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Monument details

HER Number:	TR 34 SW 2033
Type of record:	Monument
Name:	The Western outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover

Summary

The western outworks consisted of an irregular polygonal work of ditch and rampart and was designed to provide a more complete and effective defence of the western approaches to the fortress. The construction of the Western Outworks was in full progress by February 1860, the ditches and ramparts were complete by 1871 and the barracks were added in the southern half of the area in the late Victorian Period. (location accurate to the nearest 100m based on available information)

Grid Reference:	TR 3066 4045
Map Sheet:	TR34SW
Parish:	DOVER, DOVER, KENT

Monument Types

CAPONIER (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
CASEMATE (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
DITCH (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
RAMPART (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
BARRACKS (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1890 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

The western outworks consisted of an irregular polygonal work of ditch and rampart and was designed to provide a more complete and effective defence of the western approaches to the fortress. The construction of the Western Outworks was in full progress by February 1860, the ditches and ramparts were complete by 1871 and the barracks were added in the southern half of the area in the late Victorian Period.

Its ditch sprang from and returned to the main ditch of the Citadel. Access between the Citadel and the Western Outwork was provided principally by a new bridge, via the West Sally Port. The ditch incorporated powerful flank defences in the form of a Double Caponier and, behind the scarp revetments, two sets of defensible casemated barracks. The rampart followed a different course to
the ditch such that it was shaped to include a west bastion overlooking the Double Caponier and two demi-bastions, the North and South Demi-Bastions. While the ditch was secured by its flanking casemates, the three bastions and the rampart connecting them commanded the longer approaches to the fortress from the west. Despite this, there is no evidence of fixed artillery; this remained in the Citadel and from the outset it may have been intended to deploy mobile artillery in the Western Outwork if required. (1)

Further information about the historical development of the Western Outworks is available within the Built Heritage Conservation Framework. (2)

Detail of the Western Outworks appears on a plan dating to 1871 which shows all of the works which were undertaken under the reccomendations of the Royal Commission. (3)

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

<2> Liv Gibbs, 2012, Built Heritage Conservation Framework for Dover Western Heights (Unpublished document). SKE17708.

<3> Captain H S Palmer (?), 1871, War Department OS 1:2500 Sheet LXVIII.15, revision of 1871, annotated with positions of magazines in the Citadel in 1877 (Map). SKE51524.

<4> Kent Defence Research Group, c. 1993, Kent Defence Research Group 'Fort Logs' (Unpublished document). SKE52251.

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref.	Source description
<1>XY	Unpublished document: English Heritage. 2004. The Western Heights, Dover, Kent: Report No. 2: The Citadel. [Mapped feature: #92243 The Western outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover, ]
<2>	Unpublished document: Liv Gibbs. 2012. Built Heritage Conservation Framework for Dover Western Heights.
<3>	Map: Captain H S Palmer (?). 1871. War Department OS 1:2500 Sheet LXVIII.15, revision of 1871, annotated with positions of magazines in the Citadel in 1877.
<4>	Unpublished document: Kent Defence Research Group. c. 1993. Kent Defence Research Group 'Fort Logs'.

Related records

TR 34 SW 2041	Parent of: Barrack Hut 1 at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2042	Parent of: Barrack Hut 2 at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2043	Parent of: Barrack Hut 3 at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2049	Parent of: Barrack Hut 3a at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2044	Parent of: Barrack Hut 4 at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2045	Parent of: Barrack Hut 5 at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2050	Parent of: Company Office Stores/Sergeants Quarters at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover. (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2047	Parent of: Cook house/Bath house at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover. (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2035	Parent of: Double Caponiers of the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2046	Parent of: Former site of Barrack Hut 6 at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2048	Parent of: Former site of the Dining room at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover. (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2040	Parent of: Haxo Gunrooms/Officers Quarters within the South Flank Casemate at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2038	Parent of: North Flank Casemates on the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover. (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2034	Parent of: Rampart and Ditch of the western outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 2039	Parent of: South Flank Casemates at the Western Outworks of the Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Monument)
TR 34 SW 491	Part of: The Citadel, Western Heights, Dover (Building)