Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Drop Redoubt was a key element of the Western Heights fortifications. The ordinary soldiers were accommodated in a range of five casemated barracks sunk beneath the level of the terreplein. Although the Soldiers’ Quarters date from the Napoleonic phase of construction, and are shown on plans of 1810 and 1811, their present regular plan represents modifications carried out in the 1860s. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BARRACKS (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1805 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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(summarised form report)

The Drop Redoubt was a key element of the Western Heights fortifications. The ordinary soldiers were accommodated in a range of five casemated barracks sunk beneath the level of the terreplein. Along all but the south front, a narrow dry area, in parts vaulted over, separates the range from the terreplein, which is reached by external stairs at the western and eastern ends of the range. Two of the caponiers are reached directly from two of the casemates, via inclined galleries or stairs descending from their northern ends. Although the Soldiers’ Quarters date from the Napoleonic phase of construction, and are shown on plans of 1810 and 1811, their present regular plan represents modifications carried out in the 1860s. When first built, casemate 1 presented a flush front to the Parade Ground, as now, but was roughly one-third the length of the other four. This original arrangement is shown on the 1810 plan, when there was also another building, of temporary nature, built behind casemate 5 and against the external wall of casemate 4.

The range is constructed of orange-brown brick faced externally in Flemish bond, with buff
brick dressings. The vaults were originally covered with earth and either sand or concrete, beneath a series of pitched slate roofs of which nothing now survives. The short casemate no 5 was originally a cookhouse this was later converted, during the 1860’s work on the fort, to provide a fifth regular barrack, identical in dimensions to the other four. At the same time both external stairs to the terreplein level appear to have been altered. After 1861, cooking was carried out in part of a new range erected on the southern side of the Parade Ground. 19th-century barrack rooms were simply furnished with beds and storage racks for personal possessions. The casemates retain numerous traces of fixtures along the walls, where beds would have been ranged (1).

An early plan of the fort dating to 1811 shows the original location of the barracks at the Drop Redoubt, and indicates that though their form was altered at various times, their position remains roughly the same. (2)

A later plan dating to 1860, shows the interior features of the Drop Redoubt Fort immediately before any alterations were made. (3)

A plan dating to 1967, after the 1860's scheme of works have been completed at the fort, shows the detail of the new layout of the Soldiers Quarters of the Drop Redoubt, including internal and external features. (4)

<1> English Heritage, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 3 The Drop Redoubt: A 19th-Century Artillery Fortification (Unpublished document). SKE13677.

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

<3> Unknown, 1860, Drop Redoubt, Dover, Plan, Sections and Elevation Shewing Proposed Alterations And Additions (Map). SKE51528.

<4> Unknown, 1867, Dover Defences, Western Heights, Drop Redoubt Swoldiers Quarters (Plan). SKE51538.

Sources and further reading

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