Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The enclosed space within the centre part of the North West Bastion of the Citadel, Western Heights, contains a large surface-built bombproof infantry shelter, referred to as a ‘Guard Room’ in the later 19th century. This Guard room is still extant. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GUARDHOUSE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1805 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

The enclosed space within the centre part of the North West Bastion of the Citadel, Western Heights, contains a large surface-built bombproof infantry shelter, referred to as a ‘Guard Room’ in
the later 19th century. This Guard Room is an improvement of the 1850s/60s, built to a very low profile on the long axis of the bastion. It is a long and narrow building of one storey, with a segmental-vaulted roof, built in pinkish brick laid to English bond. The walls are battered externally, with large gritstone quoins at the southern end and brick quoins at the other end that are carefully cut to intersecting angles. The long east and west walls are capped in sandstone. The vault is covered with concrete laid to very shallow pitches and covered with a layer of asphalt, the latter exposed due to removal of the earth bombproofing. The single room, 21.7m long, 3.08m wide and 2.79m to the crown of the vault, is paved with brick and was lit by a large window in the south wall, overlooking the cross ditch. An unusual feature of the otherwise plain, unheated and sunken interior is the presence, in the northern half, of six opposed pairs of gritstone blocks, projecting at the height of the vault springing. Each has a shaped upper part and a flat soffit incorporating a mortice 6cm square and deep. They appear to relate to timber fixtures, now missing, along each side, perhaps a framework for beds, kit racks or weapons for troops manning the bastion in an emergency. (1)

Detail of this structure appears on a plan dating to 1871 which shows all of the works which were undertaken under the reccomendations of the Royal Commission, though this structure likley pre dates this plan. (2)

<1> English Heritage, 2004, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent: Report No. 2: The Citadel (Unpublished document). SKE17690.

<2> Captain H S Palmer (?), 1871, War Department OS 1:2500 Sheet LXVIII.15, revision of 1871, annotated with positions of magazines in the Citadel in 1877 (Map). SKE51524.

Sources and further reading

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