It was not the Medway Towns MartinR as it is the remains of the main gate to Archcliffe fort on the southern outskirts of Dover. Originally a small detached defended promontory with a stone tower during the fourteenth century, it is suggested that a wealthy merchant built a small chapel on the plateau in praise of his safe deliverance from a channel shipwreck. The area was seen as possessing a defensive use as it overlooked the former 'Pier District' of Dover, which was regarded as a town beyond the main town of Dover. Initially thought to be a series of earthwork banks and ditches with gun platforms, by the seventeenth century the defences were enhanced by a substantial stone walls with projecting 'arrow point' angle bastions within a dry moat and formal gateway. In time these evolved with the changes to cannons and by the Napoleonic War was a detached fortlet in its own right. Situated at the end of the South Lines (an extensive brick lined dry moat encompassing and linking the Drop Redoubt and the Citadel), its function as a defensive position was greatly reduced when the coastal railway route between Dover and Folkestone cut the eastern end of the original plateau causing its defensive effectiveness to be compromised. Down graded to a small barracks and military administration site, its subsequent modern use is by a homeless charity. Whilst many of the original military buildings have been heavily altered, some are still extent and being used by the charity, though the forts remaining lengths of outer walled fortifications survive almost unaltered.
After my ramblings its over to you Stewie
