Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A shelter and guard post, both of a Second World War date, are located under the south wetsern hill bordering the former site of the Grand Shaft Barracks. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GUARDHOUSE (Modern - 1939 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• SHELTER (Modern - 1939 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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A shelter and guard post, both of a Second World War date, are located under the south wetsern hill bordering the former site of the Grand Shaft Barracks. The shelter was built as a refuge against the prolonged shelling and bombing which Dover was subjected in the Second World Was. The entrance has been sealed off but the approach is visible, cut back into the terrace scarp. The splaying sides of the cut have been revetted with ramped red brick wing walls. Two blast walls, one butted to each wing wall, prevent a direct approach to the entrance by leaving only narrow gaps on opposite sides, there is a tall façade at the entrance and a large concrete lintel is just visible. Behind the façade the ground has been deliberately collapsed into the tunnel, leaving a small crater.

On the terrace near the deep shelter entrance is a small semi sunken Guard Post approached down a short flight of concrete steps with brick side walls. It is in identical red brickwork, with walls 0.23m thick, and a slightly overhanging concrete roof, 0.15m thick, which slopes very slightly to the north east. The interior is a single rectangular room of 3.08m by 1.82m, with the entrance rebated for a door and an observation slit, 1.32m long and 0.47m high, in the north eastern wall overlooking the barracks. The south eastern wall has a vent and flue for a stove and the southern corner is broken out and lined with angled brickwork, emerging outside and a small concrete lined hole.

Just to the south east is a small shaft, one brick thick, 0.96m by 0.58m by at least 0.8m deep. The north east wall has deliberate gaps in the brickwork and probably formed a soakaway for a latrine. (summarised from report) (1)

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 Report No 4: The Grand Shaft Barracks, 19th and 20th-century infantry barracks (Unpublished document).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

Sources and further reading

Related records