During an archaeological watching brief undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust at The Grand Shaft Barracks in 2017 part of the Drop Battery parapet wall and elements of the western most gun emplacement, was uncovered. In the area investigated the parapet wall incorporated an angle change, where the main north-east–south-west aligned wall turned through about 20 degrees to a closer east−west orientation, along the front of the gun position. The wall to the west of this angle-change had been reduced in level by about 0.40m to allow the subsequent insertion of the building housing the rifle range. It seems probable that the original battery gun floor still survives undamaged below this later structure. Where undamaged, the battery parapet wall stood to its full height of 0.68m above the stone gun floor. At the top, the wall was 0.46m wide but two external offsets increased its width to 0.68m at the base. In terms of construction, the wall was built from shallow frogged yellow stock bricks laid to English Bond, with a ‘soldier course’ along the top and set in a hard chocolate brown coloured mortar, mixed with coarse sand/grit. This mortar type was not encountered anywhere else in the main barracks complex. (summarised from report) (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2018, Grand Shaft Barracks, Western Heights, Dover, Evaluation Report (Unpublished document). SKE51431.