(J) South Bastion, Ragged Staff Gates

Rock Model 1865

SOUTH BASTION
Originally designed by Benedetto da Ravenna about 1534, but it was left unfinished by the Spanish without a proper ditch, covered way or outworks. It was entirely neglected by the British after the capture of the Rock in 1704. A battery was eventually prepared on the south face of the bastion during 1757.

In 1859 it carried twenty-seven guns. By 1881 construction work finished for emplacements for three heavy 10-inch RML guns. The three guns were protected by iron 'Gibraltar shields'.

This statue of Admiral Lord Nelson is in front of the bastion adjacent to Waterport Gate.
RAGGED STAFF GATES
The fortifications continued the line of the seaward face of the South Bastion across the original ditch in front of the South Front. The Ragged Staff Gate opened in the middle of the face of this work and led to the Ordnance Wharf which projected in front of the present Dockyard North Gate. Behind the gate there was a defended enclosure secured by a guardroom. The flank position had three embrasures in its parapet but appears to have only mounted two guns in 1779. The first Gate at Ragged Staff was cut through the defensive wall in 1736 when a wharf for victualling warships was built there. Gates for foot passage were opened in 1843 and in 1921.

The origin of the name "Ragged Staff' is disputed, two possible explanations have been suggested, firstly, in Tito Benadys excellent book "The Streets of Gibraltar- A short History." he states the following: "In the 18th century the Royal Navy laid pipes which carried the water down to tanks at Ragged Staff where the barrels for the ships were filled. There was a small mole at which the ships' boats were loaded with casks of water, the name Ragged Staff was a nautical term for the stump mast fitted in these boats which was used to hoist the water casks in and out, and gave their name to the mole".

A second theory suggests the name is Spanish in origin and comes from an emblem of the House of Burgundy, to which Charles V belonged, he was responsible for the building of the wall at this point.