Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

After the earlier St. Martins Battery was superseded by the construction of the citadel battery in the late 20th century, it fell out of use, was disarmed in 1902 and remained, probably in care and maintenance, until 1940. At this time, it was brough back into service and extensively remodelled to take three 6-inch guns for coast defence, remaining operational until late in 1944. These alterations included the construction of three new guhouses and major alterations to the gun emplacements. (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BATTERY (Disused, Modern - 1940 AD to 1944 AD)
• GUN EMPLACEMENT (Disused, Modern - 1940 AD to 1944 AD)
• GUN STORE (Disused, Modern - 1940 AD to 1944 AD)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

After the earlier St. Martins Battery was superseded by the construction of the citadel battery in the late 20th century, it fell out of use, was disarmed in 1902 and remained, probably in care and maintenance, until 1940. At this time, it was brough back into service and extensively remodelled to take three 6-inch guns for coast defence, remaining operational until late in 1944. These alterations included the construction of three new guhouses and major alterations to the gun emplacements.

The emergency battery comprised three gun-houses established within a defended perimeter defined by a barbed wire entanglement, clearly visible on aerial photographs of 1945. The walls of the three gun-houses are in red brick built onto and against the older emplacement and ammunition store walls: to both front and rear they can be seen riding over the asphalted sloping faces of the Victorian ammunition store roofs. The rear elevation of each gun-house is provided with two plasters, a rendered plinth and two small square windows at first floor level; new doorways at ground floor level have large concrete lintels. Several iron rungs inserted into the rear walls of the old ammunition stores resemble ladders, as if enabling access to the roof of the battery, but their true purpose is unknown. The gun-house roofs have a slight slope to the rear: they are of reinforced concrete, supported on large concrete and metal axial beams, with further metal beams running cross-axially. There is an overhang at the front, forming a canopy over part of the gun floor. Behind the emplacements each gun-house comprises a two-storeyed structure, with the gun detachment shelters on the upper floor and storage facilities on the ground floor: each room is trapezium-shaped, being fitted into the splaying walls of the Victorian emplacements. The shelters are approached from the ends of each gun floor by short upward flying stairs with modern metal railings. Under the shelters at ground floor level, reached by steps up from the rear of the battery, are storage rooms. Each one has a corridor along the south-west side, leading to doorways in the end walls, while the north-east side is divided by walls into four equal bays. The back wall of each bay is rendered while the floors and ceilings are painted black. Two further doorways, in the south west wall, gave direct access to the ready-use ammunition lockers of
the emplacement, a strong indication of what was stored in the bays.

In each emplacement, the gun floor retains the ring of securing bolts for the gun holdfast and, in no I, the steel baseplate survives. There were 18 bolts forming a ring c 1.04m in diameter, but in all three emplacements the rear bolts are missing, possibly removed with the holdfasts themselves. On either side of the holdfast are the stubs of two small circular metal pipes, each 0.08m in diameter. At the edges of the gun floors at the front are single metal sockets, matched above by others of identical size in hinges which are attached to the steel girders supporting the roof canopy. These appear to be sockets for vertical poles of uncertain function; perhaps they formed the pivots for shutters to close the front of the gunhouses on the flanks of the guns, or supported camouflage netting. The upper halves of the interior walls defining the gun floor are painted cream/yellow. For no I and III guns, there is a narrow horizontal black band beneath the yellow, which is carried into recesses, of unknown function, in the side walls. The main ready-use ammunition recesses were built into the rear face of the gun floors, on an intermediate level reached from the floors of the Victorian battery by steps up from the rear and by steps down from the new gun floors. Each emplacement has three recesses, 1.03m high, 1.35m wide and 1.73m deep, with slightly raised, flat concrete floors which stop 0.35m short of the openings. The recesses for no III gun have scars from the hinges of heavy metal doors. Some of the other recesses show signs of alteration: those of no I gun have lines of yellow stock brick across the front, flush with the entrance and there is internal rendering in those of no III gun. The old emplacement aprons were retained but show evidence of minor disturbance: in all three guns there are shallow, narrow radial grooves cut through the barbette and along the apron for a short distance. (1)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 5: St Martin's Battery, 19th and 20th-century artillery battery (Unpublished document). SKE17500.

Sources and further reading

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