(Click this Bredenstone text link to see the largest size)
The Drop Redoubt is a 5-sided polygonal fortress embedded into the Western Heights above the town of Dover, England.
The basic structure, with sides between 70 and 100 yards long, was completed by the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Four caponiers were subsequently added in Victorian times. The Drop Redoubt caponiers (alt. caponier) are two-storey chambers extending into the moat that surrounds the fortress.
In the background of the photo are the five bomb-proof arches of the Soldiers Quarters. The lefthand arch has a tunnel and steps at the back leading down to Caponnier 2. Access to Caponier 3 is via the 2nd arch from the right; the rightmost arch itself originally housed a cookhouse. Access to Caponier 4 is via an opening set in the wall approaching the right of cookhouse.
Between the Bredenstone (alt. Bredon-stone) and the Soldiers Quarters is a "sunken road" leading to the bridge entrance to the redoubt (out-of-shot to the left). The Bredenstone sits above the Officers Quarters on one side of the road; on the far side are a guardroom and prison cells.
The photo was taken on the Drop Redoubt Open Day of June 10th, 2007.
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