Monument record TR 34 SW 2073 - Possible earliest layout of the Drop Redoubt Fort on the Western Heights, Dover

Summarised from report (2)

Early plans were drawn up for the Drop Redoubt Fort following the advent of war between England and France in 1778. Attention was called to the poor state of the Dover defences and a small sum of money was released to improve them. The extent of these earthen defences, the first to be built on the Western Heights, is not clear due to the scant nature of documentation but it has been assumed that they were on a small scale. The eastern fort - on the site later taken by the Drop Redoubt - is depicted on a plan dating to 1787 (1) as an irregular four-sided work surrounding a central guardhouse. The ground outside was to be scarped into an irregular work with a glaçis, guarding the approach from the west and taking up the remaining level ground at the end of the ridge. The same plan notes that the ground had been broken; probably meaning that the outline of the redoubt had been roughly established. That the guardhouse was built is confirmed by its appearance on a number of later plans. Its construction probably occured after the resumption of hostilities in 1793. (2)

Further information about this early phase of works at the fort is provided in the Conservation Framework (3)

<1> Lieutenant Lewis Hay, 1787, Plan of the Western Heights dating to 1787 showing the defences built on high ground (Map). SKE51520.

<2> English Heritage, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 3 The Drop Redoubt: A 19th-Century Artillery Fortification (Unpublished document). SKE13677.

<3> Liv Gibbs, 2012, Built Heritage Conservation Framework for Dover Western Heights (Unpublished document). SKE17708.