Not sure? How about if I take you to one end?

Can you tell now?

It is an artillery gun, made of bronze. I came across it and many other guns at Fort Nelson in Hampshire. This Victorian fort is spread out over 19 acres on top of Portsdown Hill, and was once one of five defensive forts on the hill. It was operational for less than 20years, and by the 1950s had been abandoned by the army.

It became a museum in the 1990s and I was surprised how interesting it is. Away from the huge gun collection you can discover more about the lives of the soldiers who once worked and lived here, and perhaps best of all there are fabulous views of the Solent and Hampshire countryside. You may wish though to avoid the daily live firing demonstrations!

I must admit I struggle to get my head around the decorative engravings on artillery guns, in fact on any guns at all. I realise they were, and probably still are, status symbols that are expensive to make, but somehow it seems wrong to cover an item of destruction in artwork.

132 thoughts

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  5. Seems like there’s always been artistic flourishes to weapons, especially if there’s a ceremonial element to them. Spears, swords, hand guns, and rifles, can be quite artistic, sometimes to assert, or inspire, the elan and bravery of the user. I’m not surprised there are artillery pieces like that. Did the museum have anything about the history of the guns? Here’s my square: https://grahamsisland.com/2020/07/27/a-plane-and-the-moon/

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    1. It did on some of the guns, but must admit this one I didn’t really notice as it was at the entrance and I wasn’t really paying much attention to the notices!!

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  11. Wonderful photos! So very imaginatively done! Back in my working days, at the bleeding edge of technology, I used to say, “when you can’t improve the product, add filigree”. I think this has happened to many items, including weaponry. I also visited a fort for my blog, Fort Pulaski across the pond at the mouth of the Savannah river. It’s fame derives from the fact that there was an improvement in weapons, rifled guns, which provided range and accuracy to utterly destroy brick fortifications. https://2cameras2views.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/challenge-2020-5/

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      1. It was initially intended as informative, but I have four square images in that post, although not as the feature image. I find that I like the square format quite a bit, hope to join in the future (but not daily).

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        1. So glad you visited, and learnt so much from your amazing fort. And be delighted if you joined us as and when you can. This month’s squares is nearly at an end, but we’ll be back in October 🙂

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  12. That is very intricate for a military firearm. Absolutely beautiful and I would love to be there when they fire that thing off! I got it on the second photo, but not on the first one. 🙂

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    1. I know, I kind of forgot it being a gun when i was close up. ooh might be Scottish – totally failed to take a note of what the sign said!!!

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