More information : (TR 20683517) Castle (NR) (1)
Sandgate Castle, built 1539-40, is now a private house. The tops of the towers were removed in 1805 and the central tower was converted into a Martello tower. Most of the outer wall on the south side was destroyed 1939-45. Scheduled. (2-3)
See GPs. AO/64/12/3-6. (4)
Sandgate Castle, Listed Grade I. In private ownership. Built in 1539-1540 at the same time and as part of the same series of defences as Sandown, Deal and Walmer Castles, but altered again for defence purposes in 1805. It originally comprised of a large central tower surrounded by 3 smaller towers connected with each other by a curtain wall and covered galleries, with an outer curtain wall and gate-tower on the north and a rectangular building connecting the latter to the central tower. In 1805 the tops of the towers were removed (the central tower being converted into a Martello type tower) and the materials used to fill up the space between the inner and outer walls. Most of the outer wall is missing on the south side, presumably destroyed during World War II, and modern pillboxes have been constructed in the place of part of it. AM. (5)
Built in 1539-1540 by Henry VIII. In late Napoleonic times, the original keep was rebuilt, and the outer works converted to form a series of gun emplacements making it a glorified Martello Tower. A new magazine was built in the late 1850s between the gatehouse and keep, and alterations made to the existing gun emplacements. Erosion before the building of the sea wall in the early 1950s accounts for the loss of a third of the original monument. (6)
Henry VIII artillery castle, unusual type, with lobed triangular ward, small triangular inner ward with three towers and a central round tower. Turned into a Martello Tower. Little of the structure remains, but the general plan can be made out. (7)
Sandgate Castle, Castle Road. One of the series of castles built by Henry VIII along the south coast from Kent to Cornwall. What gives Sandgate Castle it special interest is the fact that full building accounts survive. They show that the engineer in charge was a German, Stephan von Haschenpeng. Building operations lasted from March 1539 to October 1540 and cost in all 5,543 pounds 19 shillings and tuppence three farthings. The plan is characteristic of Henry's castles, a series of concentric walls in a complex geometrical shape. In this case the shape is a triangle, with rounded corner projections and convex walls between them. Little of this remains, as in 1806 the central core was converted into a gun-fort, the intermediate ring of walls razed and the outermost walls lowered drastically. It thus became in effect a Martello Tower. The entrance tower on the landward side was not interfered with (sic (20)). This also is quite low, but rendered virtually unassailable by its form, a semicircle, attached by a short passage to the castle itself. The doorway is hidden in the back wall. When entering, one faces nothing but gunports - not however very effective ones, for their splays would not have allowed a wide arc of fire. (8-11)
TR 20653520. Sandgate Castle. This Tudor castle was brought into the South coast tower project by Twiss who proposed throwing bomb-proof arches over some of the towers. 8 x 24 pounder guns were added and the alterations completed in 1806. (12-13)
A royal warrant of 15 February 1584 granted 1,000 pounds to be spent on the defence of the Cinque Ports of which Sandgate received the largest proportion. It was the only coastal fort built by Henry VIII that did not defend a harbour or anchorage, but was built to guard the 'gate' to the Kentish Hinterland. A considerable part of the structure survives, but little of Tudor date is actually visible owing to the drastic remodelling of 1805-1808. Up to 1805 the castle was still essentially a Tudor building, but it had already been modified as early as 1558. During the ensuing two and a half centuries it was repaired on several occasions, notably in 1715-1716 when the keep was reroofed and the whole of the seaward battery rebuilt after being breached by the spring tides.
Originally the castle consisted of a central keep surrounded by two concentric curtains. The outer one encircled a ward or 'barbican' thirty feet wide and the inner curtain was strengthened by three roundtowers around the keep. A fourth wing containing the gatehouse and gate passage ran north across the inner curtain, barbican and outer curtain to join the inner face of the half-moon bastion which enclosed and protected the outer gate. All these buildings were originally roofed, and levels arranged throughout the castle to provide three or possibly four tiers of heavy guns. The keep was built from the original ground surface, the ground floor being buried and the keep entered at first floor level. The wings joining the three round towers to the keep were perhaps the most remarkable single feature of the Sandgate design and cannot be exactly matched in any other castle of the period.
The gatehouse formed a massive front in which was set at first-floor level the castle gate and perhaps portcullis. Sandgate Castle was a centrally planned fortification with three lines of defence-outer curtain, inner curtain, keep, rising in three main tiers towards the centre. It offensive power lay in the heavy guns which could be mounted in over 60 gun-ports at four different levels. For local defence with hand-guns, there were a further 65 loops at four levels. (14)
Sandgate Castle built in 1539, according to the Italian scheme. Deep moating (18) (sic (19)) remains to this day.
The Calendar of State Papers relating to Sandgate Castle survives for the Tudor period. (20) (16-20)
In 1975 the restoration of Sandgate Castle was started by the owners Drs P and B McGregor, under the supervision and with the assistance of the Department of Environment. To achieve this, archaeological investigations including excavations and detailed drawings were undertaken.
In 1881 the site had been sold to the South-Eastern Railway Company for a proposed station at Sandgate Village. By 1893, it passed into private ownership and was occasionally open with its museum to the public. The castle was always entered through the ground floor of the gatehouse, at the rear of the semi-circle. The gatehouse was thought to have survived in its Tudor form, but is now known to have been almost entirely rebuilt from first floor level in 1806. The ground floor is original. The outer curtain wall was largely rebuilt in 1806. The North East Bastion was also reduced to first floor level in 1806 and was capped with a vaulted dome carried on a brick pier.
The keep was transformed into a Martello Tower and was thus in stone, unlike the other Martello towers. It originally was of three stories, plus roof level, but is now of two and the roof. Much of the original Tudor fabric remains. The roof of the keep is entirely a 19th century structure, and it housed two successive gun emplacements. (21)
For further information on this site please refer to the additional bibliography. (22 - 29)
The three-storey keep was surrounded by an inner and outer curtain wall. The inner curtain had three towers and the outer was around a barbican or ward. There was a three-storey gatehouse within a fourth wing. The castle was designed to provide three or four tiers of fire from 65 embrasures or gun-ports with other gun loops in the lowest levels of the curtain walls and towers. (30)
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