Summarised from report:

The North Entrance to the Western Heights was situated at a narrow point of the ridge towards the north-eastern end of the fortress, where the North Military Road completed its more moderate ascent from Dover town. The earliest phase of works on this entrance dates to the Napoleonic period, but further work on the North Entrance to complete and modernise it began in in March 1860 and it was finished in February 1864. This created a more elaborate defensive scheme and perhaps reflects a greater concern with a potential assault from the north. A small outer entrance chamber was constructed on the southern side of the inner ditch and draw bridge, this housed the drawbridge mechanism.

The original layout of this entrance consisted of an entrance chamber with a small winch room at road level on the western side. This was altered when the bridges were modernised in 1887 and the mechanism (which still survives in situ) for the Draw Bridge was inserted into a recess beneath the chamber. This mechanism comprised a hand-operated winch mounted on the floor in a shallow, segmental-arched apse in the rear wall. The drawbridge of the inner bridge closed against the curtain wall to form an outer gate, which sealed the entrance chamber. A cast-iron spiral staircase inserted into the winch room provided access down to the counterweight recess. A semicircular-headed doorway with a gritstone keystone arch in the eastern end of the counterweight recess led directly to the musketry gallery, though it has since been blocked. (1)

<1> RCHME, 2000, The Western Heights, Dover, Kent. Report No 6: The Entrances to the Fortress: 19th-century artillery fortifications (Unpublished document). SKE17501.

<2> Kent Defence Research Group, c. 1993, Kent Defence Research Group 'Fort Logs' (Unpublished document). SKE52251.