Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

After the completion of the battery in 1877 it was deemed necessary to find a location for a new cartridge store, safely away from the integral build of the battery. Subsequent plans, dated 1888-9, show that it was to be placed underground in the hill behind the battery, reached along a passage that opened behind the artillery store. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CARTRIDGE HOUSE (Disused, Post Medieval to Modern - 1889 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

After the completion of the battery in 1877 it was deemed necessary to find a location for a new cartridge store, safely away from the integral build of the battery. Subsequent plans, dated 1888-9, show that it was to be placed underground in the hill behind the battery, reached along a passage that opened behind the artillery store. The small shell and cartridge stores integral to the battery were to be filled with concrete, leaving small recesses for ready use, so reducing the risk to the guns in the event of bombardment. As it happened, the new cartridge store was constructed but the old stores in the battery were not infilled. The entrance to new cartridge store is sealed by a modern gate, although the approach path remains, some 2.7m long, lined by ramped brick walls. The proposal plan reveals that a passage from the entrance led north-westward into the hill for about 5.1m sloping down at an angle of 1 in 10, before turning a right angle to the north-east, leading for about another 3.8m to a blind end. The cartridge store and shifting lobby were situated at the end of the passage on the north-west side. Three lamp recesses in the passage illuminated the store and shifting lobby; there was also an issue hatch between store and passage. (1-2)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 5: St Martin's Battery, 19th and 20th-century artillery battery (Unpublished document). SKE17500.

<2> Royal Engineers, 1889, Plan and sections of St Martin's Battery at Western Heights showing the proposed new cartridge store (Plan). SKE51594.

Sources and further reading

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