DOVER ADMIRALTY PIER TURRET
Brought to you by the
Western Heights
Preservation Society
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HISTORY
From an 1897 photograph before the Pier Extension
The Admiralty Pier Fort or more commonly referred to now as the Dover Turret, is situated halfway along the Admiralty Pier, part of Dover Harbour. The building of the Turret was commenced in January 1872 and it was finally ready for test firing on the 20th. July 1883. The guns were never fired in anger and the turret was about obsolete by the time it was completed. Two 6 inch Breech Loading guns were installed by the turret by 1909 and the turret spaces were used as magazines for these guns, the shell hoists can still be seen in the space where the turret turning rack is. The turret was built on the pier head but the pier has since been extended and widened several times.
Inside the turret are two 16 inch, 81 ton Rifled Muzzle-Loading guns and the turret itself is made up of a sandwich of armour plates with wood layers between each plate to a thickness of about 25 inches. The total weight of the turret and guns, being nearly 900 tons. Inside the pier is the loading chamber, magazines and the spaces where the steam engine were that operated the whole thing.
Today all the steam engines have been removed, the two guns are depressed in their loading position and the rollers and turning rack can still be seen. Two of the shells can be seen at Dover Castle at the top of the steps to the old Officers' Mess.
View from above (by John Guy)
Loading position (by John Guy)
Firing Position (by John Guy)
Recoil Position (by John Guy)
Whole mechanism in detail (by John Guy)
For some more detailed drawings of the turret click below (thanks to David Moore of the PFS)