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

The earthwork defences of the Citadel Battery consist of a sloping glacis on the seaward face falling to a steeper scarp, at the foot of which is a counterscarp bank. This defence was also carried around the western end of the battery. At the western end of the battery there is a more gentle slope for some 6.0m before a shallow ditch 2.8m wide by 0.2m deep. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BANK (EARTHWORK) (Disused, Modern - 1901 AD? to 1956 AD?)
• DITCH (Disused, Modern - 1901 AD? to 1956 AD?)
• SCARP (Disused, Modern - 1901 AD? to 1956 AD?)

Full description

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

Summarised from report:

The earthwork defences of the Citadel Battery consist of a sloping glacis on the seaward face falling to a steeper scarp, at the foot of which was a broad barbed wire entanglement and beyond that a strained wire fence and a counterscarp bank. This defence was also carried around the western end of the battery, which occupied the whole width of the narrow ridge top, thereby closing off access from this direction. This original profile is largely intact, though much obscured by scrub growth, with the glacis falling away from the concrete gun aprons to the steeper scarp 2.4m high. At the western end of the battery there is a more gentle slope for some 6.0m before a shallow ditch 2.8m wide by 0.2m deep. The ditch itself supports a modern fence and two or three of the uprights survive from a predecessor. The counterscarp bank beyond it is in good condition. (1)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 8: The Citadel Battery: An early 20th-century coastal battery (Unpublished document). SKE17504.

Sources and further reading

Related records