a view to consolidating their brewing operations in Portsmouth on to a single site. The complex was soon extended: the start of the Seven Years' War prompted the Commissioners to build an additional brewhouse in 1756 to meet increased demand; and in 1766 a much larger cooperage was built (four ranges of buildings in an irregular quadrangle; these are still in place, the oldest surviving buildings in any of the victualling yards). When Henry Player's daughter, who had continued to live in Weevil House, died in 1758, the house (together with the rest of the Weevil estate) was purchased by the Commissioners. (No new buyer could be found for the house and it was demolished in 1772). In In 1780, the decision was taken to replace Player's original 'Great Brewhouse' with a new brewery, to be built alongside the east range of the cooperage. Construction duly took place in 1781–2 to designs by Samuel Wyatt, with Samuel Whitbread acting as a consultant on improving the brewing process. Alongside his new brewery, Wyatt built a long storehouse for storing beer in barrels (along with the dry goods used in the brewing process). Wyatt's brewery remained operational into the 19th century: in 1831 the daily shipboard issue of beer ended (to be replaced by the rum ration), but brewing still continued (albeit on a much smaller scale) until the 1850s. Problems with the water supply to the brewery had led to John Smeaton being brought in to advise on this and on other engineering works across the Yard. In 1780 a new brewery pumphouse was installed to his design. A second pump was installed, to the same design, in 1788, adjacent to Wyatt's new brewery; this pump, converted from horse power to steam in 1860, remained in service for many years, providing water (by way of a reservoir to the north) for various uses across the site. Rebuilding and renaming The challenge of victualling the fleet during the Napoleonic Wars led the Victualling Board to try to consolidate its various manufacturing, storage and distribution operations in Portsmouth on to a single site (as had already been achieved at the Board's principal Yard in Deptford). At the time, it was operating from various premises, mostly in and around Old Portsmouth; these included King's Mill by the Gunwharf (purchased in 1712), a slaughterhouse near the Square Tower, and a bakery and storehouse (established in