Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The south caponier was the only link between the North Centre Bastion and the Detached bastion of the western heights, it spanned the base of the cross ditch between them and was designed to provide flanking fire for it. It consisted of a plain passage with brick walls, 1.4m thick, and a semi-circular vault and it was constructed under the 1860's scheme of modernisation and improvements which were made to the fort. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CAPONIER (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1862 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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The south caponier linked the bastions and gave flanking fire for the cross ditch. It consists of a plain passage with brick walls, 1.4m thick, and a semi-circular vault. Both sides have musket loops, above which a stone cordon at the top of the external walls gives onto a roof pitched at a very shallow angle. Inside, the southern entrance was protected by a rectangular drop pit and drawbridge, which in an emergency would close the caponier and prevent entry from Detached of the drop pit. This wall, in English bond, has a central doorway with a flat head, concrete lintel and a wooden frame. The fill of the pit has been disturbed, revealing sandstone coping on the northern edge and two corbels in the sides, to support the bridge when down. The east wall of the caponier is original and has eight horizontal musket loops, which look straight along the cross ditch between the two bastions; the southern two could be used only with the drawbridge down. The loops have sandstone sills and lintels and internally, they have stepped sides and bases, with segmental arched heads. Five in the west wall form the alterations proposed in 1862, of which the three northern examples are identical to those on the east wall. The other two are vertical loops splayed to enfilade the whole west ditch of the North centre bastion. (1)

A plan of the Detched Bastion dating to the 1860s shows the south caponier shortly after it was constructed (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 Report No 7: North Centre and Detached Bastions: 19th-century fortifications (Unpublished document).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, 1862, Plan showing the improvements to the defences for Dover at the North Centre Bastion at the Western Heights (Plan). SKE51590.

Sources and further reading

Related records