Portsmouth Dockyard has a long and distinguished history. Functioning in a naval capacity since 1495, although more active as a dockyard from the Victorian period, few other places have such a prominent place in Britain’s naval history. The dockyard is the oldest that the Royal Navy has, and boasts one of the oldest dry docks in the world; today it features as a major tourist attraction.

In this book, Philip MacDougall uses his fascinating collection of images to display the incredible recent history of the dockyard. Starting with the Victorian dockyard, he looks at the mighty HMS Dreadnought, which was built at the dockyard, as well as taking the reader on a tour of the yard and its naval role. Moving forward through the decades, Philip considers the impact of the two world wars, as well as the Cold War, before finishing the story up to the present day.