This is Deal Castle. It is one of the finest Tudor artillery castles in England. One of a chain of coastal forts built at great speed between 1539 and 1542 by Henry VIII, fearing invasion by the Catholic powers of Europe following his break with Rome. Its squat, rounded turrets were designed to deflect incoming cannon balls, and acted as platforms from which to fire barrages from increasingly sophisticated artillery pieces.
The fort guarded ‘the Downs’ – a sheltered anchorage between the shore and the hazardous Goodwin Sands, a graveyard of ships.
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Maxwell Lucas, on May 17, 2007, said:
This is Deal Castle. It is one of the finest Tudor artillery castles in England. One of a chain of coastal forts built at great speed between 1539 and 1542 by Henry VIII, fearing invasion by the Catholic powers of Europe following his break with Rome. Its squat, rounded turrets were designed to deflect incoming cannon balls, and acted as platforms from which to fire barrages from increasingly sophisticated artillery pieces. The fort guarded ‘the Downs’ – a sheltered anchorage between the shore and the hazardous Goodwin Sands, a graveyard of ships.