Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A group of now demolished soldiers and officers accomodation blocks and associated buildings (including a bread and meat store) were arranged around the parade ground at the Western Heights (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information).

Monument Types

• STOREHOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1868 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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Summarised from report:

The accomodation blocks were arranged around and overlooking the parade ground, as far as was possible, conforming to the accepted plan of the period. All of these were built as pat of the original Napoleonic design and comprised large austere blocks of double-pile plan. Construction was of brick, laid to English-bond with flat arch window heads, deep sashes and half hipped slate roof concealing a central valley.

A small rectangular brick building with a slate roof, well-ventilated and provided with a verandah to provide air and shade, constructed between 1868-9 on a platform north-east of the Staff Sergeants Quarters. It was demolished during the second world war. Only the platform is visible, reached by two flights of concrete steps, one with brick flanking walls. (1)

A plan dating to 1896 shows the additional buildings and improvements which were constructed under the 1860's scheme of works at the Grand Shaft Barracks site, including the new Bread and Meat Store. (2)

Many of the buildings of Grand Shaft Barracks are recorded in detail on a set of plans, mainly of the 1860s and 1870s, which were probably prepared to accompany the alterations and new building resulting from the recommendations of the Commission. The plan/elevation for the bread and meat store shows the interior layout of the building and a number of the external features. (3)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 4: The Grand Shaft Barracks, 19th and 20th-century infantry barracks (Unpublished document). SKE17499.

<2> Royal Engineers, 1896, Grand Shaft Barracks Dover (Plan). SKE51570.

<3> Office of Works, 1869, Hand-tinted block plan of the Bread and Meat Store at Western Heights (Plan). SKE51577.

Sources and further reading

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