Fort Blockhouse

Fort Blockhouse represents the remains of an early 18th Century bastioned artillery fort.

The Fort Blockhouse site features buildings, earthworks and underground structures and is a scheduled monument because it is a rare example of a true bastioned artillery fort.

The first known fort on the site was a timber blockhouse dating to the 15th Century. The blockhouse was situated opposite The Round Tower on the other side of the harbour entrance. Although the structure known as Lymden’s Bulwark was added a few years later the fort was derelict by the 16th Century.

During the second Dutch War in the late 17th Century a 14 gun battery is known to have been built on the site in order to protect the harbour by Sir Bernard de Gomme. A later plan from 1668 shows a structure capable of mounting 21 guns, facing both land and sea.

In the early 18th Century major reconstruction work including earthworks a redan - an inner defensive wall - was added. A series of demi-bastions were constructed which created a moat which still existed as late as the 1920s. Further work was done throughout the 18th Century which was prompted by the French Revolution.

From the time of the first World War the fort was used as acommodation for early sub-mariners and during WWII played an important role in the D-Day landings.

Created: 22  May  2022  Edited: 29  November  2023