85:(1779–83). The intensive Spanish and French bombardment reduced the town of Gibraltar to ruins and prompted many of its inhabitants, and eventually the off-duty members of the British garrison, to relocate to a spot out of range of the enemy's land-based guns (though as they discovered, they were still vulnerable to naval gunfire). After it became known for its appalling conditions, a British quartermaster named Hardy was put in charge of the settlement and it acquired his name. Hardy Town was eventually abandoned and torn down after the siege ended and the population moved back to Gibraltar's main town within the city walls.
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184:). It was first jokingly dubbed New Jerusalem but the appallingly unhygienic conditions led to it being renamed Black Town. A British Army quartermaster named Major Hardy was put in charge of the encampment, and it was eventually called Hardy Town after him. The garrison were somewhat less complimentary and called it the Cowards' Retreat or the Female Camp.
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By the end of the siege, the civilian population of
Gibraltar had fallen to fewer than 1,000 people, the rest having either fled abroad, died of starvation or disease, or killed by shellfire. However, people soon returned to begin the work of rebuilding the ruined town and by 1787, four years later,
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left the town, living during the daytime in a large tent in the south of the peninsula but returning at night. Off-duty soldiers encamped in Hardy Town, and one writer records an incident in which part of a shell given extra range by a strong wind "fell into the house of a Mr. Maxwell... and made its
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In August 1779, the civilians were given permission to "erect wooden huts and sheds at the southward, above the Naval hospital, whither they removed their principal papers, &c. that they might be secure from the annoyance of the enemy, in case the town should be bombarded." When the bombardment
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Despite the fighting during the siege, many civilians remained alongside the
British garrison to endure four years of Spanish and French bombardment. Gibraltar's civilian inhabitants found themselves in a precarious position when the siege began. They were required by the garrison to maintain six
207:], caves, cliffs and tents at a place the Military call Cowards retreat, which lies out of the line of land-fire: But when the Gun-boats appear, it is shocking to behold them half-naked running to Cracks and Corners to save their lives, such is the disolation [
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A Description of
Gibraltar: with an account of the blockade, siege, the attempt by nine sail of fire ships, the sally made from the garrison, and every thing remarkable or worthy notice that has occurred in that place since the commencement of the Spanish
140:, out of the reach of the enemy's land fire, but what is covered with marquees, tents, huts, &c. &c. Timber is taken from the ruins of the town to answer this necessary business, and the employment occasioned thereby keeps all hands busy.
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in deepest distress; mothers were seen clasping their tender infants; children were running wildly about scared and crying; while the careful male part were busily employed in packing up their most portable and valuable effects to convey them to
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It was not just the Jews and
Genoese who lived there, as eventually many of the British soldiers and officers did so too. The enemy bombardment made the town of Gibraltar uninhabitable. By the start of 1781, as Drinkwater recorded:
191:. In May 1781, a shell from a gunboat was recorded as having hit a house in Hardy Town and "killed Mr. Israel, a very respectable Jew, with Mrs. Tourale, a female relation, and his clerk." One soldier recorded:
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The
Spanish shells discovered many private and valuable stores which were hoarded up by Jews and Genueses in order to mass their fortunes by extortion; but their little alls are now distroyed [
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wrote, "were induced to weather out the storm, by the property they had in the garrison, which was probably their all, and which they could not remove with themselves."
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The huts soon became a shanty town, situated out of range of the
Spanish land batteries at a spot near the southern end of the peninsula, between the
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Although the camp was out of reach of the land batteries, it was still vulnerable to cannon-fire coming from
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months' worth of provisions for themselves in case of siege but most had not done so. Many left
Gibraltar but some, as Colonel
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A circumstantial journal of the blockade and siege of
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way through the bed of Major Baugh, of the 39th regiment, who then resided in said house".
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A 1782 Spanish view of Hardy Town and the nearby military encampment as seen from the
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The inhabitants have begun erecting temporary sheds — some in the
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was a temporary civilian settlement established near the south end of the
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began, it produced scenes of chaos. The inhabitants were
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New Jerusalem, Black Town, Coward's Retreat, Female Camp
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475:Nelson's Refuge: Gibraltar in the Age of Napoleon
458:. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses.
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164:The ruins of the town of Gibraltar in 1793
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435:A history of the late siege of Gibraltar
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16:Shanty town in Gibraltar, 1779 to 1783
53:Hardy Town depicted on a 1799 map of
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213:] of these unhappy inhabitants.
57:(top of map; north is at the left)
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456:The Rock of the Gibraltarians
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473:Musteen, Jason R. (2011).
432:Drinkwater, John (1786).
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83:Great Siege of Gibraltar
19:Shanty town in Gibraltar
419:. London: B. Cornwell.
176:on the road leading to
528:36.123282°N 5.348567°W
492:Russell, Jack (1965).
452:Jackson, William G. F.
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496:. London: Heinemann.
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182:Europa Road
121:Buena Vista
33:Shanty town
554:Categories
539:Hardy Town
537: (
515:36°07′24″N
438:. London.
346:Drinkwater
322:Drinkwater
262:Drinkwater
247:References
228:South-port
75:Hardy Town
26:Hardy Town
518:5°20′55″W
407:264989958
234:Even the
79:Gibraltar
67:Gibraltar
55:Gibraltar
454:(1986).
425:17414283
370:Cornwell
358:Cornwell
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336:, p. 124
324:, p. 159
312:, p. 122
300:, p. 154
274:Cornwell
236:Governor
172:and the
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382:Musteen
372:, p. 32
334:Russell
310:Russell
298:Jackson
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63:Country
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286:Ancell
127:Europa
180:(now
498:OCLC
479:ISBN
460:ISBN
440:OCLC
421:OCLC
403:OCLC
138:Rock
124:and
417:war
210:sic
204:sic
198:sic
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254:^
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
