Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Most of the original ancillary structures, comprising stores, canteens, workshops, gardens etc. stood on terraces to the west of the main steps. Included within this group of ancillery buildings was a guard house, this building was situated to the rear of the buildings that were located immediately bordering the main steps, in the south western corner of the complex, on a slightly higher terrace. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

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

Full description

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Summarised from report:

Most of the original ancillary structures, comprising stores, canteens, workshops, gardens etc. stood on terraces to the west of the main steps. Included within this group of ancillary buildings was a guard house, this building was situated to the rear of the buildings that were located immediately bordering the main steps, in the south western corner of the complex, on a slightly higher terrace.

A footpath from Archcliffe Fort formerly approached the barracks form the south west. Where it entered the barracks complex there was a guard house, a two storey brick building of 7 by 2 fenestrated bays, with a pitched slate roof. The ground floor was divided into a lock up, guardroom and cells, and in common with many guardhouses it had a veranda to shelter the guard in wet weather, the first floor was divided into an officer’s room, orderly room and court martial room. The site is now overgrown and only a fragment of the south western wall could be seen. However, the terrace continues to the south east of the Guard House for another 25m, right to the cliff edge. Though only a very small store building stood there. (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)

Many of the buildings of Grand Shaft Barracks are recorded in detail on a set of plans, mainly of the 1860s and 1870s, which were probably prepared to accompany the alterations and new building resulting from the recommendations of the Commission. The plan/elevation for the Guard House shows the interior layout of the building and a number of external features. (4)

<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.

<4> Office of Works, 1861, Hand-tinted plans, sections and elevations of the Grand Shaft Barracks at Western Heights showing the Guard Room as executed (Plan). SKE51567.

Sources and further reading

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