Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The southern entrance (also known as Archcliffe Gate) to the western heights fortress was constructed in the 1860’s as part of a major revision of the southern defences. It was located at a point where the South Military Road attained the crest of the ridge. One of the major features of this entrance was the gatehouse itself which projected above the curtain and rampart constructed of brick in Flemish bond. The whole South entrance was demolished in 1967. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CELL (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• GATEHOUSE (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• GUARDHOUSE (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• OBSERVATION POST (Demolished, Modern - 1939 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

The southern entrance (also known as Archcliffe Gate) to the western heights fortress was constructed in the 1860’s as part of a major revision of the southern defences. It was located at a point where the South Military Road attained the crest of the ridge. One of the major features of this entrance was the gatehouse itself which projected above the curtain and rampart constructed of brick in Flemish bond. The whole South entrance was demolished in 1967.

The architectural style can be described as Gothick, in sharp contrast to the Italianate details of the inner gateway of the North Entrance. The gateway comprised a four-centred arch of three orders, flanked by projecting piers with their tops coped out to mimic turrets. Running between the turrets and surmounting the gateway, was an embattled machicoulis with three four-centred arches, probably in buff-coloured brick, springing from tapering stone corbels. Access to the roof of the gatehouse was at the rear on the south-eastern side, by flights of steps broken by a short landing. During the Second World War an artillery observation post, part of a network of such posts across the Western Heights, was added to the top of the gatehouse. To increase its field of view across the harbour, most of the coping of the south-eastern turret was removed. The observation post, a low brick-built structure with a concrete slab roof, had wide embrasures with heavy vertically-sliding steel shutters, to enable panoramic views over the harbour. The road passed under the rectangular vaulted chamber of the gatehouse, where opposing doorways in the side walls opened into identical short blind casemated passages. These served as sentry posts and each had a single musket loophole opening to the exterior
through the projecting piers of the entrance façade. Immediately beyond the sentry posts was the inner gate, comprising a pair of strong wooden doors opening inwards to rest in setbacks in the side walls. Beyond the inner gate, the gatehouse was carried back in two narrow ranges with flat roofs which slightly projected over the unroofed roadway. An entrance in the southern range led to a small chamber containing two musketry loopholes piercing the curtain south of the entranceway and covering the southern flank of the bridge. The northern range contained two entrances, the first opening into a large guard room under the rampart. An internal doorway in its south-western wall led down steps into a blind-ended passage, off which were doorways to three further casemated rooms - a prisoners room and two cells. All three were provided with musket loopholes piercing the curtain and covering the approach to the gatehouse, indicative of their dual function. (1)

Further information about the historical development of the Southern Entrance to the Western Heights is available within the Built Heritage Conservation Framework for Dover Western Heights. (2)

A plan dating to 1876 shows the internal layout of this gatehouse, including the associated guardhouse and other rooms. (3)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 6: The Entrances to the Fortress: 19th-century artillery fortifications (Unpublished document). SKE17501.

<2> Liv Gibbs, 2012, Built Heritage Conservation Framework for Dover Western Heights (Unpublished document). SKE17708.

<3> Royal Engineers, 1876, Hand-tinted plan and section of a proposed main magazine for St Martin's Battery at Western Heights (Plan). SKE51623.

Sources and further reading

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