Cockham Wood Fort, Hoo St Werburgh, Kent. A 17th-century Battery for the Defence of the Medway and Chatham Dockyard. Survey Report
Author(s): Louise Barker
In November 2001, English Heritage carried out an archaeological survey and investigation of Cockham Wood Fort near St Werburgh in Kent. Cockham Wood Fort was built from 1669 as part of a system of artillery defence for protecting the river approaches to the Royal Dockyard at Chatham and the naval vessels that anchored in reaches below Rochester Bridge. The fort was equipped with two tiers of guns stepped into the steep river bank and was protected on all three landward sides by a rectangular earthwork rampart, together with a ditch on its northern, western and part of its eastern flanks. Inside, there was a defensible tower or redoubt and a master gunner’s house. The majority of the fort’s outline is still visible, though the earthworks and brick structures are in a seriously eroded condition, following years of neglect, vandalism and tidal action. (This was report number 129/2002 in a previous series).
- Report Number:
- 129/2002
- Series:
- Other
- Pages:
- 43
