15. Picture Book 1865

In the London Borough of Southwark, where the Blakely Ordnance Company had its Bear Lane works, the John Harvard Library has two folio books of photographs donated by Captain Andrew Noble, a director of Armstrong, Whitworth & Company, to the City of Newcastle Library on April 4, 1933; they have now found their way home to the Borough.

Thanks go to the Southwark Local History Library for allowing access to these books.

The earliest volume contains photographs from the years 1865 and 1866 of the Blakely works at East Greenwich and of many pieces of ordnance produced by Blakely in those years, taken by William Brown, photographic artist and civil engineer, of 16 Kennington Oval, Lambeth. Unfortunately the sixty or so pictures that survive are not captioned or indexed. The second book dates from around 1882 concerns J Vavasseur & Company in Southwark, this is indexed and captioned. Obviously they were originally the property of Josiah Vavasseur who took them with him when he joined Armstrong’s in the 1880s.

The following is a selection of pictures of Blakely’s cannon made in the mid-1860s. They are shown here unretouched but cropped, from how they appear in the photograph album. Most have an embossed oval stamp reading “Blakely’s Patent” on them, also there is show-through from the back of an oval printed stamp saying “Blakely Ordnance Co (Limited) Bear Lane Southwark London S.E.”:

1] An 11 inch Blakely piece, probably undergoing proof at Woolwich Marches

It is dated 1865 on the moveable oval carriage plate

2] The same 11 inch piece pictured from the rear

3] Another view of an 11 inch gun, probably at East Greenwich 

The piece is marked 1865 on the trunnion.

Of note is the ingenious extending crane

4] A view of a 7 inch Blakely gun, on a wooden compressor carriage,

mounted as the guard piece overlooking the Thames at East Greenwich

It is numbered 484 on the left trunnion

5] A 4.5 or 6 inch Blakely naval gun on a wooden pivot mount

Piece dated 1864 on the trunnion 

6] An 8 inch Blakely-Low Moor conversion from 1862

7] A 7 inch Blakely cast-iron, steel banded piece as carried by the cruisers

CSS Alabama and CSS Florida

This gun is dated 1864 on the trunnion end

8] A long 20 pounder Blakely naval gun on a wooden broadside mount

Piece marked 1866 on the trunnion end and on the carriage

9] A 9 pounder Krupp cast-steel breech loader on a yacht carriage

Piece marked 1865 on the trunnion end

10] A 9 pounder Krupp cast-steel breech-loading field gun and limber

The picture is dated 1865

11] The 9 pounder Krupp cast-steel breech-loading piece

The breech is open. Marked 1865 on the split trail

12] A 9 pounder Blakely field gun

13] The same 9 pounder Blakely gun with limber and caissons

 14] A 6 pounder Blakely mountain gun with shafts for mule carriage

15] The 6 pounder Blakely mountain gun, ready for action

16] A 9 pounder Blakely mountain gun

With a more modern carriage and shafts for horse carriage

17] The same 9 pounder Blakely mountain gun, ready for action

This gun still exists in a museum, numbered 477 on the left trunnion

It is dated 1865 on the right trunnion 

18] A Blakely mystery gun, the shell and bolt do not seem to match the piece

Marked 1864 on the trunnion, is this the US Navy’s 7 inch calibre absurdity?

A similar 9 inch Blakely “compound” gun, of steel, wrought-iron and cast-iron,

 was proved at Woolwich in 1863

19] A 9 pounder Blakely gun on a convertible field and boat service mount 1866

An identical wrought-iron field carriage was exported to Peru in 1861,

 the field and boat combination was exhibited in London

by Fawcett, Preston & Co in 1862

20] A giant Sling Cart for moving the largest ordnance on land 

The piece is suspended by its trunnions from huge iron loops under the axle 

21] Another view of the giant Sling Cart

Of note is the massive wrought-iron axle and band brakes

22] An 11 inch Blakely all-steel gun, weighing 15 tons,

proved at Woolwich, October 24, 1864

(Description on a handwritten caption)

The piece is much longer than common 11 inch guns

23] A 7 inch Blakely cast-iron, steel hooped gun 1867

It has “Vavasseur London 1867” in chalk on the hoop but the picture

was taken at Blakely’s East Greenwich works

24] An 11 inch Blakely gun on a Vavasseur wrought-iron compressor carriage

Southwark Local History Library

These pictures are reproduced with the generous permission of Southwark Local History Library. The original prints may be viewed at the Southwark Local History Library, John Harvard Library, 211 Borough High Street, London SE1 1JA