Quick bit of history:
This is one of the many forts in Medway and construction started in 1808 and completed in 1812. The fort was built to run
from its flanking tower Medway Tower that sat on the river right through to it's other flanking tower Maidstone Tower on
Maidstone road, sadly neither of the flanking towers still exist and Maidstone tower being the one that lasted the longest
was demolished in the 1960's.
Another main part of the fort that was destroyed was the large brick archway that went over the road as a defendable gateway
across Borstal Road, this was taken down in 1924.
The other casemates of this fort (the East Casemates) which have been covered a few times now on this site, they would have
given protection down the dry ditch on the opposite side of Clarence Tower.
The main section of the fort consisted of a thin long fort with a main central tower (Clarence Tower) which still exists
as luxury apartments. The rest of the fort was once again demolished in the 1960's. Throught it's life it had many uses
including a miitary hospital from the 1830's, then a military prison and lunatic asylum, once Fort Pitt had become a
military hospital the patients were moved there from Clarence, but The fort continued as a prison after the asylum moved
and it became common place for soldiers found guilty of crimes to be flogged at the fort. Newspaper reports from the 1920’s
report soldiers being carried back after their floggings with their tunics draped over their shoulders, so bad were their
injuries that they couldn’t do them up. It was used in the first world war as a recruitment centre and in the second word
war it was used by the home guard.
Onto the Explore:
Now as like most explorers that have looked into the Medway forts we were led to believe that the only section of the
subterranean features that was left is the East Casemates, and that the West Casemates were no longer accessible. As I grew
up in the area I have constantly seen the outside of these casemates, but was always told they were refered to as a
guardhouse, and the sight of the mighty metal door always made ourselves and many other local urbexers want to have a peek
inside. Over the years many an Urbexer has tried to gain access by breaking through the outside wall, it looks like at one
point someone had managed to gain access but this has long been blocked up and not accessible. After a lot of research and
managing to find the small detail that gave it away to us, all that was left was to go out in the field and find the exact
point.
After finding the entry point and a couple of days work we managed to get inside. Once inside we could see relatively new
lighting and had the life scared out of us as there were sensors down there which switched the lights on. After a little
look around we realised we had discovered more than we had bargained for as you can see in the pictures.
This was an amazing explore and we feel privileged
to have gotten to see it, some of the features are amazing and we have
never seen them in any other fort so far.
We hope you enjoy this as our first post on here with many more to come.
We are on all the usual sites just look for our name to see more.
This is one of the many forts in Medway and construction started in 1808 and completed in 1812. The fort was built to run
from its flanking tower Medway Tower that sat on the river right through to it's other flanking tower Maidstone Tower on
Maidstone road, sadly neither of the flanking towers still exist and Maidstone tower being the one that lasted the longest
was demolished in the 1960's.
Another main part of the fort that was destroyed was the large brick archway that went over the road as a defendable gateway
across Borstal Road, this was taken down in 1924.
The other casemates of this fort (the East Casemates) which have been covered a few times now on this site, they would have
given protection down the dry ditch on the opposite side of Clarence Tower.
The main section of the fort consisted of a thin long fort with a main central tower (Clarence Tower) which still exists
as luxury apartments. The rest of the fort was once again demolished in the 1960's. Throught it's life it had many uses
including a miitary hospital from the 1830's, then a military prison and lunatic asylum, once Fort Pitt had become a
military hospital the patients were moved there from Clarence, but The fort continued as a prison after the asylum moved
and it became common place for soldiers found guilty of crimes to be flogged at the fort. Newspaper reports from the 1920’s
report soldiers being carried back after their floggings with their tunics draped over their shoulders, so bad were their
injuries that they couldn’t do them up. It was used in the first world war as a recruitment centre and in the second word
war it was used by the home guard.
Onto the Explore:
Now as like most explorers that have looked into the Medway forts we were led to believe that the only section of the
subterranean features that was left is the East Casemates, and that the West Casemates were no longer accessible. As I grew
up in the area I have constantly seen the outside of these casemates, but was always told they were refered to as a
guardhouse, and the sight of the mighty metal door always made ourselves and many other local urbexers want to have a peek
inside. Over the years many an Urbexer has tried to gain access by breaking through the outside wall, it looks like at one
point someone had managed to gain access but this has long been blocked up and not accessible. After a lot of research and
managing to find the small detail that gave it away to us, all that was left was to go out in the field and find the exact
point.
After finding the entry point and a couple of days work we managed to get inside. Once inside we could see relatively new
lighting and had the life scared out of us as there were sensors down there which switched the lights on. After a little
look around we realised we had discovered more than we had bargained for as you can see in the pictures.
This was an amazing explore and we feel privileged
to have gotten to see it, some of the features are amazing and we have
never seen them in any other fort so far.
We hope you enjoy this as our first post on here with many more to come.
We are on all the usual sites just look for our name to see more.
