Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The ditch and the rampart were constructed as part of the Napoleonic works on the fort between 1804 and 1810, though the vertical scarp revetment was not completed until a later phase of works was undertaken at the fort, and was likely largely complete by 1862. It is built in stock brick laid to English bond and where visible, the loopholes from the casemated galleries are built to a stepped exterior profile. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• RAMPART (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1804 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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(summarised from report)

The ditches and revetments of the North Centre Bastion are intact though are very overgrown with creeping foliage which has obscured much detail of the loopholes and embrasures. The ditch and the rampart were constructed as part of the Napoleonic works on the fort between 1804 and 1810, though the vertical scarp revetment was not completed until a later phase of works was undertaken at the fort, and was likely largely complete by 1862. It is built in stock brick laid to English bond and where visible, the loopholes from the casemated galleries are built to a stepped exterior profile, with shallow segmental relieving arches. The ditch is 12.0 to 12.4m wide and the revetment 12.2m high, except the north face, which is 10.4m high. (1)

A plan dating to 1810 shows the Detached bastion as it was originally constructed and before any improvements were made under the 1860's scheme of works. (2)

<1> RCHME, 2001, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 7: North Centre and Detached Bastions: 19th-century fortifications (Unpublished document). SKE17503.

<2> E B Metcalf, Royal Military Surveyor and Draughtsman, 1810, Kent: Dover. Map showing fortifications. At the Western Heights
Kent: Dover. Map showing fortifications. (Map). SKE51587.

Sources and further reading

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