Jellalabad Tower

The main tower at Jellalabad Barracks, I don't know the reason behind the slit windows - surely by the time this was built there was no defensive reason to build them this way? One thing is for sure - they wouldn't let much light into the building. British Barracks have a long and distinguished history of being uncomfortable - I stayed in accommodation in Dorset that had been condemned, 8 men to a room with a metal frame bed and a metal locker - comfortable is not a word that springs to mind. By contrast our barracks in Hildesheim, Germany was an old Luftwaffe Kaserne - the rooms were smaller and more comfortable.

Roller

Near the entrance to Jellalabad Barracks, almost in the entrance in fact.

I wonder how far that roller has been pushed in it's lifetime?

Jellalabad Court

This is part of Jellalabad Court, which is in turn part of the old Jellalabad Barracks which has been converted to accomodation. One of the flats sold here for £135 000 recently, although it is not described as a flat but a 'one bedroom apartment'.
In their day the barracks must have been huge, it seems that everywhere you walk around that area you see something that must have been part of the military, from smaller houses to flag poles.

The barracks housed the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) who were raised in 1685 for King James and finally bit the dust when they amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1959 and became the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry. When I joined my regiment in 1984 I seem to remember there being only one or two battalions of Light Infantry so they must have amalgamated again sometime between 1959 and the 80's.

The final part of the armed forces to use the barracks seems to have been the Royal Army Pay Corps as they didn't leave the place until June 1987 when they moved to Exeter. Even the pay corps have bit the dust now as they amalgamated with several other administration units to become the Adjutant Generals Corp.

and no jokes about dodgy piercings please...