Take a look at our visit to Fort Brockhurst Gosport, an English Heritage site with lots of history, but only open a few times a year, so take a visit to Fort Brockhurst whilst you can.
A few months ago I purchased an English Heritage pass as there were a couple of places in our area that I could use it for. It would also be good for us to be able to use it throughout the year for some of the places further afield for longer days out. I used our Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for it, which gives us some free family days out.
Fort Brockhurst is one of our local English Heritage places, it’s a free location to visit for anyone. We have quite a few in our area that is free to visit like Bishops Waltham Palace, Netley Abbey and Titchfield Abbey.
Fort Brockhurst is one of the forts that was built in the 1850s and 1860s to protect Portsmouth and the harbour against a French invasion. Fort Brockhurst has a large moat around and a pretend draw bridge over it to get inside, with some swans and ducks happily living in there.
Fort Brockhurst is open all year round for the exterior, but on the 2nd Saturday between May-Sept it opens up the inside buildings for you to look around, with volunteers there to chat to you about Fort Brockhurst. There are people at the entrance on this day asking for donations if you want to.
Once you are inside the circular building you have the opportunity to go inside these buildings, see the rooms where they stored the guns, and the jails and find some of the cannons too.
There were volunteers showing the children the weapons and amour they would have worn too!
Once you’ve had a look around the interior room you can walk out into the large parade area. Here you can see the gun ramps and walk along the top of the walls.
We took our picnic along with us and sat on the grassy bank to eat it, it’s such a quiet peaceful place considering you’re right in the town of Gosport.
There isn’t a lot at Fort Brockhurst to see but I think it’s an interesting piece of history that is right on our doorstep to be able to show the children, and it’s free to get in as well. You could also visit the English Heritage site Portchester Castle to be able to visit a couple of places in one day.
You cannot miss Fort Brockhurst from the main road, with signs pointing you in the correct direction and its location is right on the edge of the main road. However, the parking is quite hard. The car park is right next to Fort Brockhurst but the exit and entrance have large pillars in them. We honestly thought it was shut off but there were cars inside. The pillars are so close together that people we struggling to drive in and out of them. We have a very large car, so we didn’t feel comfortable parking in this car park.
*Updated August 2022 – The website now says you need to pay online or display an English Heritage Sticker for parking.
Tips For Fort Brockhurst
- Free entry at certain times of the year – Fort Brockhurst is open on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month between April and October 11-3
- Exterior free to walk around
- Donation welcome
- See website for opening times and more up to date information
- Dogs on leads are welcome in the parade ground only but assistance dogs are welcome throughout the site
Pictures Taken August 2019
20 Comments
Great photos, it looks like a lovely place to visit. We live in Surrey but also close to the Kent border and there are so many great places to go and see.
Theres a lot of hidden little places around to explore isn’t there
Ahhhh I LOVE places like this. We sadly let our National Trust cards run out as we were hardly using them. But seeing your posts is making me think twice. X
Yes you do have to make a point of ticking the places off don’t you. We have lots more to do with English Heritage ones now
Sometimes places like this are great for younger children because they get lots of space to run around!
Yes and places like this encourage them to run around and explore don’t they
What a fort! We went to one In Tenby on a huge rock in the sea but this is something else!
We didn’t get a huge amount of use from our English heritage passes sadly but the places we did go where amazing!
Oh wow one on a rock, that sounds cool!
I love Tesco Clubcard vouchers! I use ours towards our Eurotunnel crossings. I had no idea you could use them for English Heritage passes. That’s brilliant and it’s going to give you lots of free days out. Essential with the kids in the holidays. Sounds like a good day out at Fort Brockhurst Gosport. xx
Oh that’s a great idea for Euro Tunnel crossings!
It does look like lovely place to have a little look around. My kids love to go and see historical places so if we are ever down that direction I will have to take them.
Its good for them to explore places like this isn’t it, little bits of history
Good note about the car park. We love to visit places with a bit of history. The kids can learn so much without even realising!
Yes they do, it’s the little questions that pop up as well whilst walking around places like this too
After much deliberation, we’ve finally purchased an Historic Scotland annual pass. I’m hoping it will make us get our more at weekends – we always plan to do day trips and then just end up pottering around until it’s too late.
Ah hopefully you can explore as much as you can then, make a list of all the places you want to visit with it and pin it up somewhere. Then when your thinking of somewhere to go you have it right there and not forget about them
Fort Brockhurst sounds like a fab place to take the kids. We’ve debated whether to get an English Heritage membership, we get a lot of use out of our National Trust one.
Yes we have both now and it’s nice to explore these places isn’t it, I think it makes you go off and explore new ones too
Did you pay to use the car park. I can see you are supposed to pay before you go online. I’m wondering if this has any effect on the pillars or are they a permanent feature? As I haven’t been there yet I’m not sure, but planning to go this weekend.
Hi, sorry for not seeing this comment sooner. I am not sure when we visited was 2019 and it didn’t say anything about parking fees at the time, but I can see you now do need to pay for parking online. I will add this to the post, maybe they’ve changed the process. Hope you had a nice time!