Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Part of the 1860's scheme of improvements to the Drop Redoubt Fort included the construction of two sets of casemated gunrooms, one set behind the eastern side of the curtain wall and one set behind the western, they were completed by 1866. These were reached via the caponiers and were designed to provide flanking fire along the ditches of the North and North East Lines. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CASEMATE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

Part of the 1860's scheme of improvements to the Drop Redoubt Fort included the construction of two sets of casemated gunrooms, one set behind the eastern side of the curtain wall and one set behind the western, they were completed by 1866. These were reached via the caponiers and were designed to provide flanking fire along the ditches of the North and North East Lines.

On the western side of the fort, leading off Caponier 2, two gun rooms are located at first-floor level at the southern end of the gallery. They are reached via a set of doors with the characteristic timber-iron-timber construction reinforced with studs, seen elsewhere on the Western Heights. Both gun rooms are angled to fire down the North Lines towards North Entrance. They are arranged in series, with an arched opening between them. Built in brick, beneath a semicircular vault, each room has a fireplace in its rear wall which was later modified. The face walls have a single carronade embrasure, now blocked, with a shallow recess for sliding shutters which have been removed. The gun rooms are whitewashed and were provided with secondary electric lighting. The suspended timber floors have been removed.(1)

A plan of the fort which was surveyed in 1858, with annotations from 1871 and 1881, shows the gun-rooms in detail alongside all of the other major additions which were made to the fort under the 1860's scheme of improvements. (2)


A plan dated to 1866 (approximately at the time when the the caponiers where completed) shows the interior detail of the caponiers and the gun rooms. (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 Report No 3 The Drop Redoubt: A 19th-Century Artillery Fortification (Unpublished document).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> War Department, 1871-1881, Dover Drop Redoubt Plan Shewing Occupation (Map). SKE51531.

<3> Unknown, 1866, Dover Defences, Western Heights, Drop Redoubt – Record Plans of Caponieres (Map). SKE51533.

Sources and further reading

Related records