Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A bulwark or gun battery was constructed at Dover harbour in 1542, it consisted of a rectangular two story timber building with gun ports, it was erected in the sea off the south jetty and coated with black tar. This ‘Black Bulwark at the Pier’ quickly succumbed to the depredations of the sea and despite extensive repairs, by the end of the century it was merely a heap of sea washed rocks. Today there is no visible evidence of it but it is visible on numerous early post medieval cartographic sources. (location accurate to the nearest 20m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BATTERY (Post Medieval - 1549 AD to 1560 AD?)

Full description

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The late Medieval and post medieval periods saw substantial changes being made to in Dover’s docks. A particularly busy time in the development of the harbour was during the rule of Henry VIII, at this time (between c. 1535 and 1551) an extension to Clerks pier was planned and started, though never completed, by John Thompson. (1)

Alongside these extensions, three bulwarks or gun batteries were constructed to protect the harbour in 1539; Moats Bulwark and Archcliffe Fort were strategically placed on either side of the Harbour while a third ‘Bulwark under the cliff going to Wyke’, which cut into the cliff face overlooking Clerks Pier, though this did not last long and had fallen out of use by 1568. A fourth was built after Henry VIII’s inspection of the Harbour in 1542, it consisted of a rectangular two story timber building, positioned upon a mass of rocks with gun ports, it was erected in the sea off the south jetty and coated with black tar. This ‘Black Bulwark at the Pier’ quickly succumbed to the depredations of the sea and despite extensive repairs, by the end of the century it was merely a heap of sea washed rocks. (2-3)

Numerous early post medieval cartographic sources depict this bulwark, though nearly all after it had fallen out of use, in its dilapidated form. Two 16th century plans by Digges depict the Black Bulwark. The first, dating to 1588, just after the completion of the long wall of the Great pent and the Cross Pent wall (which are both clearly depicted), this shows the platform for the black bulwark in what appears to be a good state of repair, the tower and guns are however lost and we must therefore assume that it had fallen out of use by this time. (4) The second plan which was drawn after all of the Elizabethan works on the harbour had been completed, dates to 1595. On this plan the Black Bulwark is depicted as merely a pile of rocks, just to the south of south pier. (5) There is no sign of the bulwark on eldred plan of Dover town and Harbour dating to 1641 and it is likely that by the time this was drawn the last visible remains of the Bulwark had been destroyed by the sea. (6)

Today there is nothing visible of this bulwark and its remains (if still surviving) are likely situated beneath the landward side of Admiralty pier.

<1> Maritime Archaeology, 2008, Dover Terminal 2 EIA: Historic Environment Baseline Report (Unpublished document). SKE31717.

<2> Roy Ingleton, 2012, Fortress Kent - The Guardian of England (Monograph). SKE32145.

<3> M. S. Johnson, 2015, Historic Timber-built Seacoast Piers of Eastern England: Technological, Environmental and Social Contexts (Unpublished document). SKE32003.

<4> Thomas Digges, 1588, Plan of Work at Dover Harbour (Map). SKE31986.

<5> Thomas Digges, 1595, The state of Dover Haven with the New workes (Map). SKE31987.

<6> William Eldred, 1641, The Platt of Dover Castle Towne and Harbor (Map). SKE31804.

Sources and further reading