Big Guns

Aim ---- FIRE !!!, originally uploaded by Wurzel.

On Saturday we visited the Royal Armouries Museum at Fort Nelson up on Portsdown Hill.

A museum of the history of artillery guns and canons doesn't sound the most fascinating place in the world, first impressions can be so wrong.. The nearest I've ever come to the military was a St Georges Day parade with the Cubs so big guns are not the sort of thing I know a lot about. The sheer size of some of them is staggering, the intricate details of some of the more ancient ones make them truly works of art.

Exhibits range from a time when I thought the world was still using bows and arrows, to the components that were confiscated by customs during the Iraqi Supergun scandal of the 1990s and beyond.

The Fort itself has been saved and restored by Hampshire County Council - for once a council decision I can't criticise. Well worth a visit, and totally free as well !

( Whilst we were there we were approached by a guy from the Portsmouth News and asked to pose as "interested visitors" for a photo for an article he was writing for next weeks paper - well what self respecting media-whore could refuse?)