Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

This shelter (later shell store and RA store) originally formed a bombproof shelter for the gun detachments in the bastion of the early 1860s. It has a cruciform plan with a semi-circular vault of stretchers, covered by a huge earth mound of inverted V profile, 37.5m long, a maximum of 18.5m wide and up to 6.1m high. In the 1890s, the south shelter was converted into a shell store and an RA store. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BLAST SHELTER (Altered, Post Medieval - 1860 AD? to 1890 AD?)
• BOMB STORE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1890 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

This shelter (later shell store and RA store) originally formed a bombproof shelter for the gun detachments in the bastion of the early 1860s. It has a cruciform plan with a semi-circular vault of stretchers, covered by a huge earth mound of inverted V profile, 37.5m long, a maximum of 18.5m wide and up to 6.1m high. All of the entrances lacked doors to enable rapid deployment to and from the guns; the long arms formed the two shelters while the shorter arms formed a through passage. In the 1890s, the south shelter was converted into a shell store and an RA store, both with doors, for the 7-inch RBLs, the northern shelter was blocked at the north end, while the through passage remained unaltered. The covering mound was extended slightly at the north end. The original form of all four entrances is preserved only in the through passage, comprising vertical façades recessed into the body of the mound, in short cuttings with flank walls ramped down to the mound profile. The entrances have single-order semi-circular arches. At the centre of the passage there is a cruciform vault picked out in lighter, sandy-coloured bricks. The 1890s conversion of the south shelter involved the insertion of new brick walls at the north and south ends, both with doors, and a brick partition dividing it into two chambers, an RAstore on the north and a shell store to the south. (1)

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 Report No 7: North Centre and Detached Bastions: 19th-century fortifications (Unpublished document).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

Sources and further reading

Related records