GRAND REDOUBT FORT
Palmarsh Dymchurch Hythe CT21

**HISTORY**

The Dymchurch Grand Redoubt lies on the south (seaward) side of the A259, roughly halfway between the village of Dymchurch and the town of Hythe. It sits on the edge of the Palmarsh community, about two miles from Dymchurch, which it shares its name with. 
It was built as part of a large defensive scheme during the Napoleonic Wars to protect the country from an expected French invasion.
Circular in form and built of brick with granite and sandstone dressings, it measures up to 68 metres in diameter and stands 12 metres above the floor of its 9-metre-wide ditch, or dry moat. An earth bank, or glacis, helped protect the masonry from artillery fire. Built on two stories, the upper floor had open emplacements for ten 24-pounder guns mounted on wooden traversing platforms. The lower floor featured twenty-four vaulted barrack and storage casemates that opened onto a circular parade ground. A double, external stone staircase, situated behind the entrance, leads down from the gun platform to the parade ground. Three internal stone staircases, set within the thickness of the outer wall of the redoubt, provided a more direct link between the gun platform and the casemates below. The 24 vaulted barrack casemates were arranged around the central parade ground and interlinked, together with smaller intervening chambers, by a central walkway. They provided accommodation for up to 350 men and officers, as well as stores for ammunition and supplies. Rainwater collection cisterns beneath the floors provided the water supply. Entry was originally via a wooden footbridge supported by stilts, which could be collapsed in an emergency.
The design and purpose were finalised at a conference in Rochester in 1804, and it was built between 1804 and 1812 to support a chain of 21 Martello Towers stretching between Hythe in Kent and Rye in Sussex, and to act as a supply depot for them. It protected the sluices that were key to draining Romney Marsh, but by the time it was finished, the invasion threat was over. 
During World War I, it was used for troop accommodation, although Parliament questioned the damp conditions because of its location on the marshes.
In March 1916, Major Francis Bennett-Goldney MP for Canterbury asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether the War Office had any records condemning the old redoubt at Dymchurch as unfit for habitation. His attention had been drawn to the report that the only sleeping rooms, which are underground and really formed out of the arched vaults supporting the superstructure, were, before certain soldiers were moved to the front and elsewhere, reeking with damp and that the water in wet weather dripped from the roofs onto the men's beds. The sleeping arches had to be used also as eating rooms and the workrooms for additional purposes, and that the accommodation was not only so unhealthy that the men suffered much from chills and sore throats, but that it was also altogether inadequate for the purposes for which it was used; whether the drainage arrangements have since been modernised or whether the only cesspit is still overflowing owing to its level being below that of spring tides and, if there has been no change during the last three weeks, whether he would take immediate steps to provide other and more suitable quarters?
Mr Harold Tennent wrote back informing him he knew of no records of the condemnation of the Dymchurch redoubt. The drainage arrangements had not been modernised, but steps were being taken to improve matters. He said there were nine large rooms, each capable of holding seventeen men, and these rooms had fair ventilation, open fireplaces, and were dry and clean. Steps were being taken to add windows to some of the rooms where they are deficient. The sanitary officer had reported that the quarters, cookhouse and stores were clean and well kept. There was no overcrowding. Owing to the number of troops requiring accommodation at the present time, some old buildings, including Dymchurch Redoubt, had to be occupied, so it was not considered necessary to provide other quarters.
In World War II, the south coast was again at risk of invasion.  A prominent battery observation post was built, and pillboxes were sited on the parapet to repel an infantry attack; two 6-inch breech-loading guns were mounted in casemates built over the original gun emplacements.  It was fully operational by 1942 as an Emergency Coastal Battery.
After the war, the observation post served as a Coastguard lookout, and radar was installed to monitor shipping in the English Channel. 
The army constructed a mock-up of a street of buildings in the interior for urban-warfare training in the 1970s. It used it as an urban training facility for soldiers destined for Northern Ireland. Large concrete panels were fixed to the courtyard's interior walls via scaffolding and shaped/painted to depict street scenes.
The redoubt remains the property of the Ministry of Defence, and is still used to train troops in close-quarters fighting; a purpose-built 'Killing Hut' and various casemates are the new playgrounds, benefiting from low-velocity training ammunition and paint/plastic marking technology, as well as various electronic enhancements.
It became a Scheduled Monument on 19th October 1964 and was listed by English Heritage in 2021 as a Building at Risk, although a conservation plan has been agreed.
It is not open to the public, but you can walk along the sea wall, which allows a close approach on the south side. Further access may be restricted when Hythe Ranges are firing. When the ranges are in use, prominent red flags are flown, supplemented by red lights during night firing practice. Because of the risk of ricochet during firing, a Range Safety Boat is present to prevent boats from entering the danger area.