1 minute read
Last Defence
Image source: Derlictplaces
FREYA HOWELL salutes the last bastion of Kent’s Napoleonic defences but laments its slow surrender to time.
lazing neon letters stand out against the bleached and crumbling walls, so you would never have guessed this very spot was once the front line against the French. B
The gaping space between the towering partitions now accommodates a sea of dust and unruly vegetation that seems intent on overwhelming the monumental structure. Light still floods in, but not like before. Now the land is slowly taking back its own. The creepers worm their way through the gun ports, their historical violence now neutralised by the green of spring.
Dover’s Detached Bastion was one of Kent’s most recognisable structures in the early 1800s. The Napoleonic Wars were in full swing at the time that this impressive fortress was built to stand as the defence the South East urgently needed to thwart Napoleon’s aspirations to march on London.
Once a site of immense significance, the Bastion now stands in solitude, nature reclaiming the land. The whole site is still intact, but now surrounded by a lively green forest. Rather than gunfire and falling bombs, its ultimate enemy is now the passage of time.
