Shorncliffe System

Shorncliffe Redoubt is a British Napoleonic earthwork fort. The site is approximately 300 feet by 300 feet and is situated on the Kentish Coast in Sandgate, Kent.

In 1793, the French revolution reached climax when the Revolutionary Government issued orders to execute King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Two weeks later, on 1 February, the French republic declared war on Great Britain, which then braced itself for invasion.

At that time British land-based defences were woefully inadequate as Great Britain had always relied on the Royal Navy for its defence. To prepare for invasion in 1794 British Parliament purchased a large piece of land at Shorncliffe, the obvious place for initial fortifications to be built as it was just 20 miles away from the French coast, so close, in fact, that the locals could see the smoke from the camp fires of Napoleon's waiting army. Later further defences were added to the Kent Coast including the 28-mile-long Royal Military Canal, started in October 1804 and finished in June 1805, which stretches from Cliffend to Seabrook. Also Martello Towers were built between 1805 and 1808 to bolster the defences.

Colonel William Twiss, a military engineer, designed the redoubt. Once built, the site became home to the 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot, 52nd (Oxfordshire) Light Infantry Regiment, the 95th Rifles, and the light infantry brigades who Sir John Moore trained when he was stationed there in 1802.

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