lost to history uh so at least you’re finding them and they’re IND ruales again before they’re reburied here they’re a big part of the story of Portsmouth I think yeah the gruesome archaeological finds on burrow Island act as a stark reminder that the riches of empire were enjoyed by only a privileged few whilst life at the bottom remained Bleak in Victorian Britain but the Empire continue to expand with a navy becoming ever more crucial but what if an envious foreign power were to attack and strike right at the heart of Britain at the home of the Navy it was time for Portsmouth to muscle up I’m in Portsmouth the town that launched Nelson off to victory at Trafalga and maintained a Navy that ruled the waves with a ferocity that forged the biggest empire in history but other International Powers were looking on enviously and the paranoia was growing that Britain would come under attack when the French developed impressive new steamships that paranoia reached fever pitch Britain needed new defenses and as home of the royal Navy Portsmouth was top of the list Ben has launched his drone to look for evidence of the fortification of Portsmouth carried out after prime minister Lord paliston sank 10 million pound an absolute fortune in the 1860s into a line of monumental Coastal defenses this is south sea castle here they used an existing Castle as the center point for the new defenses this Square keep dates right back to the times of Henry VII but they didn’t just use existing forts they also built entirely new ones from scratch and some of these were even out at Sea and here’s spit Bank for this was state-ofthe-art in the middle of the 19th century and they’ve actually found a purpose in the modern world as well this one’s a luxury hotel wait a minute that looks like a swimming pool now we’ve got the Drone a bit lower I can see on the horizon there are two more forts there a great Arc of forts going around right onto the aisle of white and here at Fort brockhurst we’ve got forts well in land a whole chain of defenses this must have been one of the most heavily defended places on the [Music] planet I’ve come to perhaps the grandest of all the paliston forts Fort Nelson on Port Stein Hill overlooking the solent and I’m meeting custodian Marcus Harrison on the highest point of this Monumental six-sided structure one of the biggest forts ever built in 19th century Britain amazing position for this fort I mean what a view that is fantastic but it does seem to be a very long way away from the harbor to be of any practical use really it it does but the whole idea was to deny the French The High Ground Portsmouth Harbor is just under 4 miles away from here if the French had landed either east or west of us they could have taken this hill yeah and then bombarded Portsmouth denying the Empire its greatest naval base Britain was defending its Navy by holding this hill so these forts form a kind of protective backup for the Navy very much so very much so where does this idea come from building what is effectively a big castle these are based on what they call the Prussian design a a continental system that uh laid down fire that ensured the enemy couldn’t pass between them right because many people would argue why on Earth would you just not go around them so the Firepower in these big fors was enough to basically cover the gaps between them absolutely they they would uh have flanking fire these were massive guns I mean these uh 68 lb smooth B uh cannon that is enormous you know when compare that to the 12b cannon on the victory absolutely this fort was vital to the defense of Portsmouth and the Royal Navy so it needed to be secure had any french forces evaded the crossfire from neighboring forts they were in for a nasty surprise what’s this is it a training ground a little too small for for that but certainly large enough to accommodate the French should they be dared enough uh to have come in at this point these gates at Each corner would have been locked and open fire would have happened from these these gun Loops here and here so so it’s a trap it’s a trap The Killing Fields is is what they’re known as and a nasty spot indeed but of course this is all completely theoretical because it never happened the French never invaded they never invaded is this is this a Folly no and palmon Folly are what they are known as uh by many principally because of the huge expenditure of the state at the time to ensure that these were built uh and never used in anger but the preventative measure of course uh should be considered you know we still have these discussions about defenses today and say is it totally unnecessary expenditure absolutely I mean you only need look at Trident uh these were maybe the Trident of their [Music] day so I don’t know if we’ll ever actually really know if these palmon forts were necessary but what is for sure is that the British Empire was now under Threat by the time the Victorian age came to an end in 1901 with the death of the queen Nations around the world were building sea forces to rival that of the royal Navy the immediate threat came from Germany led by Victoria’s grandson Kaiser vilhelm II but then a man called Jackie fiser enters our story to find out more about this intriguing character I’m meeting Nick hwit head of Collections and research at the Museum of the Royal Navy and who is Jackie Fisher so Jackie fiser is the first Sea Lord he’s the the operational head of the Navy what he is is a technocrat he’s an innovator and he does a a root and Branch reform of the Navy he tears it all up and starts again and and perhaps the most visible way he does that is in the design of the battleships including this one including this is amazing dreadnut is a game changer for Naval Warfare she’s a completely new design and she’s built here she’s built literally just over there underneath the infrastructure for the aircraft carriers and these are the photographs from building dread nor herself 198 so they photographed every stage these things are the most complex piece of technology anywhere in the world at this time and they become dreadnots become the currency by which nations measure their worth they’re the nuclear weapons of their day so does Germany start building essentially copies of it so what Fisher predicts happens exactly as planned the Germans then start building their own dreadn yeah they are constantly a bit behind so because Jackie fiser took that risk because he decided to invest in this new technology we were slightly ahead of the game yeah so at the end of the first world war there is no Naval power to rival Britain and despite that Victory and Naval superiority by the end of the first world war Britain is bankrupt that’s why they embrace the arms limitation treaties in the inter War period there’s just a huge side of relief that they’re not going to have to keep up this pace of constru ruction and development forever is that really the end of Empire then it’s the start of it it’s it’s that realization that that Britain can’t really afford to be a world power anymore yeah and I think you know when we look at where where we are now we can look back at all this history and they were we we wouldn’t want to be that again it’s the E and flow of world power status isn’t [Music] it the days of Empire are long gone but Portsmouth is still the home of the royal Navy of course and will always be associated with that particular period of history from the Battle of Trafalga up to the outbreak of World War [Music] I in just over a hundred years Portsmouth would launch the fleet that would lay the platform for the biggest empire in history see its streets a wash with the drunken Sailors who’d helped rule the waves welcome an iconic Queen become one of the most fortified towns on the planet and build the ship that changed the world Empires become an uncomfortable truth as we try to come to terms with the human cost and the exploitation of that incredibly rapacious expansionist period period of Britain’s past but we cannot ignore history we must face it we must try to understand it and that Empire wouldn’t have been possible without the Royal Navy a Navy that has long called Portsmouth it’s home [Music]