Grain Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

Grain Fort was the centrepiece of the coastal defences of the Isle of Grain, at the eastern tip of the Hoo Peninsula, in Kent. Built between 1861 and 1868 following the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, it was intended to command both the Thames estuary and the mouth of the Medway, thereby protecting Chatham Dockyard and the approaches to London. The work had a heptagonal plan surrounded by a dry ditch flanked by caponiers and counterscarp galleries, with a D-shaped keep at its centre. The guns were mounted on the terreplein of the rampart, beneath which lay the main magazine for all the Grain fortifications; it was linked to the auxiliary battery (Dummy Battery) and stood near Grain Tower. Rearmed around 1900 and still in use during the Second World War, the fort was abandoned in 1956 and then largely demolished. The earthworks, a brick revetment, the concrete aprons of the infilled emplacements and underground magazines survive. The site, part of a scheduled monument, lies within the Isle of Grain Coastal Park.