Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The site of the western side of Sandown Castle, the northernmost of three castles on the Downs, with Deal to the south. These were built to protect the the stretch of water sheltered by the Goodwin Sands under the threat of invasion from France and Spain in 1539. Construction was completed the following year. During the Kentish uprising which followed the execution of Charles I in 1648, the Downs fleet and the garrisons of the castles with Sandown in the lead, joined the rebels. The castles were besieged before their recapture by the Parliamentary forces. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars the castles performed their intended role in protecting shipping in the Downs and Sandown is reported as firing on a man-of-war attacking small craft. However by this time the Castles were becoming increasingly obsolete as fortifications. Sandown was also particularly vulnerable to coastal erosion; the sea broke into the moat in 1785 and Sandown was soon afterwards declared unfit for habitation. Repairs were made during the Napoleonic Wars and further attempts were made to save it in 1856 but sea erosion and a fire ended them. Demolition began soon afterwards. Some of the stone was re-used in the additions to the gatehouse of Walmer Castle. Today, most of the castle has disappeared into the sea or has been absorbed into sea defences.

Monument Types

• CASTLE (Demolished, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1856 AD)
• ARTILLERY FORT (Post Medieval - 1803 AD to 1882 AD)

Full description

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[TR 37595430] Sandown Castle [NR] (Rems of) [NAT] (1) Sandown Castle is contemporary with Deal and Walmer Castles [i.e. 1539 - see TR 35 SE 6 and 15). It was destroyed by the sea and after being sold in 1864 the keep and the greater part of the bastions were demolished. (2) Only the internal face of part of the W side of the keep is now visible. It carries several springers for the ribbed and vaulted ceiling of the basement. (see GPs AO/64/121/7-8). The walling is incorporated into the sea defences. To landward of it, the site of the castle is occupied by ornamented gardens which employ large quantities of squared stones taken from the castle. (3) TR 3759 5430 The site of Sandown Castle. Sandown Castle was built during 1539 and completed by October 1540 as a precaution against a potential catholic invasion. Along with Walmer and Deal it formed a triumverate of defences to protect the "Downs". It was sadly demolished in 1863 and 1882 and is represented today by a fragment of its central tower. Although Sandown Castle no longer exists, a series of early plans and views, including a photograph taken before the first part of the demolition in 1863 show it was identical to Walmer in virtually every detail (see illustration card no 1). It consisted of a circular keep and four bastions separated by an inner moat and surrounded by an external moat (see illustration card no 2). The entrance is by a drawbridge on the land side. The upper part of the centre tower contains a spacious cistern for water,and below it is a large vaulted apartment, bomb-proof, for the garrison. The outer bastions were each massively constructed with a gun room at ground level and must have had a very strong timber roof as a platform on which the ordnance of the second tier could be mounted. The entire moat could be commanded by a fourth tier of hand-guns firing from a gallery running around the whole castle at basement level. There were 39 openings for heavy armaments and 39 hand-gun loops controlling the moat. Sandown Castle was smaller and less complicated than Deal but displayed the same basic ideas of massive offensive capability combined with carefully contrived defence. Deal, Sandown and Walmer appear to have been designed by the same person, such is their similarity, but he remains unknown. In addition to the three stone castles, there were originally four "green" or earthen bulwarks. None of these survive, but they were seen by Stukeley and Hasted in the C18th. The Great Bulwark of Turf and the Little Bulwark of Turf lay between Sandown and Deal Castles, and between the latter and Walmer Castle were the Great White Bulwark of Clay and Walmer Bulwark. All 7 fortifications were linked by a curved trench to form a single defensive line extending along 2.5 miles of coastline (see illustration card no 3). Queen Elizabeth I lodged at the castle in 1588 but it was in a poor state of repair by 1663. Repairs were made in 1808, before it was finally demolished and used as a stone quarry for building an officer's house. (4,5)

"The site of the western side of Sandown Castle, the northernmost of three castles on the Downs, with Deal to the south. These were built to protect the the stretch of water sheltered by the Goodwin Sands under the threat of invasion from France and Spain in 1539. Construction was completed the following year. During the Kentish uprising which followed the execution of Charles I in 1648, the Downs fleet and the garrisons of the castles with Sandown in the lead, joined the rebels. The castles were besieged before their recapture by the Parliamentary forces. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars the castles performed their intended role in protecting shipping in the Downs and Sandown is reported as firing on a man-of-war attacking small craft. However by this time the Castles were becoming increasingly obsolete as fortifications. Sandown was also particularly vulnerable to coastal erosion; the sea broke into the moat in 1785 and Sandown was soon afterwards declared unfit for habitation. Repairs were made during the Napoleonic Wars and further attempts were made to save it in 1856 but sea erosion and a fire ended them. Demolition began soon afterwards. Some of the stone was re-used in the additions to the gatehouse of Walmer Castle. Today, most of the castle has disappeared into the sea or has been absorbed into sea defences." (13)

From Register of Scheduled Monuments:

Artillery fort built c.1540 for Henry VIII. Only W third remains. SW and NW bastions and a segment of central keep. Rest eroded by sea or demolished in C19. Basement of keep with springs for the vaulting are visible. A vaulted gallery with small chambers leading off runs round the interior of the surviving bastions probably serving gun ports covering the ditch. Shape of bastions can just be seen externally but its external appearance is marred by a rockery and its conversion into a garden feature.

Castle is substantially as when it was inspected by Mr. Saunders in 1960. On E side large scale sea defence works are in progress.

SW and NW bastion and a segment of central keep remain. Surface of remains have been covered with concrete with access steps from the shingle on S side. Western (inland) external walls of the bastions remain marred by a formal rockery giving way to public lavatories. The sea defence abuts the monument on the S side. On eastern (seaward side) of monument original bastion walls have been consolidated and traces of the vaulting at the base of the keep are visible. Interior gallery and chambers described in AM7 must have been blocked in, no apparent access. Evidence of a moat on NW side, possibly outside scheduled area. (14)

From the National Heritage List for England:

List entry Summary
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Name: Sandown Castle

List entry Number: 1005147

Location


The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County District District Type Parish
Kent Dover District Authority Deal
Kent Dover District Authority Sholden

National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.

Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.

Date first scheduled: 30-Aug-1960

Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.

Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System: RSM - OCN

UID: KE 176

Asset Groupings
This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description
Summary of Monument
Sandown Castle 458m ENE of Barns Close.



Reasons for Designation
Artillery castles were constructed as strong stone defensive structures specifically to house heavy guns. Most date from the period of Henry VIII's maritime defence programme between 1539 and 1545, though the earliest and latest examples date from 1481 and 1561 respectively. They were usually sited to protect a harbour entrance, anchorage or similar feature. These monuments represent some of the earliest structures built exclusively for the new use of artillery in warfare and can be attributed to a relatively short time span in English history. Their architecture is specific in terms of date and function and represents an important aspect of the development of defensive structures generally. Although documentary sources suggest that 36 examples originally existed, all on the east, south and south east coasts of England, only 21 survive. All examples are considered to be of national importance.

The castle is one of three making up a distinctive and well known group of coastal fortifications. Together these illustrate the strategic role assigned to this stretch of coast during the 16th century.

The history and development of Sandown artillery castle is documented by many contemporary records and illustrations, providing evidence for its original layout and the changing function of the monument over five centuries. Despite having been partly demolished, a large part of the footings and original fabric of the castle survive as buried remains which will provide further information about the construction, use and history of the castle.

History
See Details.

Details
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 17 March 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes an artillery castle surviving as upstanding and below-ground remains. It is situated on the low-lying east Kent coast, near Tenants Hill to the north of the modern seaside town of Deal.

The castle has been part demolished and largely survives as buried remains, although part of the footings still remain. A rockery has been built upon the western part of the castle and it has also been partly incorporated into the modern sea wall. The surviving remains include a segment of the central keep and the south-west and north-west bastions. The basement of the keep includes several springers for a ribbed and vaulted ceiling. The remains of a vaulted gallery, with small chambers leading off, runs around the interior of the surviving bastions. There is also evidence of a moat on the north-west side, although it largely survives as a buried feature having become in-filled in the past.

The castle is one of a group of three, the other two being located at Deal and Walmer, 2km and 4km to the south respectively. The castles were built between 1539-40 by Henry VIII in order to protect the shallow semi-sheltered anchorage between the Goodwin Sands and the coast, known as the Downs. This was of great strategic importance because, by the 16th century, there were few other safe places of refuge for ships along the channel coast between Kent and Portsmouth. The castles of the Downs were built in the face of the political crisis and consequent fear of invasion occasioned by the king's divorce of Catherine of Aragon in 1533. They were financed from the proceeds raised by the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

A number of early plans and views of the castle provide information on its original form. It was very similar to Walmer Castle with a circular keep surrounded by four bastions separated by an inner moat and surrounded by an external moat. The entrance was by a drawbridge on the landward side. The upper part of the central keep contained a water cistern and below it was a vaulted apartment for the garrison. The outer bastions were massive structures each with a gun room at ground level and a gun-platform on the roof to mount artillery on. The moat was protected by a tier of hand-guns firing from a gallery running around the whole castle at basement level. There were 39 gun ports for heavy armaments and 39 hand-gun loops to control the moat. In addition to the three castles there were four earthen bulwarks protecting this area of the coast.

These were observed by William Stukeley and Edward Hasted in the 18th century. They included the ‘Great Bulwark of Turf’ and the ‘Little Bulwark of Turf’ between Sandown and Deal Castles, and the ‘Great White Bulwark of Clay’ and ‘Walmer Bulwark’ between Deal and Walmer. All of the fortifications were linked by a curved trench forming a single defensive line extending about 4km along the coastline.

Queen Elizabeth I apparently lodged at Sandown Castle in 1588. The castle saw no action until the Civil War when, during the Royalist revolt in Kent in 1648, the castles of the Downs were captured and held out against Parliamentary forces for several weeks. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars they performed their intended role in protecting shipping in the Downs and Sandown is reported as firing on a man-of-war attacking small craft. However by this time the castles were becoming increasingly obsolete as fortifications. Sandown was particularly vulnerable to coastal erosion and storms. In 1785 the sea broke into the moat and it was declared unfit for habitation. It was repaired in 1808 and the castle was garrisoned during Napoleonic Wars. It was still fairly complete in 1855 when the last captain of the castle, Sir John Hill, died. Subsequent erosion and fire damage led to it being sold by the War Office as building material in 1863 and by 1882 a large part had been dismantled. The stone was re-used in the gatehouse of Walmer Castle and in the ornamented gardens and rockery, which are now situated on the western side of the castle. (15)

Historic England arhive material: AL2400/106/02 View of Sandown Castle from the south
PC38490 View from the south-east looking along the raised causeway towards Sandown Castle The postcard was published before 1930 and uses an original photograph taken in 1863 by a photographer named Fanklin. The postcard was posted in October 1930 to the Antiquary Aymer Vallance from Geoffrey Lucas who remarks that "this view shows the third of the Henry VIII castles near here. It is now probably all destroyed..".Sandown Castle was built between 1539 and 1540 but most of it was washed away by about 1882. It remains a scheduled Ancient Monument.

<1> OS 25", 1957 (OS Card Reference). SKE48286.

<2> Arch Cant 23, 1898, 24-30, plan (W L Rutton) (OS Card Reference). SKE34863.

<3> F1 ASP 05-JUN-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE41946.

<4> Hist of the King's Works, 4 (2), 1982, 369, 393, 404-5, 457, 461-5 (H M Colvin ed) (OS Card Reference). SKE44048.

<5> The Castles of Sandown and Sandgate JBAA 40, 1884, 173-78 (T Hayter Lewis) (OS Card Reference). SKE50264.

<6> A Handbook of Kent's Defences 1540-1945, 1977, 17 (sic), 29 (D H Bennett) (OS Card Reference). SKE32809.

<7> Castellarium Anglicanum 1, 1983, 234 (D J Cathcart King) (OS Card Reference). SKE38609.

<8> The English Castle 1936, 110 (M Brown) (OS Card Reference). SKE50349.

<9> Country Life 88, 1940, 190-4 (A Oswald) (OS Card Reference). SKE39460.

<10> BOE North East and East Kent 1983, 283 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE38270.

<11> Castles of England 1, 1897, 38 (J D Mackenzie). Not consulted (OS Card Reference). SKE38636.

<12> Field report for monument TR 35 SE 1 - June, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6071.

<13> Victor Smith and Andrew Saunders, 2001, Kent's Defence Heritage (Unpublished document). SKE6956.

<14> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

<15> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

Sources and further reading

Related thematic articles

• The Defence of Kent (Thematic Essay)