The Cowdray engraving is a picture describing the attempt by the forces of the French King, Francis 1st, to invade England on 19th July 1545. The image presents a birdseye 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 represented as a mass of ships drawn up in St Helen’s Roads 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 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.

There is considerable topographic detail, particularly of Portsmouth town which is visible within the picture and can be identified.  For example, Portsmouth Harbour's narrow entrance is accurately drawn and there are some English ships passing through the passage to join the rest of the English fleet at Spithead. The implied seabed configuration is exactly as it exists today some of the ships using the Swashway, a slightly deeper channel across Spitbank, as a route to Spithead.




The built environment of Old Portsmouth too depicts many identifiable features. On the Portsmouth side of the Harbour entrance is the Round Tower, a circular stone structure originating from the 1530s - 40s. 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 across the Harbour entrance.  This is also shown on a 1584 map of Portsmouth fortifications (British Library Cotton MS Augustus I II 117) and referred to in John Leland’s Itinerary (Written c. 1535-43). Williams (1979) suggests that the chain was not available for the 1545 battle which could explain why the capstan is shown but the chain itself is not evident. Also identifiable are the Square Tower, (c1495) rebuilt of stone during Henry VIII's reign and the structures of the southeast corner of Portsmouth including the Saluting Platform, Long Curtain and the Green Bulwarke or King's Bastion as it is know today. Further along the Southsea shoreline the smaller defences of 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. Within the town walls there is also considerable detail shown which can be compared with the 1584 map of Portsmouth (British Library Cotton MS Augustus I II 117). The four Brewhouses: Dragon, Lion, White Hart and The Rose are clearly shown on the map as being located around a pond, probably a freshwater spring providing the water essential for brewing. The engraving shows them as timber framed buildings located above a pond. 

The early brewhouses of Portsmouth.

The date when beer was first brewed in Portsmouth is not known however it was certainly being produced by 1492 (Eley 1988).  The first large-scale brewing operation in the town was the Greyhound built by order of King Henry VII at a cost of £144, 15 shillings and two and halfpence. The population of Portsmouth at that time was quite small and alone would not justify the building of a large brewery however the Navy provided a strong demand for its product. Leyland observed that “The toun of Portesmouth is bare and litle occupied in time pece.”

In 1509 Henry VIII succeeded his father as King and by 1512 war with France commenced. This greatly increased demand for beer in order to supply both ships and army and consequently between April 1512 and April 1513 a sum of £2641 was spent on a new beerhouse and bakery at Portsmouth.  Indeed, in 1515 a further £339 was paid to a equip the new beer houses (LP Vol 1, No. 2011) and It is probable that this was the Anker on the corner of St Thomas and St Mary's streets.  It is quite possible that as it was a very large sum of money involved it would also have been to cover the establishment of the four beer houses on the eastern side of the town, the Rose, the Lion, the Dragon and the White Hart. These were located close to St Nicholas Street and are clearly shown on the 1584 map of Portsmouth and also illustrated in the Cowdray engraving.  In 1513 the brewhouses were producing over 500 barrels a day (LP Vol 1, 1978). Leyland recorded that “King Henry the vij. at his firste warres into Fraunce erectid in the south part of the towne 3. great bruing houses with the implementes to serve his shippes at such tyme as they shaul go to the se in tyme of warre.” Brewing was clearly a major activity in Tudor Portsmouth especially during conflicts.

detail of the parch marks

In this image the processed aerial photograph has been added to a geographic information system and the coordinated positions of the building lines has been calculated and drawn so that this data may be transferred across to other mapping such as the 1584 map of Portsmouth.

In this image the 1584 map of Portsmouth has been rotated by 130 degrees clockwise and geo-registered within thr GIS so that it may be incorporated into an image with modern map data including the digitised lines of the parch marks derived from the aerial photographs.



A diagram presented in Wright H. P. (1873) The story of the Domus Dei of Portsmouth, James Parker and Co., London, p17. This is clearly derived from the Cotton MS Augustus I II 117
 

Desmaretz map of 1750 with modern survey and parch marks gives a good indication of the relative positions of the buildings and the parch mark patterns.

Zoomed into the Desmaretz map of 1750 with modern survey and parch marks.




Lidar DTM Image of Governor's Green. This gives a height classified image of the ground surface. Within Governor's Green a shadow of the Governor's house may just be detected. Blue is low land, through yellow and orange to red for high area. Data courtesy Channel Coastal Observatory.




Old Portsmouth DTM 3D model viewed from the South looking North. Model made from Lidar Data courtesy Channel Coastal Observatory and processed with MapInfo and Vertical Mapper v3.1.





Governor's Green, Long Curtain and King's Bastion photographed in 1998




Royal Garrison Church about 1860-70



Old wall by Governor's Green. It was part of the Portsmouth defensive walls and marks the line of the wall heading north from the rear of the King's Bastion.

Ordnance Survey Map Hampshire LXXXIII 11 2500 Portsmouth Harbour Entrance 1881.

Notice how the town walls and military sites have been removed from the map. Censorship of this area is strange as the walls had been largely removed by this date and were militarily obsolete in any event. The original map sheet has a small ridge impressed into the paper where a blanking cover was applied to the censored detail. It is also interesting that the Headquarters of the 3^rd Hampshire Artillery Volunteers has been marked in Governor's Green. Perhaps, rather than military censorship the blanking reflects the rapidly changing position on the ground.

Please click on the map for a larger version

The Round Tower and Fort Blockhouse

The Round Tower was one of Portsmouth's first permanent Harbour defences.  The current stone built structure dates from Tudor times. It was most probably put up on the orders of Henry VIII.  Certainly, it was constructed before 1545 as it appears quite prominently in the Cowdray engraving.  Henry V ordered the construction of the first timber tower on the site after the French had invaded Portsmouth some six times during the Hundred Years War. There was a matching tower located on the Gosport side of the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour.  Indeed, today, although hidden from view the remains of Fort Blockhouse are still extant on the Gosport side. Fort Blockhouse is also clearly detected in the Cowdray engraving on the opposite side of Portsmouth Harbour's entrance to the Round Tower.

The Square Tower

The Square Tower was built in 1494, at the order of King Henry VII, as a gun platform for iron guns covering the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour.  The Square Tower was one of Portsmouth's first major defensive structures.  In later years the square tower was used as the military governor's residence, it then became a powder magazine (for storing the town of Portsmouth's gunpowder supplies) and also a meat and water store.

Old Portsmouth was badly affected by the Luftwaffe bombing of Portsmouth during World War Two, especially in the Blitz of 1940 and early 1941. Many of the old buildings of the town were destroyed directly by the air raids and some of those that survived were cleared after the war and replaced with modern (1950s and 60s) housing.