Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The side arms store of the North Lines Battery, located centrally to the original four emplacements, survives in good condition, much as shown on the 1892 plan. It is set slightly below ground level into a large earth mound, 34.0m long, 22.0m wide and 2.7m high, set across the terreplein at right angles to the rampart. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• AMMUNITION DUMP (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1893 AD? to 1903 AD?)

Full description

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Plans for a battery west of the Drop Redoubt were being drawn up in 1892. A design of August of 1893 shows positions for five 64-pdr RML. It was not a battery in its own right but rather, formed part of the Drop Redoubt defences, occupying the ridge between the Drop Redoubt and the North Entrance and commanding the valley to the north. The side arms store, located centrally to the original four emplacements, survives in good condition, much as shown on the 1892 plan. It is set slightly below ground level into a large earth mound, 34.0m long, 22.0m wide and 2.7m high, set across the terreplein at right angles to the rampart. The only visible elevation is that to the south: it is in concrete, with a central entrance flanked by windows. The door has a wooden frame for an outward-opening door, approached down a flight of four steps. On each side of the door is a small opening with a wooden frame for an inward-opening four-light window, originally glazed but replaced by two vertical steel bars (those of the eastern window are missing). Inside, the single chamber has a brick barrel vault above concrete walls, with no form of ventilation. It is whitewashed and has no obvious signs of shelving. (1)

Two plans dating to 1892 and 1893 show detail of the features constructed at the North Lines Battery. (2-3)

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 Report No 3 The Drop Redoubt: A 19th-Century Artillery Fortification (Unpublished document).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

<2> Unknown., 1892, Dover, Drop Redoubt, Details of Gun Emplacements & Side Arms Store – North Lines (Plan). SKE51540.

<3> Unknown, 1893, Dover, North Lines, Plan Shewing proposed Bank and Hedge, to secure Guns from Sea View (Plan). SKE51539.

Sources and further reading

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