Inside Gosport’s historic Fort Brockhurst where you can see bomb-damaged casemate and restored barrack room

We toured Fort Brockhurst, built in Gosport between 1858 and 1862, and saw a bomb-damaged casemate and a restored barrack room.

Fort Brockhurst is one of the five forts - Brockhurst, Elson, Gomer, Grange and Rowner - which formed the 'Gosport Advanced Line'. This defensive line was intended to provide protection for the naval and dockyard establishment at Portsmouth.

During the First World War, it was used as a recruitment centre and later as a demobilisation centre. During the Second World War, the fort was damaged by German bombing.

The army stayed until 1957, and in 1962 the fort was taken over by the Department of Environment. Since 1984, Fort Brockhurst has been in the ownership of English Heritage.

Fort Brockhurst remains largely unaltered and the keep, the parade ground, gun ramps, washrooms and armoury can all be viewed.

Ginny Slade, Community Engagement Officer, said: “It [Fort Brockhurst] has in its previous life been a pay to enter site and a couple of years ago the free sites team came in and reopened the site and our aim really is to embed the site into the heart of the community. It's their space and we want them to have a say on how we actually use this site now and we've got some fantastic examples where we've connected and reached out to the community and formed some wonderful partnerships as a result.”