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18th Century plan showing Moat's Bulwark.
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The Moat’s Bulwark was built
by Henry VIII
as part of artillery fortifications intended less as
a strengthening of the castle than as protection for
the newly enlarged harbour. These fortifications took
the form of comparatively small block houses or batteries:
Archcliffe Fort under
the Western Heights, the Black Bulwark on the Pier,
Moat’s Bulwark below the castle cliff and a third
bulwark in the castle moat.
Moats Bulwark has been greatly altered and little
of the original structure remains. It is first mentioned
as ‘the bulwark subtus castrum Doveri’
and was probably built circa March 1539, when Charles
de Marillac, the French Ambassador, saw ‘the
new ramparts and bulwarks in the rock where the sea
beats’. It had ordnance and artillery and a
captain at least by 1540. Of timber construction at
a cost of about one-third of £1496 (the total
recorded cost of the three bulwarks), it appears on
a sixteenth century map as a timber revetted platform,
with a roughly circular front, approached by tunnels
in the cliff.
The large semicircular battery which is now the most
obvious feature, dates from the invasion scares of
the 1740s when the harbour defences from Archcliffe
Fort to Moat’s Bulwark were strengthened and
barracks built at both places.
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The gatehouse viewed from the 18th Century gun platform.
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An 18th Century view of Moat's Bulwark. |
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An account of about 1772 describes
it thus:
‘Although dependent on the castle,
it has its peculiar officers; there are a captain, lieutenant,
and master-gunner. It consists of a gate, having rooms
over and on both sides of it, a house for the gunner,
and a circular stone battery, to which there is a descent
by a flight of steps. The entrance is on the east side,
by a gradual ascent formed out of the chalk. A gunner,
who formerly resided here, with great industry embellished
the sides of the cliff with several parterres of flowers,
which had a very pleasing effect: indeed, both the forms
and situation of these buildings conspire to render
the view extremely picturesque and romantick’.
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Between 1775 and 1783 Moat’s Bulwark and Achcliffe
Fort were again overhauled and their defences updated.
In front of Moat’s Bulwark, the Guilford Battery
was built, armed with four 32 pdr guns and a number
of carronades. Along the waterfront were built a further
three detached works, known as North, Townsend and Amherst
batteries, all of which had much the same armament.
With the exception of some of the nineteenth century
buildings associated with Guilford Battery, no trace
of any of these now remains. In 1853-4 Guilford Battery had its
parapets raised and 42pdr guns installed on traversing
mounts. At the same time a certain amount of modernisation
work was carried out on Moat’s Bulwark.
In 1856 a spiral stairway of 214 steps
was cut inside the cliff, just south of Canon’s
Gate, to link Moat’s Bulwark and Guilford Battery
to the castle. At intervals defensible landings and
doorways with firing slits were incorporated, while
lighting passages led to openings in the cliff face.
In the Second World War, some of the latter were converted
to observation posts and had short accommodation tunnels
added to their rear.
In 1908 Moat’s Bulwark passed
to the care of the Ancient Monuments Branch of the Ministry
of Works and its military career was at an end. It is
now hemmed in between the A20 and the cliff, a neglected
ruin. In another town that does not have major historical
sites like the Castle
and the Western Heights
more would be made of remains like this but poor old
Moat’s Bulwark is just a bit over shadowed by
it’s big brothers.
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The Moat's Bulwark today. |
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