‘After receipt of fresh information, the author will reassess the situation and this will be uploaded in due course.’

May 2023

Haslar Wall by Chris Donnithorne

Chris Donnithorne has written a further report: ‘Haslar Wall’ (January 2022) with the accompanying statement:

In December 2021, an apparently sound part of Haslar Wall was damaged by storm ‘Barra’, with the manner of failure looking remarkably similar to such events at Blockhouse. The full extent of the wall had not been considered before, for reasons stated in the original paper. This brief, produced as a result, and clearly directing attention to this aspect of the threat, was made available locally and subsequently to attendees of a meeting convened to consider such issues.

Caroline Dinenage (Gosport MP) – already briefed that wall failure here would become a national issue – chaired the meeting of interested agencies, national and local, and myself, on 28th January 2022. The agency attendees provided positive reports of their various activities regarding the wall and, in summary, assured the Chair that the harbour entrance was secure, there was no flood risk, and new owners could be expected to fund this sea defence into the future – to which the Chair announced that she was encouraged by all that she had heard. The wall issue now appears dead until the next big storm damage.

1 February 2022

Update to the Threat to Portsmouth Harbour

Chris Donnithorne, a former naval officer, has updated his paper which raises urgent concerns about the immediate and future viability of Portsmouth Harbour. The NDS  publishes it for public information and debate.

Portsmouth Harbour is an amalgam of natural and manmade events, originating when rising sea levels drowned the coastal plain after the last Ice Age. Its entrance has been kept clear by a scouring ‘double high tide’ and the influx of river water from the South Downs, but it has required occasional dredging at the harbour mouth to reduce the silt bar. With its creeks, streams and mudbanks, the harbour is a complex organism which is showing identifiable signs of stress.

See the update here  See more about the original paper and also Chris Donnithorne, below.

Dr Ann Coats
30 November 2020 (brought up to date 20 December 2020, with the update added 6 December 2021)

What’s Happening to Portsmouth’s Defence Heritage? Update.

Dr Celia Clark is reporting here on recent discussions regarding the future use of Tipner West site or Lennox Point as it has resently been renaimed.

In her article she also discusses the likely  fate of the Royal Marine Wardroom Eastney, which is shown below.

Eastney Barracks and Brent Geese

24 March 2021

Chris Donnithorne

Over a 30 year career as a naval officer, Chris Donnithorne became very familiar with Portsmouth Harbour, and he has subsequently spent as much time again carrying out archival research in the local area.

In this carefully argued and evidenced paper, Donnithorne demonstrates that the integrity of Blockhouse Point on the western side of the harbour entrance is ‘at risk due to rapid acceleration in seashore erosion, almost certainly caused by recent dredging, which included a significant part of Hamilton Bank, immediately to the South of the Fort.’ (p. 29).   Effectively the dredging has destabilised the harbour entrance, leading potentially to the loss of the deep-water harbour.

19 December 2020