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

Behind the scarp revetments there are three long galleries incorporating casemated rooms for both musketry and carronades, all for the defence of the ditch. These are constructed mainly in brick laid to English bond, usually with axial semi-circular vaults of stretchers, invariably whitewashed. The east Musketry gallery consists of (in a southwards sequence) three musketry casemates, an expense magazine, three gun rooms for carronades, a single musketry casemate with steps up to the terreplein, another expense magazine, five musketry casemates, a well passage and nine musketry casemates. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CASEMATE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1862 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• GUN STORE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1862 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• MAGAZINE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1862 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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

Summarised from report:

Behind the scarp revetments there are three long galleries incorporating casemated rooms for both musketry and carronades, all for the defence of the ditch. These are constructed mainly in brick laid to English bond, usually with axial semi-circular vaults of stretchers, invariably whitewashed. Each casemate has at least one small square smoke vent, situated in the front wall at the apex with the vault. The floors are usually concreted, stone is used for load-bearing, notably for lintels to doorways (gritstone) where there are structural elements above. The musket loops are mainly brick, stepped and splayed in profile and plan, the splay varying according to the ground covered in the ditches. The apertures can be either horizontal or vertical, the former utilised to cover straight sections of ditch, the latter to cover the angled faces of the revetments. Most loops have a shallow segmental arched head with a relieving arch of two or three header courses. Cut sandstone is used for the lintels of the horizontal loops.

The east end of the north musketry gallery leads directly to the east musket gallery and gunrooms. These consist of (in a southwards sequence) three musketry casemates, an expense magazine, three gun rooms for carronades, a single musketry casemate with steps up to the terreplein, another expense magazine, five musketry casemates, a well passage and nine musketry casemates. (1)

A plan dating to 1863 shows the eastern musketry gallery and the gun rooms shortly after they were constructed aloingside structural improvements which were made to them following a structural failure in 1862. (2)

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

<2> Office of Works, 1863, Plan, elevation and sections showing the east face of the inner bastion of the north centre bastion at Western Heights (Plan). SKE51588.

Sources and further reading

Related records