Fort Pitt Magazine and Underground Tunnel in Chatham Kent. - Napoleonic Defences of Chatham Dockyard
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2020
- So today we have a special one for you, the main magazine of Fort Pitt in Chatham Kent.
Fort Pitt is a Napoleonic era fort built in 1805. It's situated on the high ground overlooking the South bank of the River Medway, between the boundaries of Chatham and Rochester in Kent.
The fort was named after Prime Minister William Pitt and was an integral part of the fortifications that formed a defensive ring around Chatham Dockyard, a location of huge strategic and naval importance at the time.
Fort Pitt was constructed using red-brick in a trapezoid shape featuring a bastion at each corner. On the Northern face there was a detached casemated set of barracks forming the blockhouse designed to house 500 men. These were surrounded by a 15-20 foot deep defensive trench. On the southern edge there was a defended outwork named a Ravelin reached via a covered passage across the dry ditch named a Caponier.
There were a number of buildings in the forts interior such as a hospital block, barracks, storehouses and magazines. Chief among the features was a three-story main tower, comparable to a number of others built in Medway at the time, such as the one still standing at nearby Fort Clarence.
The main fort was approached from the North-East via a road which entered the fort using a drawbridge going over the dry moat. This entry way was watched over by a guardhouse located to the east of the casemated blockhouse. Entry to the blockhouse itself was through an underground passageway leading from a separate guardhouse situated inside the counterscarp wall to the west of the blockhouse.
The fort had two outlying defences named Delce Tower to West and Gibraltar Tower to the North-East. These towers were built to control the roads leading towards Rochester bridge. Delce Tower was connected to the main fort via a covered way leading out from the Ravelin.
EDIT: In the video we mistakenly referenced this as being one of the Palmerston forts. It is actually just classed as a Napoleonic fort, built much earlier than the Palmerston Forts.
EDIT: It was in 1860 the Army Medical School opened at the recommendation of Florence Nightingale.
For an In-Depth article on Fort Pitt and a detailed timeline of its history please visit our website: www.kenthistory.com/fort-pitt
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Used to play in there when I was youngbefore the school was built above
Walk past the entrance to this other day and they have done a good job sealing them up
Yeah it took a little while but it's well sealed now.
great stuff
Thank you, we will keep the videos coming.
Nice one fellas 👌
Thank you, we'll keep bringing out ones like this
Thank you, that was really interesting as we live in the grounds of Fort Pitt in one of the old houses.
You're welcome. We're glad to show you some of what lies beneath it. It has a fascinating history, just a shame the majority of the fort is now demolished or buried.
I go to school there, and there's a blue door, about 4 feet high, give or take, and there's a theory that that is one of the entrances.
where about is the door? depending on where it is depends on what it may lead to. We've heard rumours of entrances but as they're within the school grounds its not easy for us to go and look around lol
@@KentUrbanExploration its just outside of the west wing, and looks rather dilapidated in my opinion, the west wing is near the centre of the grounds and is one of the oldest points in the school. Ahaha, I can imagine it's not easy to access!
it could possible be an entry into the tunnels that ran under the central tower, or the west wall set. I'd love to check that out especially as its painted blue. Yeah I can imagine it wouldn't look to good getting caught trespassing on a girls school being a 30 year old male lol
It seems rather a shame that the tunnels ended up like this, so much work. Queen Victoria visited twice when the original building was a hospital and the old wards still have the markings on the wall from when Florence Nightingale was there. Wonderful position looking over the medway especially on a sunny day and absolutely facinating to see what was going on underground. Thank you so much for the vid☺
We have to agree, theres so much that could have been done. Theres still a few other buildings that survive and potentially some more tunnel sections. Thank you for watching we will continue to film what we can.
Great video, thanks (now subscribed). As someone who has worked next door to this I have always wondered why no one has explored the old fort, fascinating to see the original items still there. Our site sits on the back end Fort Pitt, I think where all the ammunition was kept
Thanks for the sub, glad you enjoyed the video. I agree, my favourite part of exploring locations like this is finding the old and original items still inside them. The more untouched the better.
Epic night fellas 👍
Deffo was a fun one cheers bud.
Nice one guys, I did Fort Bridgewoods when it still existed as a teenager in the 1980's and all the others apart from Fort Clarence below the main tower until 2002 on my own in the dark one evening, before it was developed, regret not doing the East Casemates of Fort Clarence in the 1980's couldn't find the entrance back then.
Hi Graham, thanks. So you went to Bridgewoods before it got fully knocked down? Its a shame its soo hard to get into most of the forts nowadays, but we are trying to do what we can. By the East Casemates do you mean the section that was under cookhouse/cells? Or was there a section further East? You seem to know your Forts from your explores, and have probably seen a bit more than we have, would be good to be able to share info?
@@KentUrbanExploration Hi, No at Fort Clarence there are two unconnected sets of tunnels, one set under the main gun tower which also has a passage down to the rooms in the moat with the welded shut steel door and bricked in windows. The other tunnels Fort Clarence East Casemates are a two storey set of complex galleries which protected the moat near Ethelbert road, they are under that new housing development there are two manhole covers in the road to it. There's a post on it in 28 days later site.
Yeah I know which you are on about now, from research there may be a bit more around there, but nothing concrete yet.
When you went to Bridgewoods was there a lot left above ground or had it been flattened by that point?
@@KentUrbanExploration No the Fort was basically complete apart from a bit of the moat being infilled, Most of the photos you see of it are mine, the interesting part was the counterscarp galleries on each side which were entered by going in tunnels under the moats, one small section had been filled in when they had breached it in war games exercise just after the turn of the century, you could see chalk behind the gun ports. There was also a cold war tracking station in one of the parade squares complete with map table.
So it's thanks to you that we have any ground level pics of the fort, so thank you for that. I didnt realise that it was built with counterscarp galleries, so similar to Borstal? So got they got a little real in the war games, someones always got to take it a little far lol. I read they had added an extra bunker under the original for for the cold war, its amazing that it still had its map table. I have heard rumours that there were tunnels that went under Maidstone Road and came out in what is now the leisure centre car park, was that true? There are a few other bits I wouldn't mind checking with someone who experienced all the forts first hand, but would rather it not be as public, would you mind emailing me at jambokue@gmail.com. Thank you in advance
I remember going down these when I was a kid in the late 80's, Fort Bridgewood was another one but thats buried under the post office depot up near the top of the tideway now, I dont think there is any access left as they buried the whole place and bulldozed any standing buildings
It’s a shame what’s happened to some of the local Medway forts, many have either been fully or partly demolished over the years. We plan on scouting out Fort Bridgewood in the future, so will let you and the channel know if we find anything however we too believe it to be completely gone.
The sewer in there still had water flowing through it so it must still be connected to a sewage system
It was a surprise that's for sure lol
Is this under the school?
Sort of, it's not under one of the main buildings as I'm sure the building would collapse the tunnels.
Is a Napoleonic fort.
Yes it is the main Magazine and tunnels for what was Fort Pitt built for the Napoleonic war
Not a Palmerston fort. Just for clarity.
Thanks for the heads up. We updated the videos description with an edit and added a full write up.
02:19
13:53
18:53 I like that😍❤️
Thank you it was a fun little explore that we was lucky to be able to do. I'm glad you enjoyed the historical parts, we try to bring as much as possible to people who are unable to experience it for themselves. Keep an eye on our channel for more vids soon.
How did all that crap come from and where are those voices also coming from