Detached Bastion - Dover - Nov 2011

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nelly

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The forth and final splore on a great day out in Kent

Those in attendance were Skeleton Key, UrbanX, Trog & Mrs Trog, Wevsky, Space Invader and Urban Ginger

The History Bit

The North Centre and Detached Bastions are located between the Drop Redoubt and the Citadel on the Western Heights. Their purpose was to assist in defending the northern approaches to Dover, particularly from the Folkestone Road, along which it was envisaged Napoleon and the French Grand Army would attack.

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Work on the North Centre Bastion began in 1804 as part of the main Western Heights works, although it was incomplete in 1815 when Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. In 1859 the Royal Commission which called for modification across the Western Heights reviewed the unfinished North Centre Bastion. Work began on its completion and the construction of the Detached Bastion and its caponier. They were armed throughout the main phase of occupation at the Western Heights, but along with the rest of the fortress, its decline was rapid and at the turn of the century its guns were removed. The bastions saw very little use after this time, with only local defence use during both World Wars.

A copy of the 1871 map of the Detached Bastion
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The Army relinquished the Western Heights after the Second World War and the North Centre and Detached Bastions have remained empty and unused since. Despite the surrounding ditches becoming very overgrown.

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The views over Dover from the top of the Bastion, the building in the first one is Westmount College, another bloody good explore :)
Click to see it >>>>>>> [ame]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=19461[/ame]

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The magazines at the top
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Crackin stuff bud..looks a big ol place from the aerial pic.

When we went in I had no idea of the true size having never seen an aerial of the place, there was a main chamber and then long long runs of walkways and passages that seemed to go on for miles.

UrbanX made a nice little video as usual that includes it.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/user/urbanxphotography1#p/a/u/2/LBDvdr_GkaQ[/ame]

Breaking the video down......

Start to 1:03 is Oil Mills West

1:03 to 1:37 is St Martins Deep Shelter

and 1:38 to end is the Detached Bastion.

Christ that man makes a good movie!!!
 
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That place is incredible.
Looks like you all had a great day mate, nice one. :)
Went and had a look at Stonehouse a little while ago. Seems there's more over that way than I realized.
 
That place is incredible.
Looks like you all had a great day mate, nice one. :)
Went and had a look at Stonehouse a little while ago. Seems there's more over that way than I realized.

Ooohhh, not done Stonehouse yet Mr. Axe. Give me a bell if you decide to go, you have my number :mrgreen:

Its funny, Klemps texted me earlier talking about the very same place so expect a bus tour ;)
 
Ooohhh, not done Stonehouse yet Mr. Axe. Give me a bell if you decide to go, you have my number :mrgreen:

Its funny, Klemps texted me earlier talking about the very same place so expect a bus tour ;)

Quite an impressive looking place. The tower is a beaut, but I'm not too sure about standing on top of it. Not quite as wide as it looks from the ground!
Let me know if you're heading over there, I'll do the same. :mrgreen:
 
Awesome write up as usual dude! Well done for finding a map!
The main tunnel is silly long, I've sped the video up to Benny hill speeds, and that was still probably only a third of the journey, all in the same direction!

Ace photos too, you've captured the whole site really well.

Cheers for the link to vid, I'll pop some pics up later!
 
Great report guys! I was there only the other day, but just did the "grand shaft" as daylight was quickly disappearing, really disappointed I didn't go into the redoubt :(
 
Nice stuff, we love underground forts. Tonto and I had a great time in Verdun during the summer in the forts there. Are all the underground bits accesible from the redoubt proper then or was that part seperate?

Thanks for postging. :)
 

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