Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Attached to the southern side of the thirteenth century Constables Gate and tower is a large Gothic house and garden, with an associated service wing attached to the northern side of the gate, both of which were constructed in 1883-4 by Colonel, later General, Robert Nicholl Dawson- Scott, R.E. The main building is two storeys in ragstone with ashlar windows while the service wing is single storey and in a similar style. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GARDEN (Post Medieval to Modern - 1883 AD to 2050 AD)
• HOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1883 AD to 2050 AD)
• SERVICE WING (Post Medieval to Modern - 1883 AD to 2040 AD)

Full description

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Attached to the southern side of the thirteenth century Constables Gate and tower is a large Gothic house and garden, with an associated service wing attached to the northern side of the gate, both of which was constructed in 1883-4 by Colonel, later General, Robert Nicholl Dawson- Scott, R.E. The main building is two storeys in ragstone with ashlar windows while the service wing is single storey and in a similar style.

In detail the exterior has a flat parapet; square headed windows with upper lights and some with plain Tudor heads. Two moulded pointed arches to front door, and moulded corbel tables (with corbels on SE turret) but no sculpture; the NE corner is cut back with a stone corbelling to clear the roadway, in typical Victorian fashion. On the northern wing the windows are plain sashes under stone lintels, tiled roof and a 19th-cent. stair turret in the corner (with the entrance door to this part). The Ground floor of the southern wing contains the principal public entry with Hall and Stairs, and at least one significant private room, the Study. The First floor contains the principal bedroom suite and reception room facing the garden side south, and a series of bedrooms in the older parts to the west, curving round the Hall and Kitchen in the medieval core of the gate tower. The outer part of the residence has a series of bedrooms fitted into the medieval and 18th-century parts of the building. The Second Floor, approached by a spiral stair in the thickness of the west wall, reveals at this level the D-shaped plan of the original tower of King John’s construction. It has a series of bedrooms formed by subdivision, and an older panelled room to the N. Two further stairs lead (S) up to the roof and (N) down to ground floor. The remaining part on the ground floor, although it contained one of the principal medieval rooms was entirely given over to domestic offices in the 1880s rebuilding, when a series of single-storey rooms were added around a small kitchen yard. Summarised from report (1-2)

<1> English Heritage, 2014, Dover Castle Conservation Management Plan Volume 2 Gazetteer (Unpublished document). SKE52105.

<2> Johnathan Coad, 1995, English Heritage Book of Dover Castle and the Defences of Dover (Monograph). SKE52106.

Sources and further reading

Related records