ORI GIN AL PA PER

Charting the Development of Portsmouth Harbour,Dockyard and Town in the Tudor Period

Dominic Fontana

Published online: 23 October 2013� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract Portsmouth was crucial to the defence of Tudor England and consequently it

was mapped for military planning purposes throughout the Tudor period from 1545. The

resulting sequence of maps records much of the town and harbour. The maps offer

opportunities for furthering our understanding of Tudor Portsmouth and its population

Additionally, images of the urban landscape provided by the ‘‘Cowdray Engraving’’, which

depicts the loss of Henry VIII’s warship Mary Rose on the 19th July 1545, may also be

considered and compared with those presented in the early maps of the town. This paper

considers the Portsmouth maps of 1545, 1552, 1584 and the chart of Portsmouth Harbour

dating from between 1586 and 1620. These are examined in relation to one another and

compared with evidence from the Cowdray Engraving.

Keywords Portsmouth � Cowdray engraving � Mary Rose � Tudor map

Introduction

In 1509, when Henry VIII came to the throne, English maps were relatively rare objects,

used primarily as a means of displaying encyclopaedic and historical information rather

than for practical purposes. However, during Henry’s reign it was realised that they could

prove extremely useful for both military and urban planning purposes as well as charting

extant buildings and fortifications as a guide in planning further urban and military

expansion.

Portsmouth was most important to the security of England as it offered a good natural

harbour along the south coast. Conversely, it was also the ideal invasion point for an enemy

fleet, providing sheltered anchorage for many substantial ships, and deepwater quaysides

D. Fontana (&)Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, PortsmouthPO1 3HE, UKe-mail: dominic.fontana@port.ac.uk

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J Mari Arch (2013) 8:263–282DOI 10.1007/s11457-013-9114-4

upon which to disembark speedily the very large quantities of soldiers, provisions and

equipment required for an invasion. In 1538, when Henry VIII and England faced great

threat of invasion from the French and Spanish, immediate steps were taken to fortify the

whole of the south coast and in particular the vulnerable coastline around the Solent.

Surveys were undertaken, maps were made, plans developed and the building of fortifi-

cations undertaken, all along the coast (Harrington 2007: 6). Indeed, the coastal survey

which resulted in the magnificent map detailing the coast from Exeter to Land’s End (B.L.

C.A. 1.i. 35, 36, 38, 39) made in 1539–40, was ‘‘the largest single British governmental

mapping initiative before the 19th century’’ (Barber 2009: 216). Similarly, there are also

the maps showing the coast from Poole to Portland and Lyme Regis (B.L. C.A. 1.i. 31, 33).

Although an enormous investment in manpower and money, it has left us with a legacy of

Tudor fortifications, and some of the maps and plans that were used for their planning and

construction. Portsmouth itself was mapped both for Henry and his heirs. During the reigns

of Edward VI and Elizabeth I, threats from abroad continued and consequently further

maps were made and plans drawn up for the repair and re-fortification of the town’s

defences.

This paper considers the Portsmouth maps of 1545, 1552, 1584 (1545, British Library,

Cotton Augustus I.i.81; 1552, British Library, Cotton Augustus I.ii.15 and 1584, British

Library, Cotton Augustus I.ii.117) and the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) chart of

Portsmouth Harbour dating from between 1586 and 1620 (UKHO chart D623). These are

examined in relation to one another and compared with the ‘‘Cowdray Engraving’’, an

engraved copy of a Tudor wall painting of the battle scene off Portsmouth on the 19th of

July 1545, during the invasion attempt by Francois I of France. This action is mostly

remembered for the loss of Mary Rose. Although a significant event in itself, this was only

a part of the overall military and naval conflict, which occurred on the Isle of Wight, in the

Solent and the English Channel. The Cowdray image has proven to be topographically

accurate and contains a great deal of pictorial information about both Portsmouth and its

defences (Fontana and Hildred 2011). Viewed together, the maps and the engraving pro-

vide a rich source of information for the study of the defence and urban development of

Tudor Portsmouth and provide an unparalleled view on aspects of Tudor life at all levels of

study.

It is not possible here to illustrate adequately much of the map based material discussed

in this paper as there is too much to reproduce in print and it would be difficult to provide

sufficient detail within printed images. However, with the exception of the 1584 map of

Portsmouth, the maps from the British Library collection are available online where they

are presented in colour and can be zoomed into by the user so that the detail of the maps

can be explored. Consequently, the available space in this paper has been used for illus-

trations from the Cowdray Engraving and the UK Hydrographic Office chart D623.

The Cowdray engraving (Size: 222 3 69 in.)

The Cowdray Engraving is an important historic image depicting the French attempt to

invade England in July 1545 and shows the loss of King Henry VIII’s warship, Mary Rose

(Fig. 1). The full title of the engraving is ‘‘The Encampment of the English forces near

Portsmouth, Together with a view of the English and French fleets at commencement of

the action between them on the XIXth July MDXLV’’. The engraving was published in

1778, although the original painting from which it was derived was created shortly after the

events shown, probably by May 1548 (Nurse 2012). The copy consulted for this paper is in

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a private collection and by kind permission of the owner the author is in possession of a

high-resolution digital scan of the image, which enables the easy viewing of the picture at

close quarters.

The image presents a bird’s-eye panoramic view looking from north to south across the

southern part of Portsea Island towards the Solent and to the Isle of Wight beyond. On the

left-hand side of the image is the French invasion fleet shown as a mass of ships in St

Helen’s Roads, off Bembridge Harbour, around the eastern end of the Isle of Wight. In the

central upper right-hand area of the image are the ships of the English fleet, which are

occupying the anchorage of Spithead and are set ready to oppose the French invasion. The

town of Portsmouth is shown in the lower right-hand side and Southsea Castle is the large

building in the centre of the image. Just above Southsea Castle are the mast-tops of the

recently sunken Mary Rose, surrounded by a number of small boats attempting to rescue

some of her crew.

This picture is just one image derived from a set of five large wall paintings which once

decorated the dining hall at Cowdray house in Midhurst, Sussex. They were probably

painted for Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the King’s Horse, between 1545 and 1548. The

identity of the artist is unknown. Browne inherited Cowdray from his half-brother in 1543

and it remained one of his principal residences until his death in 1548. Sir Anthony is

shown prominently in the centre of the Portsmouth image riding a white horse following

immediately behind King Henry VIII, who is also mounted. Next to Browne is Sir Charles

Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, commanding the English land forces at Portsmouth (Ayloffe

1775).

The image, as we have it today, is in the form of a printed reproduction from hand-

engraved copper printing plates. These were commissioned by the Society of Antiquaries

of London in the 1770 s. Although it has been reduced to about one-third of the size of the

original wall painting, the reproduction is still very large at over 2 m wide and, as a result it

had to be engraved onto two separate copperplates which were, in turn, printed onto two

sheets of extra large paper called ‘‘Antiquarian’’ (Nurse 2007: 144). The reproduction of

such a large and detailed image required the creation of special paper by James Whatman

who specifically invented equipment to manufacture sheets of the required size (Nurse

2007: 155). The engravings themselves were made by James Basire of Great Queen Street,

London. Basire specialised in antiquarian subjects and used a painstaking, carefully drawn

and, even for the time, ‘‘rather old fashioned’’ style of engraving (Ackroyd 1995: 35).

Although there is no direct documentary evidence, William Blake, painter and poet, is

Fig. 1 The whole of the Cowdray Engraving showing the battle in the Solent off Portsmouth on 19th July1545. The ships on the left are the French fleet with the English ships in the centre and to the right of thepicture. The land in the top of the image is the Isle of Wight and the southern shore of Portsmouth is at thebottom. The sea in the middle is Spithead and the Solent (private collection, used by permission)

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likely to have been involved in the engraving of the image. He was apprenticed as an

engraver to Basire in 1772, living in Basire’s household until 1778, the year in which the

engraving was completed and published. The engraving of the image was a major com-

mission and took 2 years to complete, causing some difficulties for the Society of Anti-

quaries because of the expense involved (Nurse 2007:156). However, it is fortuitous that

the Antiquaries continued with the reproduction of the pictures because on the 24th

September, 1793, Cowdray House was largely destroyed by fire (Hope 1919) and the

original wall paintings were lost.

The Antiquaries distributed black-and-white copies of the engraving to members of the

Society and a number of these copies still survive. The copy used for this project has been

coloured by hand, probably using watercolour paints, and it is likely that this colouring was

done shortly after the initial distribution of the prints to the members of the Society in the

late 1770 s. It is not known if the colours used were chosen with reference to the original

wall painting, but this seems unlikely. There is one other coloured copy of the engraving

still known to exist, also in private hands. The colours used in the second known version of

the engraving are significantly different to the copy used here and are somewhat brighter.

A written description of the original painting was made by Sir Joseph Ayloffe (Ayloffe

1775). Ayloffe considered the painting to be an accurate representation of the scene and

was fulsome in his praise. ‘‘…is evidently handled with the greatest attention to truth; all is

regular, circumstantial, and intelligible, nothing misrepresented, disguised, or confused.’’

He also made a few notes about the colours that had been used in the original painting.

Therefore, the image content remains available to us in the form of the engraving although

the colouring of the copy used for this study must be treated with some care as it is unlikely

to have been derived from the original wall painting.

Within the illustration, there is considerable amount of identifiable topographical detail

evident. Several English ships are shown passing through Portsmouth Harbour’s narrow

entrance on their way to join the rest of the English fleet at Spithead. Some of the English

ships are using the Swashway, a shallow channel which cuts southward across Spitbank

adjacent to the harbour entrance, providing a slightly shorter route to Spithead. This

underwater landscape feature is very clearly depicted in the United Kingdom Hydrographic

Office chart D623. Consequently, we can be reasonably certain of the late Tudor seabed

topography and from the map discern that it was very similar to the modern configuration.

The shape of Spitbank has a significant effect on the tidal currents which, in turn, directly

affect the navigational access to Portsmouth Harbour. Today, the Isle of Wight ferries, with

their relatively shallow draught, use this route across the Solent at almost all states of the

tide as they ply between the island and Portsmouth. These vessels are equipped with

modern engines and steering systems, so they are more able to cope with the powerful tidal

currents running through the harbour entrance caused by the ebb and flow of the tidal

cycle. Sailing vessels without motor power are severely constrained by these currents and

must adhere to tightly defined tidal time windows to enter or leave Portsmouth Harbour.

This natural phenomenon is crucial in the planning and development of effective harbour

defences. The location of the underwater sandbanks and navigable channel ensured all

vessels entering the harbour would need to sail close to the southern shore of Portsea

Island, from Southsea Castle to the Round Tower and consequently, the defence of the

harbour required that enough guns of sufficient range and destructive capability were

positioned in batteries along the shore and on either side of the harbour’s entrance and this

is exactly the situation depicted in the Cowdray Engraving with guns mounted at Southsea

Castle and along Portsmouth’s defensive walls from the Greene Bulwark at the southeast

corner of the town to the Round Tower by the harbour entrance.

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The Cowdray image also shows many identifiable features of the built environment of

Portsmouth, Gosport and the Isle of Wight. On the Portsmouth side of the harbour entrance

is the Round Tower, a circular stone structure dating from the 1530–40 s which probably

replaced an earlier tower on the same site. On the Gosport shore opposite the Round Tower

is Fort Blockhouse. Adjacent to the Round Tower is the capstan for raising a defensive

boom chain, which could be drawn across the harbour entrance suspended beneath a series

of small boats roped together. This would close the harbour to shipping, or at the very least

significantly hinder entry for enemy vessels delaying them in a location close to the

defending guns mounted in the Round Tower and at Fort Blockhouse. The chain is also

shown on the 1584 map of Portsmouth fortifications and referred to in John Leland’s

Itinerary (written c. 1535–43). Williams (1979: 11) suggests that the chain was not

available for the 1545 battle, which could explain why the capstan is shown in the

Cowdray Engraving, but the chain itself is not and that the figure standing next to the

capstan is making an almost forlorn gesture towards it.

Also identifiable are the Square Tower, originating as a wood and earth structure around

c. 1495 and rebuilt of stone during Henry VIII’s reign. Other structures clearly shown in

the picture include in the southeast corner of Portsmouth the Saluting Platform, Long

Curtain and what was then known as the Greene Bulwark and this still extant structure is

now called the King’s Bastion. Further east along the Southsea shoreline the smaller

defences of what were later to become Lumps Fort and Eastney Fort are also clearly

shown. The half-timbered building in the lower left-hand side of the picture is Eastney

Farm which was the only substantial building in that part of Portsea Island at the time and

survived until the 1920 s. Eastney Farm (marked as ‘‘Easto Ferm’’) is one of just five

places shown on Portsea Island in John Norden’s 1595 County map of Hampshire.

Within Portsmouth’s town walls there is also considerable detail shown which can be

compared with the 1584 map (Fig. 2). The four brewhouses are labelled on the 1584 map

with their names; The dragon, The Lyon, The White Hart and The Rose, and are clearly

shown as being located around a pond, probably a freshwater spring providing the sig-

nificant quantities of water essential for brewing. The four brewhouses were established in

1515 by Henry VIII to provide beer for his ships. They produced considerable quantities,

making 500 barrels per day in 1515 (Eley 1988). Provisioning of Henry’s fleet and shore

forts was an enormous task requiring significant organisation and by 1547 naval victualling

was regularly accounted to the Exchequer (Knighton and Loades 2014). The engraving

shows the brewhouses as timber framed buildings located almost as though they were

mounted on stilts above a pond which extends underneath and around the buildings.

Evidence for the brewhouses is also provided in the maps of 1545 and 1552. In the 1545

map they are shown as four rectangular buildings with a small square extension added to

one side of each building, with the four brewhouses being grouped around a square pond.

In the 1552 map the buildings are presented in bird’s-eye view as a group of low buildings

with pitched roofs set around an irregularly shaped pond. On the right-hand side of the

image, Portsmouth’s defences adjacent to the narrow entrance to Portsmouth Harbour are

depicted. The engraving shows a wall with a gate separating the Round Tower with its

associated buildings and palisade from the main part of the town. Adjacent to this gate and

wall are two buildings, one of which is shown as being constructed on stilts extending over

the water of the Camber. This is probably the Swane bakery, which is named on the 1584

map.

Shown alongside the brewhouses in the engraving are the buildings of the mediaeval

hospice, Domus Dei, surrounded by the precinct wall, separating it from the town. The

western side of the wall is breached by a gateway located in what is now Penny Street, and

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provides the entrance to the site. The north facing precinct wall is pierced by four windows

and the Great Hall is shown as having two windows with stone tracery and a large chimney

placed in between them. Archaeological excavation undertaken in May 2009 for the

Channel Four television Time Team programme (Series 17, Episode Nine) has provided

archaeological confirmation of the location of the eastern precinct wall of the Domus Dei

(Wessex Archaeology 2010, Trench 2, Paragraph 4.3.12: 12) and this concurs with the site

as shown in the 1545, 1552 and 1584 maps.

In the extreme lower right of the picture can be seen Town Quay in the Camber Dock

(Fig. 3) with what appear to be stone quaysides on either side, forming a small rectangular

inlet. This shape is also recorded in the 1545 map and is echoed in the bird’s-eye view

depiction on the 1552 map, although the lengths of the projections appear unequal, con-

trasting with their presentation in the 1545 map. To the left of Town Quay there is a small

vessel either loading or unloading barrels, alongside a small crane or derrick. In front of

this scene there are a line of four gabions (wicker baskets containing earth or sand, used to

provide temporary fortifications) and behind these are four guns facing outwards towards

the Camber. These appear to be mounted on part of the town wall embankment, which is

topped with a crenellated wall. This is truncated on either side, forming a gap between the

sections of the wall. On the 1545 map this position is filled with a circular bastion placed

on top of an earth mound which projects northwards from the walls. The depiction in the

Cowdray Engraving suggests that this bastion had not been completed at the time of the

battle in July 1545, although, implied by the gap in the wall, space had been reserved for its

future construction. The 1552 map shows a pentagonal shaped bastion projecting out from

the wall in place of the circular bastion depicted in the 1545 map. The 1584 map shows a

semicircular bastion, which is open on the side facing into the town with its parapet walls

joining the general run of the parapet around the town. From this sequence of map and

pictorial evidence, it seems likely that the 1584 map depiction most closely reflects the

bastion that was eventually constructed.

As it is shown in the Cowdray Engraving the line of the crenellated wall westward of

the gap merges into some trees, which suggests that the wall itself did not completely

encircle the town at this time. On the 1545 map an almost square bastion is drawn as

Fig. 2 Detail from the Cowdray Engraving showing the four brewhouses located above a pond in the left ofthis picture and the buildings of the mediaeval hospice Domus Dei surrounded by its precinct wall. Thearched entrance from Penny Street into the enclosed Domus Dei site can be seen in the right hand of theimage (private collection, used by permission)

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forming the northwestern most part of the defences of the town. As shown in the 1545 map,

it appears to be equipped with a doorway adjacent to the parapet of the Town Walls giving

entry to an L- shaped space from which a staircase transits to a second, possibly higher

level. The 1552 map displays a largely similar square bastion structure although no internal

walls or staircases have been defined. The entrance doorway is in a similar position to that

shown in the 1545 map. The 1584 map also shows a square bastion which has been labelled

ye square bastion. Internally, there is an L-shaped structure shown but it is not in the same

position as depicted in the 1545 map. The entrance to the interior of the bastion is via a

narrow passage between the right-angled corner of the town wall parapet and the inner

corner of the bastion itself. The sequence suggests that this bastion was planned, but not

built by the time of the 1545 battle.

In the engraving, just above the crenellated Town Wall parapet, a long storehouse can

be seen. In the 1545 map the long storehouse is clearly shown with an entrance doorway

close to Town Quay and another one halfway along its eastern side, which is depicted on

the map as being closed. Interestingly, the Cowdray Engraving shows the doorway on the

eastern end of the building facing away from the Town Quay and the 1545 map shows this

as just a blank end wall without doorway. This location is marked in the 1584 map as an

area which has been ‘‘burned’’. The storehouses were destroyed by fire on 4th August 1576

(Calendar of State Papers Domestic 1547–1580: 526). Hodson (1978: 33) cites this as

evidence for the earliest possible date of the 1584 map.

One of the central subjects of the Cowdray picture is the sinking of Mary Rose.

Although this specific incident happened at Spithead and does not occur directly within

part of Portsmouth town or the harbour, it is nonetheless an extremely useful element of the

data contained within the picture. Because Mary Rose was excavated from the seabed of

the Solent the exact location of her sinking is known and this fixed spot assists with the

understanding of the geography of the battlefield as presented within the image. In turn,

this helps to develop a fuller understanding of all of the other information presented within

the picture.

The appearance of the sunken Mary Rose presents what is an accurate depiction of the

ship resting on the seabed with only the highest parts of two of the ship’s masts protruding

Fig. 3 Detail from the extreme lower right corner of the Cowdray Engraving showing Town Quay as arectangular shaped inlet. Notice that crossing the lower part of the image is the crenulated parapet of thetown wall exhibiting a gap in wall itself, close to the four guns and gabions. To the right of this detail thelong storehouse showing a doorway facing to the east unlike the 1545 map which shows the doorway facingwest (private collection, used by permission)

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above the surface of the sea, complete with their fighting tops. The foremast mainsail can

be seen floating on the surface of the water surrounded by a number of drowned sailors.

The image shows one man clinging to the underside of the fighting top of the main mast

with two men on the foremast, one clinging to the mast itself and the other standing on the

fighting top, waving animatedly. The depiction of the masts would suggest that Mary Rose

had been proceeding in a northerly direction at the time that she sank, which accords with

her excavated archaeological position, and that she was rigged with the mainsail on the

foremast. Within the image there is no suggestion of the mainsail on the main mast, which

may imply that this was reefed at the time of the sinking. Consequently, it is probable that

Mary Rose had a similar sail configuration set for her final passage to a number of the other

English vessels depicted in the engraving. which are shown with bowsprit sails and lateen

sails set.

The action between the vanguard of the English ships and the French is clearly shown in

the centre of the image where an advance party of four French galleys is seen exchanging

fire with the largest of the English ships, Henri Grace a Dieu. Towards the front of the

French main fleet is a galley flying a flag bearing the crossed keys of St Peter and just

behind it there is another galley which appears to be partially submerged. This may well be

the vessel referred to in the letter by John, Lord Russell to Sir William Pagett. Written on

the 23rd July he states ‘‘…at the writing of your letters, 17 of the [French] galleys came in

the order of battle to the fight, of the which one was sunk’’ (Knighton and Loades 2002).

To the left of the sunken galley a large ship may be seen with its masts sloping markedly

towards the left. It is possible that this represents the second French flagship mentioned in

Martin Du Bellay’s account of the battle written after 1546 (Martin Du Bellay,

1495/8–1559). He was a French nobleman who accompanied the French invasion fleet in

July 1545 (Stone 1907). He recounts that this vessel is said to have run aground shortly

after leaving harbour in France and as a result was reported to have damaged its keel which

could have caused displacement of its masts.

On the Isle of Wight, French troops are depicted as making landings on the southern

side of Bembridge Harbour and in Sandown Bay and the village of Bembridge itself is

shown as being on fire (Fig. 4). The illustration of these incidents concur with the written

account provided by Martin Du Bellay (Stone 1907) within which he suggested that it was

the French tactic of ‘‘wasting and burning his [Henry VIII’s] country in his sight’’ such that

Henry would be forced to send rashly his fleet from the safety of Spithead to attack the

French fleet, thereby bringing on a more general open engagement much to the advantage

of the French.

In another interesting little vignette within the picture, the bridge at Yarbridge on the

Isle of Wight, connecting Bembridge with the main part of the Isle of Wight across a

muddy intertidal area, is shown as being defended by the English with two cannons. Part of

the bridge structure has been demolished as a defensive measure to keep the French

constrained to the isolated eastern end of the Island. This incident is also recounted in Du

Bellay’s account (Stone 1907): ‘‘…put the enemy to flight, and forced them to retreat

inland to a stream which they crossed by a bridge, cutting it behind them for fear of our

pursuit, and there made a stand awaiting reinforcement.’’

Considered on its own therefore, the Cowdray Engraving is an image containing a

considerable amount of data. Much of this can be compared, contrasted and in many cases

confirmed, with archaeological, documentary and the map-based spatial information. It is

however, most important that such an image is considered en toto and in conjunction with

these other sources of data, rather than just selecting occasional details or vignettes. Such

an inclusive, cross-disciplinary approach will provide a more comprehensive

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understanding of the way in which the picture conveys and presents its stories. The image

can be examined on a number of levels and for a variety of subjects including topo-

graphical, architectural, social, military and logistical aspects of Tudor life and conse-

quently the engraving deserves further detailed analysis by an interdisciplinary team.

Plan of Portsmouth 1545: British Library, Cotton Augustus I.i.81(Size: 22.8 3 30.7 in.; Scale: 1:1200)

The first of the Portsmouth maps dates from 1545 and was produced for Henry VIII. It is

the earliest known scale plan of any town in England and is noteworthy for its accuracy and

detail. It was made to show proposals for improvements to the defences of Portsmouth,

probably after the French invasion attempt of July 1545. There is a note written on the

right-hand side of the map which reads ‘‘This plat is in every inch C foote’’, meaning that

the map has been made at an intended scale of 1 inch to 100 feet. The map was very

carefully drawn and the circular lines defining the bastions of the town’s wall have been

made using a compass. Indeed, the holes in the paper made by the compass points are still

clearly evident.

The map presents a modern style of plan with each building being described by the

position of its walls rather than a ‘‘bird’s-eye’’ pictorial image, as often encountered with

maps of the period. Interestingly, the map even shows the positions of the doorways

opening onto the street as well as the interior ones; however, the rear doorways to the

houses are not recorded. The doorposts for each doorway are marked as small circles on the

ends of the lines, representing the doorframes and walls, leaving a gap to denote the

doorway itself. This is a tremendous level of detail and it must have taken the surveyors a

considerable time to gather the information.

Fig. 4 Detail from the Cowdray Engraving. French troops, having landed on the eastern end of the Isle ofWight have set fire to the village of Bembridge and, according to Martin Du Bellay (Stone 1907), with theintention of enraging the English such that they would rashly send their fleet out of the safety of Solent toattack the French ships anchored at St Helen’s Road. English troops have built a fortification, equipped withtwo guns, at the western end of Yarbridge and have breached the final arches of the bridge itself in anattempt to deny a dry crossing point to the French whereby they could advance their attack into the heart ofthe Isle of Wight (private collection, used by permission)

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When compared with the 1552 map, the 1545 map may be considered to appear rather

plain and technical in its presentation of the built environment of the town. The 1552 map

contains pictorial drawings of the buildings. There is a considerable coincidence of

information presented by the two maps and this adds confidence in the accuracy of their

depiction of the town. As with any historic map, the data as presented need to be inter-

preted and understood by the map user in the light of their own research questions rather

than simply being accepted purely at face value. The combined use of several data sources

enhances this understanding. In the case of Tudor Portsmouth, the availability of several

maps as well as the Cowdray image and some archaeologically derived data further

enhances this process (Fig. 5).

The 1545 map depicts the four brewhouses shown in the Cowdray Engraving. There are

also other features clearly evident in the 1545 map; the church of St Thomas, the former

mediaeval hospice Domus Dei in the southeastern quadrant of the town, and its precinct

wall, and the town’s two bakeries, the Swane near the Camber, and the Anker to the north

of St Thomas’s Church. Again, considerable care has been taken by the surveyors to gather

detailed information, and plan representations of the bread ovens have been drawn into

these bakeries the Swane has two ovens and the Anker four (Fig. 6). The names of the

bakeries are recorded in the 1584 map. Interestingly, although the hospice of the Domus

Dei had been closed as an ecclesiastical site by 1540 and was being used as an armoury in

1545, the survey recorded two further bread ovens within one of its smaller buildings,

giving the town of Portsmouth a total of eight potentially available bread ovens. Unfor-

tunately, during the Time Team excavations of May 2009, it was not possible to excavate

that specific location. A trench (Trench 2, Wessex Archaeology 2010:12) opened just to the

south of this location revealed a flagged floor, parts of which may have been used in the

original mediaeval hall although much repair and reuse had clearly taken place during the

conversion of the Domus Dei into the Governor’s House in the 1580s.

Another interesting detail in the 1545 map is the inclusion of a small rectangular

building located on the Camber quayside in Oyster Street. This depicts two forges, com-

plete with their bellows to provide an additional supply of oxygen to the fires and the two

anvils. The hearths are set at either end of the building alongside doorways with the

bellows arranged between the two fires facing outwards from the centre of the building.

The anvils are located right by the doorways, presumably to allow the smith to work in

better daylight and cooler air. Clearly the smithy was considered an important facility and,

as such, has been duly recorded in the 1545 map. Intriguingly it does not appear at all in the

1552 map or the 1584 map. This seems an important omission and raises the question of

whether this might have been a temporary smithy or simply a proposal for one in the 1545

map. A quayside location would have been convenient as the wood or charcoal for the

forge could easily be supplied from the Forest of Bere to the north and transported by boat

from either Fareham or Portchester. The town must have had a smithy throughout its

history as any town or village would certainly need the services of a blacksmith.

The map also shows the important defensive structures of the town including the Round

Tower at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, the Square Tower and its adjacent gun

platform and the town walls themselves, which include a number of bastions. There is also

a transverse rampart and ditch which cuts off the northeast section of the walled area

separating it from the rest of the town. This is very clearly shown in the Cowdray

Engraving as a raised area of ground contained within a small crenellated wall running the

length of the diagonal which directly meets with the Town Wall. This structure is also

recorded in the 1552 map of Portsmouth as a wall and bank, however it differs from the

Cowdray and the 1545 map’s depiction as it terminates in a small Square Tower (which

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was not built) at the southeastern end close to the four brewhouses. The addition of an

angle-bastion of contemporary Italian type to the southeast rampart is indicated in pencil

on the 1545 map. Therefore, this map shows the extant defences and urban development, as

well as proposals for major defensive modifications which were never constructed. This

mixture of existing and proposed information presented within the single map sheet can

Fig. 5 Detail from the Cowdray Engraving showing the defences from the Greene Bulwark in thesoutheastern corner (left), where there are four guns mounted, along the walls facing towards the navigablechannel into Portsmouth Harbour, with one gun shown, followed by the Saluting Platform (beneath the largeflag), which mounts seven guns, adjacent to the Square Tower at the right-hand end of this detail (privatecollection, used by permission)

Fig. 6 The Round Tower is shown in the Cowdray Engraving as being separated from the town by apalisade along the centre of the peninsula at the south side of the Camber. At the eastern end of this palisadethere appears to be a gate giving access from the town to the area outside the palisade and closed gate nearbygiving access to the inside of the palisade area and the Round Tower itself. These gates are located close tothe site of what later became King James’s gate (1687). The timber-framed building built on piles over thewater in the Camber dock is probably the Swane bakery (private collection, used by permission)

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cause some difficulty for a researcher interpreting the information as presented. However,

despite this difficulty, these proposals are important as they provide evidence of the earliest

design for fortifying an English town using an Italian style fully flanked bastion system

(British Library 2012).

Plan of Portsmouth 1552: British Library Cotton Augustus I.ii.15(Size: 21.5 3 29.5 in.; Scale: 1:2400)

This map shows both the old town of Portsmouth itself and the settlement of Gosport on

the western side of Portsmouth Harbour. Clearly shown is the narrow harbour entrance,

complete with the defensive structures of the Square Tower and the Round Tower on the

Portsmouth side and Fort Blockhouse on the Gosport side. A second, larger fort is shown

on the Gosport peninsula. This consists of a circular keep within a circular perimeter wall,

and represents Lymden’s Bulwark. The map has been partly drawn in plan view and partly

in bird’s-eye view. Features such as the streets, town walls, bastions and land parcels are

shown as outlines in their plan position. The bird’s-eye approach provides sketches of

buildings and some major fortifications. This provides much illustrative detail of the

buildings and fortifications within Portsmouth town, but not very much is shown on the

Gosport side. There are no text annotations to the map, which is unusual. This may suggest

that the map was intended to provide illustrative support for discussions between people

who knew Portsmouth well and who would not have required labels or annotations naming

the particular locations.

Dating of this map is not exact, as it could have been produced at any time between

1545 when works on the defensive walls began, and 1563, by which time the configuration

of the Town Quay in the Camber had been significantly altered. It seems likely that the

map was produced in 1552, because in that year John Rogers was ordered to survey the

town. It was also visited by the 14 year-old King Edward VI on the 9th August 1552, when

he expressed some dissatisfaction at the state of the defences (Williams 1979:10).

The Round Tower is shown as being connected to the town by a palisade along the

centre of the peninsula surrounding the Camber. At the eastern end of this palisade is a

second one, which crosses the peninsula laterally and is fitted with what appear to be gates

giving access from the town to either side of the longitudinal palisade. This is located at the

site of what later became King James’s Gate and is situated just behind the Swane bakery,

which is also clearly shown on both the 1545 and 1584 maps of Portsmouth. This pre-

sentation of information also bears some comparison with the depiction of the structures

within the Cowdray Engraving.

Both the Round Tower and St Thomas’s Church are shown with signal braziers

mounted on their roofs, and the one on the church tower is also clearly visible in the

Cowdray Engraving (see Fig. 6).

The Town Gate Bastion is shown in some detail at the north-eastern end of the High

Street and it is possible to see the arrangements for controlled access into the town (Fig. 7).

This is achieved through an entrance on the western side of the bastion by crossing a small

bridge over a moat into what appears to be an enclosed courtyard. This was probably fitted

with gates at either end, providing a mechanism with which to control tightly entry to, and

exit from, the town. Again, the Town Gate Bastion the guardhouse to the right of the gate

as well as the guideposts on the bridge by which one enters the town are shown.

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Portsmouth 1584: British Library, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.117 (Size: 27.2 3 26 in.)

This is also a remarkable map of Portsmouth which contains considerable information

about the land use and development of the town. It is also particularly notable because it

includes overlays specifically designed to show the intended positions of proposed new

defensive structures to strengthen the town’s defences in preparation for the expected

Spanish attacks. One of these overlays shows plans for the replacement of the wall between

the Saluting Platform and the Square Tower combined with the construction of a new wall

between the Square Tower and the Round Tower. The other shows the potential con-

struction of a moat along the line of Penny Street. This moat then extends south-eastwards

to join the existing ditch behind the King’s Bastion. Hodson (1978:33) suggests that this

modification would have reduced the town’s area and removed the ‘‘vulnerable southeast

corner’’. Although this would have been the case, it must be recognised that this would also

have increased the length of the town’s perimeter wall and left the Domus Dei outside of

their protection. It is possible that had these modifications to the town’s walls been made,

the entirety of the Domus Dei would have been demolished. The result would leave a clear

field to the front of the new town walls, denying areas of cover and refuge to any attacking

soldiers and ensuring that they could be seen by defenders of the town. Demolition of the

Domus Dei would also have provided a free and on-site source of building stone for the

new walls. However, the decision was taken to convert some of the buildings of the Domus

Dei into a suitable residence for the Governor of Portsmouth instead. Interestingly, Wright

(1873:17–18) provides useful information about specific room sizes within a number of the

buildings of the Domus Dei complex derived from building repair estimates of 1581 and

1582 ‘‘for converting God’s House and other buildings into a residence for a Governor’’.

The Domus Dei was converted into the Governor’s house in the early 1580 s and the town

walls remained in their original position. The map’s concentration on matters of defence is

further reinforced by the drawing of the boom chain at the harbour entrance adjacent to the

Round Tower.

Most of the streets within the town walls have been included, although the map does not

show internal field divisions or individual plots. Many of the buildings have been drawn

and these are marked with their function and the names of their owners or tenants. The four

Fig. 7 Town Gate Bastion in the Cowdray Engraving. It is possible to identify the guardhouse to the rightof the gate as well as the guideposts on the bridge by which one enters the town (private collection, used bypermission)

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brewhouses are named, as are the two bakeries, ‘‘ye Swane’’, near Oyster Street and ‘‘The

Q Barkhouse called ye Anker’’ on St Thomas’s Street. Also named is ‘‘Whight House a

prison’’ just to the east of the High Street and set back behind the main run of houses.

Adjacent to this is the ‘‘T. playhouse’’ (Town Playhouse) and further south along the High

Street the position of the ‘‘Toune house’’ (Town Hall) is shown in the centre of the High

Street close to St Thomas’s Church. The church itself is drawn as a long, low, pitched roof

building. It has a tower on its eastern side, three windows and an arched door on its western

elevation and a single one on the north side. There is no signalling brazier shown on the

tower roof. A path connects the eastern side of the church’s nave to the High Street, which

passes between two houses.

There is no date recorded on this map although it is known that the storehouses next to

the Town Quay were destroyed by fire on the 4th August 1576. These are shown on this

map as ‘‘burned’’, thereby providing an earliest date for its compilation. Hodson (1978:33)

places the latest date as 1584 when Spicer’s Wall was commenced as this is not shown in

the map. However, given the repair estimates of 1581 and 1582 for converting the Domus

Dei into the Governor’s residence, it would seem likely that the map and its overlays were

compiled before this reuse of the Domus Dei was decided. Consequently, its date may be

around 1580 or 1581.

Chart of Portsmouth Harbour, Between 1586 and 1620: Admiralty UK HydrographicOffice D623 (Size: 29.7 3 48.5 in.; Scale: 1:10560)

This is a large, attractive and extremely well produced manuscript map of the entrance to

Portsmouth Harbour. It is the earliest known chart in the UK Hydrographic Office’s

archive (Fig. 8). It shows the deep-water areas and mudflats within the harbour as well as

the settlements and defensive features of the surrounding landscape. It has been accurately

surveyed, and, most notably for such an early map, includes a realistic representation of the

seabed topography covering the approach to Portsmouth Harbour’s entrance, even

recording the presence of the Swashway channel across Spitbank (marked ‘‘The Swach’’).

The map is oriented with West-South-West to the top and is intended to be viewed in a

landscape position, as the majority of the labels have been written with this viewpoint in

mind.

The map has annotations marking the beaches along the shoreline, and prominently

displays all the defensive positions as well as the offshore water depths. It is possible that

this combination of features on the map was intended to provide a map suitable for

planning defensive operations around Portsmouth Harbour. The map’s orientation

encourages the viewer to consider potential shipping approaches towards the harbour

entrance and makes the positions of the defensive fortifications and the locations of the

potential landing beaches remarkably clear. After the French invasion attempt of 1545 in

which Mary Rose was lost, the next serious invasion threat was from the Spanish Armada

in 1588 and the English continued to expect further attempts to be made in the years

following.

The date of this map is difficult to determine and there have been a number of sug-

gestions made, including as late as 1665 by Hodson (1978) and around 1620 by the

National Maritime Museum. Internal evidence from the map itself however provides some

indication of an earlier date. The walls of Portsmouth town are drawn in their later

Elizabethan configuration, with the Four Houses Bulwark (named after the nearby four

brewhouses) shown in the centre of the long curtain wall on the eastern side of the town.

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This structure was built around 1584 to 1586 when Portsmouth’s defences were remodelled

by Popinjay and Pearse (English Heritage 2012). This was the first bastion to be built on

the site and was remodelled by de Gomme in 1677–85. This bastion is not shown in the

Cowdray engraving as the engraving predates this construction by around 40 years.

Evidence for an earlier date is suggested by Hasleworth Castle, which is shown as being

still extant on the Gosport peninsula (Figs. 9, 10) Hasleworth was said to have been

destroyed on the order of King Philip, and there is a story that when he sailed into

Southampton in 1554 to marry Queen Mary at Winchester, all of the forts around the

Solent and along Southampton Water fired salutes except Hasleworth, which was

demolished as a consequence (Williams 1979:14). Alternatively, Williams suggests that

Hasleworth Castle was ‘‘scrapped as a result of a review of coastal fortifications by the

Marquis of Winchester under instructions dated 1556’’ (Williams 1979:14; Colvin 1982).

Hasleworth Castle is shown in a miniature architectural sketch in the Burghley atlas map of

the Isle of Wight (British Library, Royal 18 D iii, f. 18), dating to around 1570. This

suggests that Hasleworth Castle was still standing at the time. Interestingly, on Daniel

Favreau de la Fabvolliere’s 1665 Portsmouth map (British Library, Add. MS. 16371a.),

Hasleworth Castle is marked as ‘‘beaten downe by King Philip’’. Norden’s 1595 county

map of Hampshire records ‘‘Riames ofy Haselworth Castle’’ (Remains of Hasleworth

Castle) at this location. The evidence therefore suggests that this map dates from around

1620 at the latest, and it is quite possible that it may be as early as the mid-1580 s, although

an earliest date is more likely to be 1590.

The compass rose outside the harbour mouth on Chart D623 (Fig. 11) has a pencil line

running north and extending through the tower of St Thomas’s Church. This is not a

navigation mark. To follow it when steering a ship would run the ship aground on the

shallow water of the Spit. Intriguingly, the fleur-de-lis of the compass rose lies

Fig. 8 Chart D623 is the earliest chart in the UK Hydrographic Office collection. The chart shows theentrance to Portsmouth Harbour with Portsea Island in the lower left of the image and the Gosport peninsulain the upper right. There is considerable, and accurate, detail provided of the seabed topography and themudflats and channels within Portsmouth harbour (UK Hydrographic Office www.ukho.gov.uk)

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immediately on top of the wreck site of Mary Rose. Is this an intentional feature of this

chart, perhaps providing a means of locating the wreck or is it merely a coincidence?

Furthermore, the central point of the compass rose can be fixed by lines of sight to

Nettlestone Fort on the Isle of Wight, Cowes Castle, Pagham church tower on the Selsey

peninsula in West Sussex and the tower of St Thomas’s church in Old Portsmouth. From

this central point it is exactly 750 yards along the sight line to St Thomas’s church tower to

arrive at the wreck site of Mary Rose.

Also of considerable interest is the representation of ‘‘The Dock’’ which is the Royal

Dockyard, set apart from and to the north of the town. It is depicted as being surrounded by

a wall (Figs. 12, 13). The Dock is outside of the extents of the 1545, 1552 and 1584 maps

Fig. 9 Detail from the Cowdray Engraving showing the Gosport peninsula with the three forts (L–R):Haselworth Castle, Lymden’s Bulwark and Fort Blockhouse. The inlet on the right-hand of this detail isHaslar Creek (private collection, used by permission)

Fig. 10 Detail from UK Hydrographic Office chart D623 showing Haselworth Castle on the Gosportpeninsula (UK Hydrographic Office www.ukho.gov.uk)

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of Portsmouth and is also outside the field of view of the Cowdray Engraving. Conse-

quently it is not illustrated in any of the other sources examined here. There are six

buildings shown within the Dock. Also clearly indicated is the position of the entrance to

Fig. 11 Detail from UK Hydrographic Office chart D623 showing the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour andSpitbank extending from the Gosport shoreline alongside the main navigational channel into Portsmouthharbour (UK Hydrographic Office www.ukho.gov.uk)

Fig. 12 Detail from UK Hydrographic Office chart D623 showing the town of Portsmouth. The town wallsand the arrow-shaped bastions are clearly shown, as is St Thomas’s church and two pitched roof buildingswhich represent the tidal mill next to the mill pond. Town key is marked. Note that its shape is not the sameas the representation in the 1545 map or the Cowdray Engraving as it appears to have been filled in (UKHydrographic Office www.ukho.gov.uk)

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the dry dock, which was established by Henry VII in 1496. Also on the site were a

storehouse, forge and smithy (Riley 2002:9). The circular feature between the Dock and

the town is what is now known as the ‘‘Mast Pond’’ and still exists within the Royal Naval

Base at Portsmouth. This pond was filled with seawater and was used to season timber

especially selected for making ships’ masts; the process ensured that the timber was

springy and supple thereby creating pliable but strong ships’ masts that could transmit the

force of the wind through the vessel without breaking.

Conclusion

Between 1545 and, at the absolute latest 1620, we have a remarkable set of documents.

Each individually records considerable detail about the town of Portsmouth, its situation

and its defensive capability. These cover a 75-year period at most and may possibly

represent a more tightly defined period of just over 40 years. In order to extract the data

contained within, they need to be examined and then interpreted. When considered

together these documents present a rich source of information which can be used to

develop a better understanding of Tudor approaches to the defence of both Portsmouth and

the realm. The images also assist in developing an understanding of the sequence of

development within the urban landscape of Portsmouth. However, it remains difficult to

make absolute assertions about specific locations. Visual sources of data such as maps and

pictures can be difficult to interpret, analyse and then present the results from that research.

Research based on such data requires a multidisciplinary range of skills and knowledge to

fully utilise the potential information available within the sources. Consequently, this

present research can but merely scratch the surface of what may be understood if the

research were to be undertaken by a team of researchers assembled with such a range of

expertise in mind.

Acknowledgments Thanks are due to Peter Barber and Andrea Clarke at the British Library and PhillipClayton-Gore and Guy Hannaford of the UK Hydrographic Office, for their considerable assistance in

Fig. 13 Detail from UK Hydrographic Office chart D623 showing the Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth. Notethe channel and entry into ‘‘The Dock’’. The circular feature to the left of the Dock is what is now known asthe ‘‘Mast Pond’’ (UK Hydrographic Office www.ukho.gov.uk)

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assembling an exhibition of historic maps of Portsmouth, which was held at the Mary Rose Museum,Portsmouth, in the summer of 2010. Also, very many thanks to all the staff at the Mary Rose Trust and inparticular, John Lippiett and Alexzandra Hildred for their continuing support and enthusiasm. KesterKeighley for his most generous provision of the high resolution scan of the Cowdray engraving. Thanks arealso due to C.J. Sansom for providing an excellent reason to extend my understanding of Tudor Portsmouthduring the writing of his historical novel Heartstone.

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