Palmerston Forts – Part 4 – The Royal Armouries Museum
INTERIOR DISPLAYS
Within the Redan and Barracks of the Fort itself, yet more displays can be found, but these are all part of a fascinating display leading from room to room documenting the principles, history and use of artillery through the ages. Readers of my previous piece from Fort Nelson will recall the gun sticking through the window near the visitors’ entrance – well here it is in the picture to the right.
Here are some excellent examples of artillery rounds, including this British anti-tank round with discarding sabot to the right. Nasty eh?
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All types of cannonball can be found here, from the not-so-large to the truly massive. And also some interesting hexagonal gun barrels!
All sorts of weapons are inside this area, many of them captured or donated from around the world.
The display isn’t limited to large cannon either, some small arms can be found, swords, axes, pistols and rifles and muskets as you can see here. Next to them, a fine model of a 7" rifled muzzle loader and carriage.
To the left in the leftmost picture, you can see a Friction Tube, which was a method of igniting the charge in a gun to allow it to fire. We shall see one in action in the last part of this tour. To the right, a very odd-looking twin-barrelled gun on a carriage.
[continued on next page]
