THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
231 
HISTORICAL NOTES 
os 
THE ROYAL ARSENAL AT WOOLWICH. 
BY 
LIEUTENANT Gr. E. GROVER, R.E., E.S.A. 
As there exists no authentic record of the origin and growth of the 
Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, it is possible that the following notes (collected 
during a residence on the spot) may interest some of my brother officers 
who, when cadets, made acquaintance with the place, but had then no 
opportunity—^and doubtless had then no inclination—-to study its history. 
It should be premised that a continuous or complete history of the 
establishment will not here be attempted; the limits of time, space, and 
ability, forbid such an enterprise. This paper can claim to be little more 
than a compilation of notes, whose want of originality is almost necessitated 
by the very nature of its subject. 
The writer's great ambition is to disprove the story—-which has gained 
such general credence—-that the Royal Arsenal was founded but a century 
and a half ago, and then at the instigation of a foreigner. 
As a manufacturing establishment, it can boast perhaps no greater 
antiquity than 150 years, but, as a military post and a store depot) it existed 
much earlier. It would be rash to assert that, on this very site, there stood 
an ordnance establishment in Queen Elizabeth's reign; yet there did exist 
an ordnance armoury at Woolwich in the commencement of the seventeenth 
century, and “ Remaines of the Armour of the Tower and Woolwich, Anno 
1603," set forth* that there were ee at Woolwich, as in the former Remaine 
taken, iiii Backes & Brests for Almayne Corsletts (besides 1 od backed 
lxxv Collers with Bombards, xlviii Burgonetts and buskins, cccxxxiii 
Murrions blacke, & xii Burgonets old and nothing worth."t 
* “Parochial History of Enstone,” by the Rev. J. Jordan. 
f The “Backes fy Brests for Aknayne Corsletts” were the plastrons and carapuces for suits of 
armour put together with Almayne, or German, rivets—worn by pikemen who, from the use of 
such harness, acquired the title of “ Corslets.” Bombards were the padded breeches worn by the 
military at the end of the 16th, and commencement of the 17th century. Burgonetts were the 
close-fitting helmets invented in Burgundy in the 15th century, and employed in England as late as 
the reign of Charles I. 
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