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Monument details

HER Number:TR 34 SW 1144
Type of record:Monument
Name:Site of a former passage (?) in Grand Shaft entrance courtyard, Snargate Street, Dover

Summary

The Grand Shaft was designed to connect the Western Heights to the harbour. In c.1859 a series of additions and alterations were made to the structures within the entrance courtyard of the Grand Shaft which included the construction of a passage (?) against the south west boundary wall (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information).


Grid Reference:TR 31645 40888
Map Sheet:TR34SW
Parish:DOVER, DOVER, KENT

Monument Types

  • (Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1969 AD (between))

Full description

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The Grand shaft was designed to connect the fort on the Western Heights with the harbour. Its entrance at the foot of the cliffs, off Snargate Street, consisted of a courtyard, gate and associated military guard buildings. A number of phases of development have been identified within the courtyard. A series of major additions and alterations that were made to the entrance courtyard to the Grand Shaft in the mid-19th century constitutes the second phase. One of the additions during this phase was a passage created against the south-west boundary wall. The brickwork in all of the buildings associated with the second phase of development of this site used an English Bond set in a moderate cream-yellow sandy mortar with frequent small chalk/lime fragments (2-8mm) and occasional smaller angular flint fragments (2-8mm). Most of the structures occupying this courtyard were demolished in about 1969 and the entire monument remained derelict until it was largely restored by Dover District Council in the 1970's (1).

An architect’s plan of the elevation and sections of the proposed extensions to the entrance structures dates to 1859. This phase of development of the site my therefore be dated to after then.(2)


<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1993, The Dover Grand Shaft Project: Report on Archaeological Work at the Snargate Street Entrance (Unpublished document). SKE6833.

<2> 1859, Historic Plan: Plan, elevation and section of proposed extensions to the (Grand Shaft) entrance structures (Cartographic materials). SKE31699.

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref. Source description
<1>Unpublished document: Canterbury Archaeological Trust. 1993. The Dover Grand Shaft Project: Report on Archaeological Work at the Snargate Street Entrance.
<2>Cartographic materials: 1859. Historic Plan: Plan, elevation and section of proposed extensions to the (Grand Shaft) entrance structures.