Tipner

Tipner is a residential district of Portsmouth, located on the north western corner of Portsea Island in southern England.

By 1804 facilities had been built nearby on Stamshaw Point and Horsea Island to enable damp or damaged gunpowder offloaded from ships to be restored and then reused: from Tipner, the powder was taken first to Stamshaw, where it was unpacked from its barrels, assessed and sieved ("redusted"); from there it was taken to Horsea for the dangerous process of "restoving" (drying the damp powder in specialized ovens) after which it would either be returned directly to Tipner magazine ready for re-use, or else would go via the "mixing house" at Stamshaw to be blended with fresh powder.

A rifle range was established at Tipner in the 19th century, in connection with the RN Gunnery School (HMS Excellent) on nearby Whale Island.

[3] HMS Phoenix, the Royal Navy's fire-fighting, damage repair, and NBCD (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence) training establishment, was located on the northern edge of Tipner, adjacent to Tipner Lake, between 1946 and 1993.

[4] The former site, which was used for some time as a scrap yard, survives as a large area of derelict contaminated land and is highly visible from the M275 motorway at the gateway to Portsmouth.