Photos by John Latter : on the map, in Google Earth (KML)

After the junction with Victoria Park, Castle Hill Road (sometimes just Castle Hill), runs uphill in a roughly straight line from south to north, except for this wide loop to the west below Constable`s Barbican.

The Dover Castle tag has been added to the photo because two junctions on the right-hand side of Castle Hill Road, Canons Gate Road (behind the viewer) and Constable's Road (in front), lead to the two Castle entrances of Constable`s Gateway (pedestrians) and Canons Gateway (vehicles), respectively.

Extract from the Street Names of Dover:

Castle Hill - Was built as a military road in 1797. The earlier Castle Hill had run from the top of St. James Street through extensive shrubbery at the foot of the hill and then by way of what is now known as the Zig-Zag.

The Zig Zags Park begins a few yards up from where this photo was taken from, at the bottom of a slope covered in undergrowth:

The Victorian serpentine metalled pathway known as the "Zig Zags" once ran from the top of Laureston Place (as it turns into Victoria Park) up to where Connaught Road meets today's Castle Hill Road at the South Gate of Connaught Park, just across the road from Constable's Road.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any red or blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

A view of Avranches Tower (see appended notes for alternative spellings) on the first corner where the eastern outer curtain wall of Dover's Norman Castle briefly changes direction before continuing on its way southwards to the cliff edge.

The photo was taken from a square opening near ground level in the north-east wall of the Inner Bailey.

Click to see a close-up of Avranches Tower, Avranches Tower and Fort Burgoyne, and all photos of Dover Castle (an English Heritage site).

The Louis Bleriot memorial is in the wooded area (Northfall Meadow) to the left of Avranches Tower.

Notes on Avranches Tower

Extract from "The History of the Castle, Town and Port of Dover" by Reverend S. P. H. Statham, Rector of St Mary-in-the-Castle (ie St Mary-in-Castro) (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899):

Averanche Tower was placed in the angle of this curtain (ie the outer curtain wall above the moat/ditch surrounding Dover castle) and "its foundations were laid below the bottom of the deep ditch on the one side, and the wall was carried up, about ten feet thick, to a level with the inner vallum (vallum was a type of palisade, originally used as part of the Roman defensive fortification system). In this wall they built a gallery on each of the five sides of the tower. At every angle there were several slope steps, leading from one platform to another." It was supported by the manor of Folkestone (1). (p.270, abridged)

William de Averanche seems to have acted as Constable of Dover Castle until 1227. He was a descendant of the William de Albrincis (Averanche) to whom William I (also see William the Conqueror) granted lands for the defense of the Castle, and it is more than probable that Averanche's Tower is named after him. (p.333)

Extract from "Dover Castle" by R. Allen Brown (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, HMSO 1974):

...Furthermore, attention has recently been drawn to the sophisticated design and concentrated fire-power of that section of the curtain (ie outer curtain wall) which is undoubtedly Henry's from Fitzwilliam to Avranches, again reminiscent of Edwardian work a century later at, say, the Tower of London (Mint Street) or Caernarvon. The Avranches Tower itself, which blocks and guards the potentially dangerous re-entrant and entrance of the former Iron Age earthworks, is polygonal to the field (five sides of a pentagon, and cf. the near-contemporary Bell Tower of c. 1190 at the Tower of London), and on each face has two tiers of triple loops evidently designed for the crossbow (2) (see "The English Castle).

(1) From "The Folkestone of Edward Hasted":

The manor of Folkestone was frequently called an honor because it was the 'chief seat of residence of the lords paramount in this barony'. It was held directly from the king and called the Barony of Folkestone or Averenches, after the family who held the barony from the 11th and 12th centuries. The lord who held this manor had to provide certain services for the king, in particular soldiers for the defence of Dover Castle. Each knight was required to defend a certain tower, so one of the towers at the castle was called Averenches Tower and later Clinton Tower.

The last appears to be inaccurate: Avranches/Averenches Tower is a separate constuction to Clinton Tower.

(2) The crossbow reference appears to originate (or at least is discussed) in Renn, D.F., The Avranches Traverse at Dover Castle, Archaeologia Cantiana v.84 (1969), p. 79-92. If anyone can email me a copy then I would be very grateful!: jorolat AT gmail.com

Dover Castle (abridged from The English Heritage Trail)

Guardian of the 'Gateway to England', Dover Castle displays a solid strength and determination that has obviously carried it through many troubled times. Proudly standing atop the White Cliffs, overlooking this busy port, Dover Castle has withstood the test of time remarkably well throughout its long and eventful history. Dover Castle, as it stands today, dates from the rebuilding work during Henry II's reign, but the site has been of vital importance since the Iron Age. The first castle at Dover was probably an Anglo-Saxon fortress and, on the arrival of William the Conqueror, the existing fortifications were improved with the building of an earthwork castle. This Norman 'motte' (mound) which supported the castle is today known as 'Castle Hill'.

Work began on Dover Castle in the latter part of the 12th century with the construction of the Keep (or Great Tower) - the largest in Britain - and is entered through a forebuilding more substantial than any other built before or since. At each corner of the Keep lies a buttress turret, and mid-way along each wall is a pilaster buttress. Four storeys high, the Keep comprises a basement, first floor, and a second floor that spans two storeys, the upper level of which is a mural gallery that can be seen today at the end of the Great Armour Hall. The second storey provided the royal accommodation, and the first floor, based on a similar plan to the second, contained rooms with a much less elaborate decor. All floors were connected by staircases set in the north and south corner turrets.

Providing the entry staircase, and two chapels, is the magnificent forebuilding. It is interesting to note the decor of the chapels - the lower chapel of a Gothic style, and the upper chapel late Norman and richly decorated. From outside of the Keep, the significance of the three-towered forebuilding can be fully appreciated, as it can be seen travelling along the eastern wall of the Keep and turning at the corner of the southern wall. It was around this stronghold that the concentric castle was developed and work was completed mid-13th century.

Dover Castle appears in "Dover in World War Two: 1942", a ten minute British Ministry of Information film, released by the US Office of War Information, and narrated by the American journalist, Edward R. Murrow.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

Dead Man's Island, more properly known as the Detached Bastion, is seperated from the North Centre Bastion (where the photo was taken from) by a hanging moat, or cross-ditch.

This moat, whose walls are largely covered in ivy, begins halfway down the left-hand side of the photo and then runs across to the bottom right-hand corner.

The two bastions (connected by the South Caponier) are only part of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defence system embedded into the Western Heights above the town of Dover, England..

The central mound on Dead Man's Island was originally a bombproof shelter (see notes below) and then the southern end, whose entrance is visible above, was converted into a shell store and RA store. The mound is divided by an archway.

Above the left-hand slope of the mound, and beneath the dark-green foliage, is an opening to a set of steps leading down to the first drawbridge of the western tunnel (gallery).

Half-way down the right-hand side of the photo the entrance to another set of steps, also hidden under dark-green foliage, which lead to the eastern tunnel.

Out of sight on the other side of the ridge above the mound is the attached North-West Caponier; beyond the caponier and northern side of Dead Man's Island is the glacis.

Dead Man's Island and the North Centre Bastion are an English Heritage site: click on the North Centre Bastion tag to see all internal and external photos of this location.

Extracts from an English Heritage "Archaeological Investigation" (Report No. 7 - North Centre and Detached Bastions):

North Centre and Detached Bastions

North Centre and Detached Bastions formed an important element of the Western Heights defenses, protecting part of the land front to the north-west of the port of Dover. They were built into the linear defences of the Heights and provided a platform for artillery and infantry to defend the northern approaches to the town and the road from Folkestone in the valley below. Both bastions also had intricate measures for their own defence and were designed to operate independently if the need arose.

North Centre Bastion was begun as part of the Napoleonic works in 1804 but left unfinished at the end of hostilities in 1815 (see Napoleonic Wars. The completion of the work as North Centre and Detached Bastions took place between 1858 and 1867 as part of a wider scheme for the Dover defences as a whole. Both bastions supported some artillery until around 1900, after which their use for any purpose was intermittent; small scale re-occupation for local defence probably occurred in both the First and Second World Wars.

The Bombproof Shelter (later Shell Store and RA Store)

This building originally formed a bombproof shelter for the gun detachments in the bastion of the early 1860s. it has a cruciform plan with a semi-circular vault of stretchers, covered by a huge mound of inverted V profile, 37.5m (123ft) long, a maximum of 18.5m (60ft 7in) wide and up to 6.1m (20ft) high. All of the entrances lacked doors to enable rapid deployment to and from the guns; the long arms formed the two shelters while the shorter arms formed a through passage. In the 1890s, the south shelter was converted into a Shell Store and RA Store, bith with doors, for the 7-inch RBLs (Rifled Breech Loader), the northern shelter was blocked at the north end, while the through passage remained unaltered. The covering mound was extended slightly at the north end.

... The north and south shelters are of unequal length and originally opened directly onto the cross passage. The north shelter is featureless apart from the 1890s blocking of pebbly mass concrete at the north end, where it originally opened onto the terreplein. Externally, the extension of the mound has all but concealed the original ramped brick flanking walls.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any red or blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

A view of Dover's 12th Century Norman Castle taken from below the eastern end of the pre-Napoleonic earthwork which lies on the northern slopes of the Western Heights.

From "back to front":

1) The 12th Century Norman Keep, or Great Tower, of Dover Castle are surrounded by the massive walls of the Inner Bailey.

Below the Inner Bailey are the Western Battlements, or Western Curtain Wall; Peverell`s Gate is clearly visible.

To the right of the Keep and Inner Bailey, but hidden behind the main trunk of the leafless tree left of centre, are the Roman Pharos and Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro.

2) The sun-lit ridge running down from the right-hand side of the photo contains the 'lumps and bumps' of the Detached Bastion which is connected to the North Centre Bastion by the South Caponier. This complex is are part of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defense system embedded into the Western Heights.

Dover Castle and many locations on the Western Heights are English Heritage sites.

3) The grass bank in shadow on the bottom right-hand side of the picture is the eastern end of the pre-Napoleonic earthwork which lies between the North Centre Bastion complex and the Outer Bastion.

Standard information for the Pre-Napoleonic Earthworks:

Click on the Earthworks tag to see all photos of this location.

The apparent length of this east-west pre-Napoleonic mound and flanking ditches is about 275 hundred yards. It runs parallel to, and some 50 yards downhill from, the North Lines (or Moats) that connect the North Centre Bastion* (behind the viewer) to the mysterious Outer Bastion (in front).

On Google Earth (and on location) the earthwork can be seen to have been truncated to the west by the later construction of the Outer Bastion; the ground drops away on the other side of the Outer Bastion so the earthwork almost certainly once terminated within it confines.

Today's North Centre Bastion and Detached Bastion are a 'second edition' (built 1858 - 1867) with the earthwork now stopping well short of the Detached Bastion's west flanking moat. Before this mid-Victorian alteration, however, the earthwork extended much further to the east.

The original North Centre Bastion (built 1804 - 1815), for example, was constructed around the earthwork which created a dog-leg in the moat (or cross ditch) that seperated the Detached Bastion (as it was then) from the North Centre Bastion proper.

An 1859 map indicates the eastern end of the earthwork terminated near the Outer Bridge of the North Entrance, and that today's moat from the east side of the North Centre Bastion to the Outer Bridge may have replaced it.

As far as I am aware, this is the only pre-Napoleonic earthwork still identifiable as such on the Western Heights of Dover, Kent, UK.

I grew up in Westbury Road and Clarendon Place which lie below this part of the Western Heights and since childhood had vaguely assumed the earthwork was a First World War or Second World War construction.

The ditch above the mound is shallow ("Man-sized") while that below it is much deeper ("No Men here, thank you."). In other words, I thought it was a simple trench built to fill the gap between the North Centre Bastion and the Outer Bastion - it never occured to me that the construction dates might be the other way around!

The Wikipedia entry for the Western Heights states they were "First given earthworks in 1779" without giving any of their locations.

An English Heritage "Archaeological Investigation" (Report No. 7 - North Centre and Detached Bastions), on the other hand, specifically refers to the earthwork in the above photo, states how it existed before the first North Centre Bastion and was subsequently incorporated into it, etc., but also says it is only probable that it dates from the 1770s and 1780s.

• The North Centre Bastion is also known as "Dead Man's Island" and "Smokey".

Click to see my super-duper video of the North Centre Bastion.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

The Sergeant Major's house, just south of Peverell`s Gate on the western Outer Curtain Wall, was once the home of the Battery Sergeant Majors who were garrisoned at Dover Castle. It is now an English Heritage "Holiday Cottage":

This is an elegant and spacious four-storey Georgian house standing in its own grounds with expansive views to the English Channel, one of the busiest waterways in the world. On one side of the house are the inner fortified battlement walls reaching to the Castle above and, on the other side, the outer walls sweeping down to the moat and town below. Just behind is the 13th-century Peverell’s Gateway. Once home to the Battery Sergeant Majors garrisoned at the Castle, the house was more recently lived in by the Custodian of the Castle.

The house has three bedrooms; two doubles and one twin. There is a bathroom with shower over the bath and a further separate shower room and cloakroom. There is a very large kitchen/ diner and a cosy sitting room. In the basement there is a games room and further sitting room with plasma TV.

As well as its stunning location right in the heart of Dover Castle, Sergeant Major’s House itself offers something for all the family. Enjoy the magnificent Keep views from the sitting room while the kids wear themselves out at the table tennis table and at the end of the day gather the whole family together for meals around the generous dining table and plan your next day of fun!

I would love to stay in the Sergeant Major's House, not least because of having the Castle grounds all to myself first thing in the morning and last thing at night - taking photographs at those times would be brilliant :)

Unfortunately, I'll have to win the Lottery first: the price for 7 nights between the 16th of July and the 2nd of September in 2010 (the most expensive period) is currently scheduled to be GBP1486! (click to see the full price list).

Peverell's Gate (or Peverell's Tower) is on the left-hand side of the photo; the Keep, or Great Tower, is above and behind the Sergeant Major's House; the west flanking tower of Palace Gate on the Inner Bailey walls is at top right.

This view was taken from Gatton's Tower.

Extract from "The History of the Town and Port of Dover and of Dover Castle (With a Short Account of the Cinque Ports)", Volume 2. Dedicated by the Reverend John Lyon, Minister of "Saint Mary`s", on April 21st, 1814, and published the same year:

Gatton Tower

This tower was built by William Peverell, to strengthen the curtain (wall) between his own and Arsick's Tower (now Say's Tower); and he granted the manor of Throwley, to one William le Dane, knight, and he held it on castle-guard tenure.

Robert de Gatton held of the same Lord, and by the same service, the town of Gatton, in Surrey; and he gave his name to this tower. There was originally a house for the officer, near this building.

A person, of the name of Copeley, was also appointed to this tower; but as we do not find that the historians have recorded any thing memorable in their lives, they probably never stepped beyond the common routine of duty.

Dover Castle is an English Heritage site.

Abridged from The English Heritage Trail:

Dover Castle

Guardian of the 'Gateway to England', Dover Castle displays a solid strength and determination that has obviously carried it through many troubled times. Proudly standing atop the White Cliffs, overlooking this busy port, Dover Castle has withstood the test of time remarkably well throughout its long and eventful history. Dover Castle, as it stands today, dates from the rebuilding work during Henry II's reign, but the site has been of vital importance since the Iron Age. The first castle at Dover was probably an Anglo-Saxon fortress and, on the arrival of William the Conqueror, the existing fortifications were improved with the building of an earthwork castle. This Norman 'motte' (mound) which supported the castle is today known as 'Castle Hill'.

Work began on Dover Castle in the latter part of the 12th century with the construction of the Keep (or Great Tower) - the largest in Britain - and is entered through a forebuilding more substantial than any other built before or since. At each corner of the Keep lies a buttress turret, and mid-way along each wall is a pilaster buttress. Four storeys high, the Keep comprises a basement, first floor, and a second floor that spans two storeys, the upper level of which is a mural gallery that can be seen today at the end of the Great Armour Hall. The second storey provided the royal accommodation, and the first floor, based on a similar plan to the second, contained rooms with a much less elaborate decor. All floors were connected by staircases set in the north and south corner turrets.

Providing the entry staircase, and two chapels, is the magnificent forebuilding. It is interesting to note the decor of the chapels - the lower chapel of a Gothic style, and the upper chapel late Norman and richly decorated. From outside of the Keep, the significance of the three-towered forebuilding can be fully appreciated, as it can be seen travelling along the eastern wall of the Keep and turning at the corner of the southern wall. It was around this stronghold that the concentric castle was developed and work was completed mid-13th century.

Dover Castle appears in "Dover in World War Two: 1942", a ten minute British Ministry of Information film, released by the US Office of War Information, and narrated by the American journalist, Edward R. Murrow.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

Peverell's Gate (alt. Peverell's Tower) is on Dover Castle's Western Outer Curtain Wall with Gatton Tower (to the south) behind the viewer and the out-of-view Queen Mary Tower in front; the inside of Constable`s Gate is visible through the arch beyond the drawbridge.

The privet fence on the right marks the garden boundary of the Georgian, "Sergeant Major`s House"; from the 17th of July to the 3rd of September, 2009, it cost GBP1351 to stay there for 7 nights (see "prices" on this English Heritage webpage).

Click to see all photos of Dover Castle, an English Heritage site.

Standard Info for Peverell's Gate (Updated 2009)

Extracts from "The History of the Town and Port of Dover and of Dover Castle (With a Short Account of the Cinque Ports)", Volume 2. Dedicated by the Reverend John Lyon, Minister of "Saint Mary`s", on April 21st, 1814, and published the same year:

This tower was built by William Peverell, of Dover, one of the confederate knights; and he had several lordships and manors granted him, in capite, which he held by castle-guard tenure.

Peverell built his tower in the angle of the exterior wall of the Saxon works; and it was constructed for defensive warfare, on every side of it. He had a noble arched gate-way, with a ditch and drawbridge, with several apartments, and over them an embattled platform for the archers.

From the interior front they could command a considerable part of the Saxon vallum; and the whole space was open to them, on the side of the hill, between the Castle and the town.

On the side of the tower, fronting the Keep, there was an arched passage from the principal gateway, for opening a communication with a caponnier (alt. caponier), between two parallel walls, leading up to the Palace Gate. This concealed passage was for a place of defence, and it added a considerable length to the fronts of Peverell's tower. The walls of the caponnier are destroyed from their foundations.

In the year 1771, the whole length of the exterior curtain, from Peverell's to Porth's Tower (ie Queen Mary`s Tower), fell into the ditch, after a very wet season; and the workmen, in digging for a new foundation, discovered the piers of the bridge, before the arched gate-way of Peverell's tower.

Hugh Beauchamp, who commanded in this tower, was also Marshal of the Castle. He was a Norman by descent, and like many of his countrymen, he had the good fortune to procure a considerable landed property in this kingdom.

His arms, cut in a stone shield, were remaining in the front of this tower, until the year 1801, when they were taken away by the order of the engineer; but they have been preserved by one of the gunners of the Castle. Arms - Gules, a fesse betwen six cross crosslets.

The building is now deformed, by taking away the battlements (crenellations), and raising a parapet of brick work; which will never be so durable, as the masonry they have taken down.

Extract from "Dover Castle" by R. Allen Brown (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, HMSO 1974) (Abridged):

Peverell's Gate or Tower marks the juncture of the work of King John and Henry III, and is itself a composite structure of both reigns. It basically consists of a great mural tower with a spurred base, facing the field and backing on to a gateway within the castle facing north and south. Henry III further fortified this gateway by adding a semicircular tower facing south. Within the main passage way of the gate an archway, now blocked, led off at right-angles northwards to the vanished Harcourt Tower. Peverell was further altered about 1300 and the remarkable conical roof, with its king-post to the apex inside, may date from. that time. The original battlemented top was replaced by the present unsightly brick parapet evidently in the early nineteenth century.

Extract from "The History of the Castle, Town and Port of Dover" by Reverend S. P. H. Statham, Rector of St Mary-in-the-Castle (ie St Mary-in-Castro) (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899):

Peverell's Tower, also called The Marshal's, Beauchamp's, and the Bell Tower. The manors of Wrensted and Throwley in Kent were responsible for the up-keep of this fine tower, which with its arched gateway, ditch (moat) and drawbridge constituted the entrance into the middle ward. At one time it was used as a prison and the residence of the marshal, and hence its name. On the side of the tower fronting the keep there was an arched passage from the main gate, which communicated with the caponiere (alt. caponier, caponnier) leading under Harcourt's Tower. The arms of Hugh Beauchamp, marshal of the Castle, were cut on a stone shield placed on the front of the tower, and were visible in 1801, when the stone was removed. The original battlements have been replaced by a parapet of brick. In 1771 the wall between this tower and Port (ie Port Tower, alt. Laswells, Gostling or Queen Mary`s Tower) fell down, and in digging for a new foundation the piers of the old bridge before the gate were discovered.

Abridged from The English Heritage Trail:

Dover Castle

Guardian of the 'Gateway to England', Dover Castle displays a solid strength and determination that has obviously carried it through many troubled times. Proudly standing atop the White Cliffs, overlooking this busy port, Dover Castle has withstood the test of time remarkably well throughout its long and eventful history. Dover Castle, as it stands today, dates from the rebuilding work during Henry II's reign, but the site has been of vital importance since the Iron Age. The first castle at Dover was probably an Anglo-Saxon fortress and, on the arrival of William the Conqueror, the existing fortifications were improved with the building of an earthwork castle. This Norman 'motte' (mound) which supported the castle is today known as 'Castle Hill'.

Work began on Dover Castle in the latter part of the 12th century with the construction of the Keep (or Great Tower) - the largest in Britain - and is entered through a forebuilding more substantial than any other built before or since. At each corner of the Keep lies a buttress turret, and mid-way along each wall is a pilaster buttress. Four storeys high, the Keep comprises a basement, first floor, and a second floor that spans two storeys, the upper level of which is a mural gallery that can be seen today at the end of the Great Armour Hall. The second storey provided the royal accommodation, and the first floor, based on a similar plan to the second, contained rooms with a much less elaborate decor. All floors were connected by staircases set in the north and south corner turrets.

Providing the entry staircase, and two chapels, is the magnificent forebuilding. It is interesting to note the decor of the chapels - the lower chapel of a Gothic style, and the upper chapel late Norman and richly decorated. From outside of the Keep, the significance of the three-towered forebuilding can be fully appreciated, as it can be seen travelling along the eastern wall of the Keep and turning at the corner of the southern wall. It was around this stronghold that the concentric castle was developed and work was completed mid-13th century.

Dover Castle appears in "Dover in World War Two: 1942", a ten minute British Ministry of Information film, released by the US Office of War Information, and narrated by the American journalist, Edward R. Murrow.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

A December 2009 view of the old bridge entrance to the Drop Redoubt, part of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defence system embedded into the Western Heights above the town of Dover, England.

What I particularly like about this photo is how the sunlight is reflected off of the Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro and the adjacent Pharos on the horizon (both are located in the grounds of Dover Castle).

The church and lighthouse can be 'blown-up' quite well, but this is definitely an occasion where I wish my camera had more than 6 megapixels!

The Roman Pharos is one of a pair, the remains of the other, known as the Bredenstone) are in the Drop Redoubt itself.

Click to see all photos of the Drop Redoubt.

This is an English Heritage site. Abridged extracts from English Heritage's Pastscape entry for the Bredenstone and Drop Redoubt are as follows:

A Roman pharos was situated on the Western Heights at Dover and was known as Bredenstone and Caesar's Altar in the 16th and 17th century and Devil's Drop in the 18th century. The latter name is perpetuated in "Drop Redoubt" the structure built on the site of the lighthouse.

The site of the lighthouse is marked by two fragments of flint walling, each a metre square, the flints bonded with pink Roman cement. They are not in situ but rest on a concrete slab contained by railings.

The lighthouse may be dated to the 1st-2nd century AD.

The Drop Redoubt formed the westernmost component of the Dover Western Heights Fortress, a series of fortifications situated upon the escarpment west of Dover, overlooking and protecting both the town and the harbour primarily from a landward attack but also from seaward bombardment.

Built in the early years of the 19th century, the Drop Redoubt was the only free-standing work completed on the Western Heights by the end of the Napoleonic Wars and it remained garrisoned thereafter. The redoubt comprised a massive rampart with external ditch, the latter connected to defensive lines running west towards the Citadel and south to the cliff. There was provision for 14 artillery pieces and access was over a bridge across the south side of the ditch.

With renewed threat from France in the 1860s, plans were drawn for revision of the Western Heights Fortress. At the Drop Redoubt these included the provision of four caponiers in the ditch (see the Caponier No. 4 photo as an example), improved accommodation for officers and soldiers in the fort and new rifled breech-loading artillery as the main armament.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the Drop Redoubt declined as an effective artillery defence and was utilised principally as barrack accommodation, probably until the end of the First World War. Thereafter it was used intermittently, notably in the Second World War when an artillery observation post was established there.

The Drop Redoubt was surveyed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England as part of the Dover Western Heights Survey project, between 1998 and 2000.

The lighthouse was originally one of a pair constructed around the 1st century AD on the headlands flanking the Roman port of Dubris. Its foundations survive as two blocks of flint, tile and mortar, which were apparently moved to their present site in 1850.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

The ivy-covered wall on the left-hand side of the photo is the north wall of Dead Man's Island, more properly known as the Detached Bastion and part of the North Centre Bastion complex on the Western Heights of Dover, England.

These two Bastions (connected by the South Caponier) are but two components of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defence system embedded into the Western Heights.

On the moat floor is a well-defined path which provides easy access all the way around the moats from the North Entrance up to the beginning of the connecting moat leading from the North Centre Bastion to the Outer Bastion.

The outer wall of the North-West Caponier is behind the trees along the top right-hand edge of the photo (which was taken from above the outer moat wall, a few feet away from the top of the Detached Bastion Glacis).

This is an English Heritage site

There's now a three-part video of the North Centre Bastion available on YouTube:

Part 1: Dead Man`s Island, North Centre Bastion, Western Heights, Dover UK

Part 2: Dead Man`s Island, North Centre Bastion, Western Heights, Dover UK

Part 3: Dead Man`s Island, North Centre Bastion, Western Heights, Dover UK

The English Heritage Pastscape entry for the North Centre Bastion states:

TR 3110 4083 North Centre and Detached Bastions North Centre Bastion was begun in 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars, as part of the Western Heights fortress in Dover. It remained unfinished at the end of the war in 1815 but was completed to a revised design between 1859 and 1867; this resulted in two linked bastions known as North Centre Bastion and Detached Bastion.

Both were surveyed and researched by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England between 1998 and 2001 as part of the Dover Western Heights Survey Project (event UID 1316220 and monument UID 467989).

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

The northern end of Dover Castle's western outer curtain wall showing (from left to right) Crevecoeur's Tower, Godsfoe's Tower, a Second World War gun position (the rectangular opening above the buttress), and Treasurer's Tower.

The photo was taken from Constable's Road which leads to Constable`s Gate, the pedestrian entrance to the grounds of Dover Castle.

Extracts from "The History of the Town and Port of Dover and of Dover Castle (With a Short Account of the Cinque Ports)", Volume 2. Dedicated by the Reverend John Lyon, Minister of "Saint Mary`s", on April 21st, 1814, and published the same year:

Clopton Tower, now Treasurer's Tower

The next tower in the curtain, was built by John de Fienes (alt. Fiennes), of an irregular haxagonal figure. The front without the curtain is divided into three equal parts, but the sides within the wall are larger than the exterior. The Constable (of Dover Castle) gave the manor of Clopton, in Norfolk, to repair and defend it.

A person by the name of Clopton, held it by the service of castle-guard, and it has either been called after him, or the name of the manor.

In the reign of Edward the Fourth, this tower was in a runious state, and he rebuilt it from the foundation, ast his own expense. When Stephen de Pencester was Constable of the Castle, he appointed the apartment in this tower to the treasurer's use. He had his office here; and the records of the Castle were preserved in this tower in the reign of Edward the Sixth; but by some strange neglect or inattention of the principal officers, the apartment was plundered by a person called Levenste, who took the books and the parchments from the shelves, and piled them up in front of the building, and burnt them...

...Levenste was disappointed in finding his competitor, John Monyings, preferred before him to the office of lieutenant govenor; and he determined to show his resentment, by depriving posterity of having recourse to the records of passed ages.

Arms of Clopton - Sable, a bend ermine, between two cotized dancette, or.

Godsfoe Tower

The next tower in the curtain wall was built by Fulbert de Dover, who gave the manor of Sentling, for the keeping ward in it.

Nicholas Veraund was appointed to this tower; and his successor, Godsfoe, gave his name to it.

As they had neither of them any historian to record their fame, or their family; or any herald to emblazon their arms, their names will probably perish with the tower they once defended.

Crevequer's Tower, now Crevecoeur's Tower

The next tower in the curtain is a round one, built by Robert Crevequer, one of the confederate knights. He held of the King, in capite, five knights' fees, by castle-guard tenure.

Hamo Crevequer, the father of this Robert, accompanied Duke William to England; and he was appointed, by the King, sheriff of Kent for life. He was also steward of the King's household; and he possessed several lordships and manors in Kent, at the time of the general survey (ie the Domesday Book).

(Another) Hamo Crevequer, a descendant of this great family, in the eighteenth year of the reign of Henry the Third, married Matilda, or, as some say, Maud, the daughter and sole heiress of William de Albrincis (see the Avranches Tower photo), who brought with her a considerable landed estate; and he was called the Great Baron of Kent...

... The name of this family became extinct in the reign of Edward the First. Arms - Or, on a fetty sable, on a chief gules.

Cranville commanded in this tower, but he was probably only a substitute, appointed by Crevequer; as it does not appear that he held any lands by castle-guard tenure, and there is little known either of him or his family.

Extract from An Archaeological Desk-Based,Assessment of Connaught Barracks, Page 32:

Between Treasurer’s and Godsfoe Towers is a position for a (Second World War) 6pdr AT ("anti-tank") gun. It is behind the Castle outer curtain wall enclosed by a square, concrete block structure. The rectangular embrasure is cut through the Castle curtain wall.

Dover Castle is an English Heritage site.

Abridged from The English Heritage Trail:

Dover Castle

Guardian of the 'Gateway to England', Dover Castle displays a solid strength and determination that has obviously carried it through many troubled times. Proudly standing atop the White Cliffs, overlooking this busy port, Dover Castle has withstood the test of time remarkably well throughout its long and eventful history. Dover Castle, as it stands today, dates from the rebuilding work during Henry II's reign, but the site has been of vital importance since the Iron Age. The first castle at Dover was probably an Anglo-Saxon fortress and, on the arrival of William the Conqueror, the existing fortifications were improved with the building of an earthwork castle. This Norman 'motte' (mound) which supported the castle is today known as 'Castle Hill'.

Work began on Dover Castle in the latter part of the 12th century with the construction of the Keep (or Great Tower) - the largest in Britain - and is entered through a forebuilding more substantial than any other built before or since. At each corner of the Keep lies a buttress turret, and mid-way along each wall is a pilaster buttress. Four storeys high, the Keep comprises a basement, first floor, and a second floor that spans two storeys, the upper level of which is a mural gallery that can be seen today at the end of the Great Armour Hall. The second storey provided the royal accommodation, and the first floor, based on a similar plan to the second, contained rooms with a much less elaborate decor. All floors were connected by staircases set in the north and south corner turrets.

Providing the entry staircase, and two chapels, is the magnificent forebuilding. It is interesting to note the decor of the chapels - the lower chapel of a Gothic style, and the upper chapel late Norman and richly decorated. From outside of the Keep, the significance of the three-towered forebuilding can be fully appreciated, as it can be seen travelling along the eastern wall of the Keep and turning at the corner of the southern wall. It was around this stronghold that the concentric castle was developed and work was completed mid-13th century.

Dover Castle appears in "Dover in World War Two: 1942", a ten minute British Ministry of Information film, released by the US Office of War Information, and narrated by the American journalist, Edward R. Murrow.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

A late autumn view of the trees above Queen Elizabeth Road in the grounds of Dover's 12th Century Norman Castle in the county of Kent, England.

This location is quite close to the Canons Gate entrance (indeed, the photo was taken from just in front of Rokesley Tower).

The terrace which begins just above the bottom left-hand corner of the photo, and then gently slopes upwards until it reaches the right-hand edge, is where Queen Elizabeth`s Pocket Pistol used to be located when I was a kid (pointing right, in the direction of the English Channel).

Queen Elizabeth`s Pocket Pistol (named after Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen) is now housed in the Naafi Restaurant building, a few yards to the left.

Queen Elizabeth Road itself lies between the above-mentioned terrace and the bottom of the bank with the brown bushes on.

Dover Castle is an English Heritage site.

Abridged from The English Heritage Trail:

Dover Castle

Guardian of the 'Gateway to England', Dover Castle displays a solid strength and determination that has obviously carried it through many troubled times. Proudly standing atop the White Cliffs, overlooking this busy port, Dover Castle has withstood the test of time remarkably well throughout its long and eventful history. Dover Castle, as it stands today, dates from the rebuilding work during Henry II's reign, but the site has been of vital importance since the Iron Age. The first castle at Dover was probably an Anglo-Saxon fortress and, on the arrival of William the Conqueror, the existing fortifications were improved with the building of an earthwork castle. This Norman 'motte' (mound) which supported the castle is today known as 'Castle Hill'.

Work began on Dover Castle in the latter part of the 12th century with the construction of the Keep (or Great Tower) - the largest in Britain - and is entered through a forebuilding more substantial than any other built before or since. At each corner of the Keep lies a buttress turret, and mid-way along each wall is a pilaster buttress. Four storeys high, the Keep comprises a basement, first floor, and a second floor that spans two storeys, the upper level of which is a mural gallery that can be seen today at the end of the Great Armour Hall. The second storey provided the royal accommodation, and the first floor, based on a similar plan to the second, contained rooms with a much less elaborate decor. All floors were connected by staircases set in the north and south corner turrets.

Providing the entry staircase, and two chapels, is the magnificent forebuilding. It is interesting to note the decor of the chapels - the lower chapel of a Gothic style, and the upper chapel late Norman and richly decorated. From outside of the Keep, the significance of the three-towered forebuilding can be fully appreciated, as it can be seen travelling along the eastern wall of the Keep and turning at the corner of the southern wall. It was around this stronghold that the concentric castle was developed and work was completed mid-13th century.

Dover Castle appears in "Dover in World War Two: 1942", a ten minute British Ministry of Information film, released by the US Office of War Information, and narrated by the American journalist, Edward R. Murrow.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.