Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A set of six casemates were constructed in the re-entrant angles where the ditches of the North-West Bastion met those of the Citadel proper. These appear to have been completed by aeround 1815, though had alterations, including the addition of an expense magazine, in 1853-55. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CASEMATE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1813 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

A set of six casemates, arranged in two sets of three, were constructed in the re-entrant angles where the ditches of the North-West Bastion met those of the Citadel proper. Both groups are absent from surveys of the Western Heights produced as late as 1811, but they were sufficiently far advanced (either in planning or in execution) to appear on a survey of 1813. It is likely, that they were among the last works to commence, to a different design than originally intended, and when funding ran out in 1816 were more or less incomplete. By 1887 there were eleven 24-pdr carronades in these casemates, divided six in the Right Flanking Casemates and five in the Left though by 1902, all armament was withdrawn.

The Right Flanking Casemates, comprising two sets of three, have the characteristic angled inner face to the ditch wall, and the concave segmental rear wall. The floors are flagged, except in the passages, which are paved with brick. The parabolic vaults incorporate a series of sub-vaults, chiefly for fireplaces, at which the groins are formed by angled cuts to the bricks. The walls are faced internally in Flemish bond and the carronade embrasures (all blocked) have gritstone surrounds, with rounded corners on the inside face. The rebated, segmental-headed doorways in the centre of each rear wall, giving onto the gallery communicating with the expense magazine. (1)

<1> English Heritage, 2004, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent: Report No. 2: The Citadel (Unpublished document). SKE17690.

Sources and further reading

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