Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Arthur's Hall, adjacent to the north-east wall of the inner bailey of Dover Castle, was built in the late 1230s and was a building of significance until the 17th century. In the 1740s it was refaced as part of a programme to create an externally unified set of barracks along with the adjacent buildings. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BARRACKS (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1740 AD to 1960 AD)

Full description

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In the mid-18th century a series of barracks buildings for officers and ordinary soldiers were created around the inside of the Inner Bailey, through a mixture of new building and adapting existing buildings. Statham writing at the end of the 19th century concluded, erroneously, that ‘These buildings were conver ted into barracks in 1745, and the alterations then made were so extensive as to amount to an entirely new construction.’ To cover the haphazard assortment of structures, a uniform external finish was employed in which the joints in the fabric were treated with galetting. Where the external face of a wall was new, usually coursed stone was employed, but where older fabric was being employed without being refaced, the existing rubble was tidied up. The south-west façade of Arthur’s Hall exemplifies this twin-track approach, with the north-western end having rubble while the refaced section of the wall was coursed. A major change to Arthur’s Hall in the 18th century was the insertion of a floor to create two stories. The present roof structure consists of two pitched roofs with a central valley. The valley is carried on a line of central posts. The roof form is not visible from inside the upper storey. (summaried from sources) (1-3)

<1> English Heritage, 2011, Arthur's Hall, Dover Castle, Kent, Analaysis of the building, historic building recording (Unpublished document). SKE31740.

<2> English Heritage, 2010, Inner Bailey, Dover Castle, Kent; Historic Buildings Report (Unpublished document). SKE31743.

<3> English Heritage, 2014, Dover Castle Conservation Management Plan Volume 2 Gazetteer (Unpublished document). SKE52105.

Sources and further reading

Related records