Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Six casemates are located within the eastern side of the Citadel's scarp wall, providing protection of the main lengths of the Gorge (eastern) ditch and for the faces of the redan. The majority of the work on these casemates would have been completed during the early phase of works on the fort (1810) though improvements were also made under the 1853-55 scheme of improvements. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CASEMATE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1810 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• GUN STORE (Disused, Post Medieval - 1810 AD? to 1887 AD?)
• MAGAZINE (Disused, Post Medieval - 1853 AD? to 1887 AD?)
• STOREHOUSE (Disused, Modern - 1911 AD? to 1939 AD?)
• GENERATOR HOUSE (Disused, Modern - 1939 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

Summarised from report:

Two sets of six casemates were built under the scarp wall at the re-entrants of the redan. This scheme provided protection for the faces of the redan, while also giving flanking fire along the main lengths of the gorge ditch. Revetting the gorge ditch had commenced by 1810 and was substantially finished in 1811, by which time the casemates were probably well advanced. However, it would appear that while the main gunrooms, and some connecting galleries, were finished, or all but finished, when work ceased in 1816, the supporting expense magazines and many of the galleries were not begun. Indeed, a plan dated 1855 suggests that the expense magazines and the short galleries linking them to individual casemates were not added until then.

The Gorge Casemates comprise two groups of six gunrooms, each group being further arranged in two sets of three. The inner set of each group covered the main lengths of the gorge ditch, while each outer set flanked the redan. They are reached from the terreplein by two stairs, descending in a single shaft to independent galleries serving the north and south groups respectively. Within each group, a short gallery connected each set of three. Construction of the whole complex is in brick with stone dressings. The stair shaft is driven down through chalk bedrock and lined with brick. The brickwork is in Flemish bond and the stairs are of gritstone. The galleries from the stair lead directly to the central casemate of the inner set in each group.

The plan of 1855 enables an interpretation of the works carried out in the gorge casemates between 1853 and 1855. The plan appears to be of the casemates as they existed by 1816, to which new details have been added in another and firmer hand. These include the addition of rear galleries to serve both inner sets of casemates, but not the outer sets. Each was associated with a single expense magazine serving all six casemates in one group.

The magazine is a barrel-vaulted chamber in which the rear wall contains ventilation slots and wooden plates either for the mounting of shelves or for a timber lining. In 1877 the two expense magazines were still in commission, each with a capacity of 36 barrels of gunpowder, implying that carronades were in position. However, by 1887, the guns had been withdrawn and were not replaced. In 1911, the inner sets of each group were in use as Company Stores; the rest were disused as, in all probability, they had been since the 1880s. During the Second World War, the inner set of the northern casemates were adapted to provide a generator room, perhaps providing a back-up to the main Engine and Boiler Room of the Pump House or serving the heavy AA battery just east of the Citadel. (1)

A plan dating to 1811 shows the new Napoleonic works on the fort, including the location of these casemates and associated gun rooms and corridors. (2)

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

<2> Major W H Ford, Royal Engineers, 1811, Plan Shewing the Appropriation of the Ordnance Lands on the Western Heights Dover 1811 (Map). SKE51523.

Sources and further reading

Related records