The origins of the Western Heights fortifications were around 1780 when this country was waging war simultaneously with France and the American colonies. The order of the day was earthwork batteries which seem to have been constructed by 1784 along with the beginnings of what we now know as the Citadel. These works were under the charge of Lieutenant Thomas Hyde Page who had been instructed by Lord Townsend, Master General of Ordnance to build simple and cheap fieldworks in order to bring Dover’s defences up to a state of readiness together with other modernisation programmes being carried out at Dover Castle, Moat’s Bulwark, Archcliffe Fort, Guildford Battery, North Battery, Townsend Battery and finally, Amherst Battery.
Work on Western Heights stopped in 1783 leaving the defences in an unfinished state but the trace of the intended works had by then already been marked out on the hillside.
New war in 1793
Following the outbreak of war with France in 1793 huge sums of money were spent on updating the country's defences and bearing in mind Dover’s strategic importance at the time, about £500,000 was spent on the various defences of Dover between war breaking out and the end of hostilities at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Citadel from the south
Although a real threat of invasion by the French didn’t exist until 1803, a memorandum on the defence of Southern England was drawn up by the Secretary of State for War, Viscount Melville in 1798:
.........The possession to an enemy of Dover Castle and of the opposite entrenched Western Height and of the town and port, fortified in the manner in which he would soon accomplish and defended by 6 or 7000 men would establish a sure communication with France and could not be easily wrested from his hands. The conquest of this alone would be to him a sufficient object could he arrive with means of immediately attacking it. Its preservation to us is most important.......
From 1803 several invasion panics produced some of the finest and most impressive military architecture in Europe producing a system of lines, or dry ditches, totaling some 5 miles.
The Drop Redoubt is at the eastern-most end of the North Lines, that is the system of dry ditches extending from the Redoubt westwards towards Folkestone for the entire length of the defences. During the invasion fever of 1804 it was decided by the Inspector General of Fortifications, Lieutenant-General Robert Morse, that there should be a Citadel at the western end of the west hill, this to remain largely a fieldwork as laid down 20 years previously, a polygonal fort at the eastern end, at the Drop, a powerful detached work midway, the three linked by a strong defensive ditch. These turned into the Citadel, Drop Redoubt and North Centre Bastion respectively.
Left: Drop Redoubt from the south, Centre: 1804 Casemated barracks, Right: Victorian War Department Plan
The first building programme on the Drop Redoubt ran between 1804 and 1810.
Grand Shaft Barracks were built on the top of the white cliffs above Snargate Street, on Dover sea front. The barracks date from one of the earliest phases of construction having been started in June 1804. It was decided at this time that barrack accommodation on Western Heights should be limited to one site and should house 700 men, another 800 men living in many of the fortified casemates scattered around the Heights.
Left & Right: Grand Shaft Barracks about 1910, Centre: Grand Shaft Guardroom about 1908.
The problem with building barracks for so many men in such a place meant that an alternative means of access had to be found. The case for building stairs in the cliff was argued by Colonel William Twiss, Commanding Engineer of the Southern District.............
‘...the new barracks.....are little more than 300 yards horizontally from the beach.....and about 180 feet above high-water mark, but in order to communicate with them from the centre of town, on horseback the distance is nearly a mile and a half and to walk it about three-quarters of a mile, and all the roads unavoidably pass over ground more than 100 feet above the barracks, besides the footpaths are so steep and chalky that a number of accidents will unavoidably happen during the wet weather and more especially after floods. I am therefore induced to recommend the construction of a shaft, with a triple staircase....the chief objective of which is the convenience and safety of troops....and may eventually be useful in sending reinforcements to troops or in affording them a secure retreat.’
Left: Top of the Grand Shaft about 1967 (Dover Express picture) Centre: Looking down into the bowl, Right: Top of the Shaft about 2008
Twiss’ plan was approved and building went ahead. The shaft was to be 26 feet in diameter, 140 feet deep with a 180 feet gallery connecting the bottom of the shaft to Snargate Street, and all for under an estimated £4000.
The plan entailed building two bricklined shafts, one inside the other. In the outer would be built a triple staircase, the inner acting as a light well with ‘windows’ cut in its outer wall to illuminate the staircases. Apparently, by March 1805 only 40 feet of the connecting gallery was left to dig and it is probable that the project was completed by 1807.
Left: The replica guardroom facing Snargate Street
The first phase of construction on Western Heights that is recognisable as such today began in April 1804 with the building of Drop Redoubt and North Centre Bastion.
Work started on the Bastion in 1804 and good progress was made generally that year. At the end of March 1805 it was reported that
"The earth is nearly laid for the North Centre Bastion and the scarping almost finished"
Left: North Centre Detached Bastion soldiers' shelter, Centre: Caponnier between North Centre Detached Bastion and North Centre Bastion, Right: Gun position atop Detached Bastion
The work did not however proceed quickly enough and the Bastion was left unfinished by 1816 when expenditure on the Heights stopped. From then until the 1850’s the Heights was grazed with only minor maintenance being carried out.
The North Centre & Detached Bastions were intended as a flanking position and were built as part of the North Lines, positioned centrally between Drop Redoubt and the Citadel. The North Centre Bastion comprises sets of gunrooms below what was then a parade ground and was accessed from the parade by two steep flights of steps.
Inside North Centre Detached Bastion
The Royal Military Hospital at Archcliffe was built in 1803 and was probably demolished 1962 to make way for industrial buildings.
Other than this, there seems to be very little documentary evidence concerning the hospital. We have been told however, that when it was demolished all the records that were still there were destroyed also.
The military hospital in about 1910