Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Most of the original ancillery structures, comprising stores, canteens and workshops etc were situated on the south western side of the barracks complex. These structures included a wash house which was a free standing building of single pile plan. Remains of the building were uncovered during an archaeological evaluation undertaken at the site in 2017. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• WASH HOUSE (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1805 AD? to 1960 AD?)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

Summarised from report:

Most of the original ancillery structures, comprising stores, canteens and workshops etc were situated on the south western side of the barracks complex. These structures included a wash house which was a free standing building of single pile plan. This wash house was later converted to an Ordnance Store Department Workshop was demolished at some point in the 1960's. Today (2004) the building has left very little surface trace: visible only are parts of the south eastern and north eastern ealls, up to 1.4m high. The battered revetment wall on the south west up to 2.5m high in English Bond, is partiall hidden by rubble. (1)

The earliest plan which shows the completed Napoleonic works which were undertaken at the Grand Shaft Barracks dates to 1810. (2) A later plan which dates to 1861, immediately prior to the 1860's scheme of works which were undertaken at the barracks site, gives further detail of the buildings constructed during the Napoleonic works, including lables of specific buildings. (3)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 4: The Grand Shaft Barracks, 19th and 20th-century infantry barracks (Unpublished document). SKE17499.

<2> Major W H Ford, Royal Engineers, 1811, Plan Shewing the Appropriation of the Ordnance Lands on the Western Heights Dover 1811 (Map). SKE51523.

<3> Unknown, 1861, Dover, General Plan of the Western Heights Barracks (Plan). SKE51541.

Sources and further reading

Related records