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

Nine casemates are located behind the scarp wall of the inner North West Bastion, facing the cross ditch. Five of these belong to the early phase of construction at the fort and were likley completed by 1815, the other four are a later addition and were probably the result of the 1853-5 improvements to the fort. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

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

Full description

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

Summarised from report:

This row of casemated gunrooms, for small arms fire, is situated behind the scarp wall of the cross-ditch. The gallery opened onto the central casemate, from which doorways in the party walls gave access to nine. These are contiguous and of two different forms; the central five have concave rear walls, a feature of most Napoleonic gun casemates on the Western Heights, and parabolic vaults. The remaining four casemates, which flank the central five in two groups of two, differ in having straight rear walls and one appears to be drawn over an earlier representation of a curved wall. This difference in form suggests two distinct phases of construction and may indicate that an original five casemates were expanded to nine as part of the works of 1853-5. If so, the later examples probably have segmental vaults. In other respects the two types of casemate are similar; each has six splayed small arms loops in the scarp wall, divided equally by a short central projection or baffle. The communicating doorways are arranged en enfilade, a poor arrangement defensively, but one that reflects the fact these casemates, with their very small loops to the ditch, were practically impregnable except from the rear. On each rear wall except the central one, where the gallery enters, a central recess is probably a fireplace, as eight brick-built chimney stacks are visible on aerial photographs dating to 1945, protruding from the rampart. (1)

Detail of these structures appears on a plan dating to 1871 which shows all of the works which were undertaken under the reccomendations of the Royal Commission though these likely pre date the plan by over 50 years, this is the first clear depition of them. (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

Related records