Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Barbican and associated bridge outside the King’s Gate on the northern side of the inner bailey at Dover Castle protected the principal entry from the former north gate into the castle. It is part of the original medieval construction of inner bailey but has been much altered. (location accurate to the neartest 1m based on available information).

Monument Types

• BARBICAN (Medieval to Modern - 1181 AD to 2050 AD)
• BRIDGE (Medieval to Modern - 1181 AD? to 2050 AD)
• CISTERN (Disused, Post Medieval - 1756 AD? to 1870 AD?)

Full description

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When first constructed, the barbican would have led to the main route down to the original north entrance, sealed after the 1216 siege. The walls, polygonal in plan, are lower than those of the inner bailey, and survive in a semi-ruined state, nowhere to their full original height. There is a length of medieval curtain on the north east side, but part of the north west section of wall has been deliberately lowered (and is rebuilt) to improve the fields of fire from the loops in the faces of King’s Gateway. Following customary practice, the barbican gateway is off-set from King’ s Gate itself, thus giving any potential intruder a longer and more exposed route. The barbican gateway has a door rebate (no portcullis) with a segmental arch and stone vault in the gate passage; there is a masonry straight joint between the gate tower and the adjacent guardroom in the thickness of the curtain wall to the west of the gate. The plan is more apparent externally, with the barbican gate recessed for a drawbridge between flanking towers, and NW corner angled out as if to form another tower. Within the barbican is a brick-lined cistern of 18th-century date, surrounded by a stone parapet.

The first bridge would have been constructed with the inner bailey in the 1180s, presumably as a timber bridge, though this may have been modified after the barbican lost some of its function when the north gate was blocked after the siege of 1216. The present three-arch rubble stone bridge that leads from the barbican originally connected with the earth rampart that backed the medieval outer curtain and may be late medieval. The existing bridge has been repaired and refaced over the centuries, and in its present truncated state must date from Twiss’s reforming of the northern defences c.1800, when the bridge was truncated and a spiral stair was built to access the underground works. (summarised from sources) (1-3)

<1> English Heritage, 2014, Dover Castle Conservation Management Plan Volume 2 Gazetteer (Unpublished document). SKE52105.

<2> Johnathan Coad, 1995, English Heritage Book of Dover Castle and the Defences of Dover (Monograph). SKE52106.

<3> English Heritage, 2010, Inner Bailey, Dover Castle, Kent; Historic Buildings Report (Unpublished document). SKE31743.

Sources and further reading

Related records