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St Martins Battery & Deep Shelter, Dover
St Martins Battery was first built in 1876 to provide protection to Dover from
the expected French invasion and was first outfitted with three teniinch rifled
muzzle loader, the battery was then closed in 1909. In 1940 the site was
reopened as an Emergency Coastal Battery, it was modified and renamed the
Western Heights Battery; it was outfitted with three six-inch breach mounted
guns - hence the modification to the site as the loading style differed from the
earlier method.
As well as the reopening of the site, a deep shelter was dug to provide
protection from any German bombardment for the one hundred and forty personnel
who manned the battery. The deep shelter was an extension to the Victorian
magazine and was of corrugated iron construction; in recent times there has been
damage due to fire and a small collapse of the chalk tunnels.
The battery has been closed since 1947 and has since been preserved.