Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Between 1860 and 1870 the Married Soldiers Quarters (alongside a variety of other structures) was constructed on the rising ground to the south of the casemated barracks at the South Front Barracks. A plan of the structure dating to 1896 and a whole site plan dating to 1897 shows a long three storey range with short wings projecting north-west from each end. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• SCHOOL (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1945 AD?)
• MARRIED QUARTERS (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1861 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

Between 1860 and 1870 the Married Soldiers Quarters (alongside a variety of other structures) was constructed on the rising ground to the south of the casemated barracks at the South Front Barracks. It was built probably in compliance with recommendations contained in a report of 1861 by the Royal Commission on the Condition of Barracks and Hospitals. A plan of the structure dating to 1896 and a whole site plan dating to 1897 (1-2) shows a long three storey range with short wings projecting north-west from each end. The central range comprised, on each floor, seven groups of four rooms, divided into pairs by central stairways accessed through porches on the ground floor of the north west elevation. Half of the south west wing contained an infants school on the ground floor, while four rooms on both the first and second floor of the north east wing were grouped into pairs for the more senior NCO’s. there was accommodation in the whole block for 120 married soldiers and their families. It is unclear exactly when this building was constructed but plans indicate that it was in existence by 1865 at the very latest. (3)

<1> Colonel G W C O'Brien, Dover, 1896, Plans of buildings at South Front Barracks: Married soldiers quarters (Plan). SKE51610.

<2> Colonel Kirkwood, 1898, Ordnance Survey town plan of Dover: map showing South Front barracks and a nearby hospital. (Plan). SKE51596.

<3> RCHME, 2001, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 9: South Front Barracks. Later 19th and 20th-century barracks complex (Unpublished document). SKE17505.

Sources and further reading

Related records