Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

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

Monument Types

• OFFICERS QUARTERS (Post Medieval to Modern - 1805 AD? to 1960 AD?)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

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 part 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.

The Field Officers Range A was a building on the highest terrace of the Napoleonic design, it was virtually identical to the Officers' Quarters Range B, although there were some suits of three or four rooms, probably for the higher ranking occupants. There was a small enclosed yard on the north-eastern end.

The building outline is visible; the north-western ground floor wall is an eroded foundation; the south-western basement wall stands 1.1m, rendered internally; a slight scarp covers the foundation of the south-eastern wall. Inside, a steep scarp, 1.6m high, results from the removal of the main internal wall between the half basement and the ground floor, and from it a projecting bank probably covers a cross axial internal partition wall. Outside the north-eastern end, a cut in the terrace probably marks the site of steps, while a square-ish platform marks the site of a yard. (1)

The earliest plan which shows the completed Napoleonic works which were undertaken at the Grand Shaft Barracks dates to 1810. (2) A later plan which dates to 1861, immediately prior to the 1860's scheme of works which were undertaken at the barracks site, gives further detail of the buildings constructed during the Napoleonic works, including lables of specific buildings. (3)

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 Officers Quarters Range A shows the interior layout of the building and a number of external features. (4)

<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> Major W H Ford, Royal Engineers, 1811, Plan Shewing the Appropriation of the Ordnance Lands on the Western Heights Dover 1811 (Map). SKE51523.

<3> Unknown, 1861, Dover, General Plan of the Western Heights Barracks (Plan). SKE51541.

<4> Royal Engineers, 1865, Front elevation, a section and floor plans of officers quarters, range A, Western Heights, as executed (Plan). SKE51563.

Sources and further reading

Related records