A group of early 20th-century naval victualling finds from Royal Clarence Yard, Gosport, Hampshire

Abstract

Archaeological excavation in 2007 on the site of a late 18th-century brewery and associated pump-house at Royal Clarence Yard, Gosport uncovered an assemblage of pottery within the backfill of the latter structure. This was one of a small number of Admiralty victualling yards responsible for the provisioning of ships and shore establishments of the Royal Navy at home and overseas. Analysis of the pottery and other finds, supplemented by documentary research, has provided an opportunity to study items distributed by the yard to the messes of ships of the Royal Navy in the early 20th century.