PORTSMOUTH Ships Dockyard Town History Book in old Photographs New

For a long time Portsmouth has been known as a Dockyard town, and indeed until the 1980s, when the last great contraction of the yard took place, this was certainly the case. Portsmouth's original function was not so much that of a dockyard, since these did not exist, so much as a landing place for the convenience of dignitaries travelling between France and England, following the Norman conquest. Portsmouth's fortunes were closely linked to war and peace, rather than to the market considerations which governed most town's growth. In contrast to the efforts of the Dockyard, which around the turn of the century was one of the world's largest shipbuilding centres, Portsmouth's commercial shipbuilding sector was tiny. One possible reason for this stunted development was the control of the shoreline by the Admiralty, which was reluctant to sanction activities which might interfere with the movement of naval ships. Moreover, wthe Board of Ordance was not prepared to allow the fortificatio.