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Dymchurch Redoubt, Kent
Dymchurch Redoubt, Kent
Defence Estates, an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence, commissioned AHP and the Canterbury office of Clague Architects to provide a conservation plan for an unusual military structure located within the boundaries of a live firing range at Hythe, Kent.
The Redoubt was built as part of a string of coastal defences erected in response to the threat of invasion by France at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The building – an open courtyard ringed by a series of uniform casemates which historically provided accommodation for troops and storage for ammunition – was one of three large forts erected along the Kent, Sussex and Suffolk coastlines. These strongholds provided logistical support for the string of smaller ‘Martello Towers’ built as coastal defences at the same time, and provided formidable defensive protection in themselves.
The Napoleonic threat is only one slice of the Redoubt’s multi-faceted military history, however. The building was re-armed throughout the nineteenth century in response to new threats, and additions to the parapet in the Second World War provided platforms for newer armaments. In the 1970s, the Redoubt was used to train soldiers in urban warfare and, although live rounds are no longer used within the Redoubt, it is still an active training facility. It is also on English Heritage’s register of Buildings at Risk.
The structural and philosophical problems of conserving and restoring a Scheduled Ancient Monument which survives – still in use and in the same setting as it was built – are manifold: how to repair the hastily-erected WWII structures? What remedial action to take in order to avoid the structure’s steady erosion by the sea?
AHP used military and non-military historic sources to chart the origins and development of the fort. We assessed the Redoubt’s historic significance by comparing it with contemporary forts at Eastbourne and Harwich, and with other military structures that have been adapted for different uses over time. With Clague Architects, AHP also drew up a set of conservation issues and policies which the building’s military custodians can employ when planning for a viable reuse in future.