The Milton Blockhouse, Gravesend: Research and Excavation

THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE, GRAVESEND: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION. VICTOR T.C. SMITH, B.A. INTRODUCTION This is the third report of the Kent Defence Research Group of the Kent Archaeological Society. In the writer's paper 'The Artillery Defences at Gravesend', (Arch. Cant., lxxxix (1974), 143) mention was made of Milton Blockhouse, one of five artillery blockhouses erected by Henry VIII to defend the Thames against a hostile fleet. It was suggested that this blockhouse had probably been built on a site at what is now the north-eastern corner of the Canal Basin, Gravesend (N.G.R. TQ 655743). Preliminary trenching in that area during 1973 had led to the discovery of substantial' chalk foundations. Subsequently, additional documentary research was undertaken and with the assistance of grants kindly given by the Gravesend Historical Society and the Kent Archaeological Society, and with the co-operation of the Gravesham Borough Council, further excavations under the writer's direction were carried out by the Kent Defence Research Group at intervals during 1974-8. The purpose of the excavations was to verify identification and to recover a basic plan which could be compared with the D-shaped Gravesend and Tilbury blockhouses, the plans of which were the only ones previously known of the five Thames blockhouses. This report sets out the documentary evidence and describes and discusses the results of the excavation. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE Early in 1539 provision was made for the building of the five Thames blockhouses near the mouth of the river where it first begins to narrow after the estuary. 1 They were constructed in 1539/ 341 VICTOR T. C. SMITH 40: two blockhouses crossing their fire at Higham (Kent) and at East Tilbury (Essex) formed an outer line of defence while the three at Gravesend and Milton (Kent) and at Tilbury (Essex) formed an inner line some 5,000 yds. (4,560 m.) upstream (Fig. 1). The blockhouses were part of a national scheme undertaken over a number of years for the fortification of vulnerable points along the coastline of England and Wales against a possible invasion from the Continent. 2 This followed on growing concern in the 1530s about the inadequacy of the existing defences. That concern was brought to a head in 1538. In that year the rivalry between France and the Habsburg Empire for the domination of Europe, which Henry had 􀁽en able to manipulate in the past for the safeguarding of England by backing one side against the other, was replaced by 􀁾 FrancoHabsburg truce which left England politically isolated. 'Furthermore, after the break with Rome and Henry's excommunication, the Pope was trying to organise an invasion of England to restore the authority of the Roman See. The importance of defending the Thames needs little explanation: it was the maritime road to and from the capital (about eighty per cent of England's exports passing down it),3 and then there were the newly built dockyards at Deptford and Woolwich for which the blockhouses provided forward defence. In addition, the mouth of the Thames was a possible site for the landing of troops in an invasion or for a naval raid on the mercantile shipping moored in Gravesend Reach. Equally, there was the important GravesendTilbury ferry crossing which required protection. The nearby river Medway does not seem to have figured in Henry's general scheme of defence until later. Although there are records of guns having been sent to the Isles of Grain and Sheppey a few years earlier in 1532,4 there is no knowledge of any works there but Queenborough Castle was maintained with artillery. By 1545 a blockhouse or battery was built at Sheerness, Queenborough Castle was strengthened and other defences erected on the Isle of Grain. All this work ' Letters and Papers of Henry Vil!, 14 (1) (1539), 330. It has been suggested that other blockhouses may have been planned or built further upriver (M. Oppenheim, 'Maritime History', VCH (Kent), ii, (1926), 284, quoting from Letters and Papers, 15 {1540), 221.) However, the 'two bulwarks above Gravesend' in the recapitulation of the King's Charges is probably a mistake for 'two bulwarks at Gravesend'. No reference to works above Gravesend, other than the gun positions at the Tower of London, appears in any other known documents. ' Cat. Lansdowne Mss. 170/88. 'L. Stone, 'Elizabethan Overseas Trade', Economic History Review, Second Series, ii (1949), 39 and L. Stone, The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529-1642, London, 1972, 70-1. 4 B.L. Add. Mss. 32, 363, f.137. 342 1 THAMES BLOCKHOUSES 3 GENERAL PLAN OF EXCAVAT"IO ·N11S m 5! trl 3:: II F \ d z a:, r 0 e.􀀅o ,,..., •. 􀀌 ,l' 0 C t,.) -"" 􀀍 t,.) ·-.. tr!􀀎 􀀆-: @ 􀀏 \\ !; 􀀐 \'TC SWl"l'I 0 - z Fig. 1. Thames Blockhouses Fig. 2. AJea Plan Fig. 3. General Plan of Excavations VICTOR T. C. SMITH was under the direction of Richard Lee5 and was a response to the growing strategic significance of the Medway, especially as a fleet anchorage. James Nedeham, an architect and master carpenter, and Christopher Morice, a gunner, were selected to design the Thames blockhouses. 6 Both had previously served with the King's armies in France and been involved there in the design and construction of fortifications. Nedeham had become accountant, surveyor general and Clerk of the King's Works in England, while Morice was knighted in 1537 and became Master of Ordnance the same year. 7 Robert Lorde was to be paymaster of the Thames works, a task he already performed in respect of the Downs fortifications. Three overseers, Lionel Martin, John Ganyn and a Mr. Travers were to be appointed. 8 By 1540, all five blockhouses were manned and had been provided with their armaments9 ( of which the largest was at Milton which had 30 pieces of artillery and 6 hand-guns, besides a supply of bows and pikes) and so, presumably, at that date they were at a very advanced state of construction or at any rate complete in their essentials. Milton was built on a parcel of land called Chapel Field, perhaps originally attached to the medieval Milton Chantry. 10 Its garrison consisted of the commander, Captain Sir Edward Cobham, a second in command, porter, 7 gunners and 3 soldiers. 11 By December 1540, the gunner complements of Milton and Gravesend had been reduced to 5 at each and this is confirmed in a document of January 1541. 12 Cobham was soon replaced by William Burston on whose lands the Gravesend and Milton blockhouses had been built. 13 In 1543, William Gonson received sums totalling £263 15s. 4d. for 'repairs of the fortresses at Gravesend, Tylburye and thereabouts'. 14 Whether the entire sum was literally spent on repairs or on applying certain finishing touches to the 'H.M. Colvin and J. Summerson, 'The Royal Castles', History of the King's Works, iii, Part l, London, 1975, 292. "letters and Papers, 14 (1) (1539), 398. 163. ' Dictionary of National Biography, xxxix, London, 1894, 91-2 and xl, 1894, 156-7. • Ibid., note 6. • P.R.0. E. 101/60/3. '° R.P. Cruden, History of Gravesend and the Port of London, Gravesend, 1843, " B.L. Royal Mss. Appendix 89, fol. 23. " Letters and Papers, 16 (1540-41), 224. '-' The lands on which the Milton and Gravesend blockhouses were built were not crown property until 1543. Burston received £66 13s. 4d. for the lands at Milton. Ibid., note 10, and Letters and Papers, 19, (1544), 244. •• Letters and Papers, 17 (1542), 138 and 18 (1543), 129. 344 THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION blockhouses is not known, neither is it clear whether any work was carried out at Milton specifically. Whatever the state of completion or condition of the Milton Blockhouse, a letter written by the commander, William Burston to the Earl of Suffolk in May 1545, refers to further construction work: 15 'Instructions to my Lord of Suffolkes grace for the blockhouse of Milton, whereof Willym Burston is captayne. First, Serpentyne powder halff a last, the which must needes be had. Item, money for the performance of the platt. Item, to haue a man skyllfull to haue the survey of the workees by the avyse of Mr. Lee. Item, to have a comysson for the takyn of workmen vp. Item, for the ordnaunce to fornyshe the rampar and ij new towres of earthe. I beseche your grace in any wyse to remember the powder, and ij gonners more to my house yf it may, Willyam Burston.' The 'Mr Lee' mentioned was evidently Sir Richard Lee, a leading military engineer of his day who was employed by Henry VIII in both England and France. Later, under Elizabeth, he produced the initial design in 1558 for the angle-bastioned defences of Berwickupon- Tweed on the border with Scotland, 16 and in 1559 designed Upnor Castle, with its angled water bastion. 17 In Aprill 1545, Lee is known to have returned from France18 and before being sent to Yarmouth, surveyed the defences of Thanet and was involved with new fortifications on the Isles of Sheppey and Grain. 19 He could easily have made a trip to Milton to advise on work there. The full extent of the work involved is not clear, but the Earl of Suffolk in a letter to Paget, dated 12th July 1545, complained that there were difficulties in providing the ordnance and skilled men required. 20 IS Ibid., 20 (1545), 556. •• I. Macivor, 'The Elizabethan Fortifications of Berwick-upon-Tweed'. Antiq. Journ., xiv (1965), 64-96. 17 A.O. Saunders, Upnor Castle, London, 1967, 6-7. •• Op. cit. in note 7, xxxii, 1892, 369-71. •• Op. cit. in note 5. zo Letters and Papers, 20 (1545), 573. 345 VICTOR T. C. SMITH Evidently, at Tilbury too, some kind of works were being carried out at about the same time. 2 1 The reason for this further burst of activity must have been the revived fear of invasion from France. Since Charles V had reneged from the Anglo-Spanish alliance against France by accepting the Peace of Crepy in 1544, tht- French had been free to concentrate upon England. However, although a French invasion fleet had been assembled in Le Havre in 1545 and the south coast of England had been attacked, peace was agreed between England and France in the following year. 22 The estimated cost of constructing one Thames blockhouse in 1539 had been £211 13s. 4d., 23 but official accounts summarised in the 'Charges of the Kinges Warres and ffortificacions' give an estimated figure of £1,072 for the expenditure on the Milton Blockhouse during the reign of Henry VIII and an additional £273 15s. on wages during the last three years till Michaelmas 1546. A sum of £547 10s. was spent on wages in the first six years of the reign of Edward VI down to Michaelmas 1552. 24 The writer has been unable to discover any further accounts relating to the blockhouse. The list showing the original armament of the blockhouse has already been published. 25 A second inventory is known for 154726 and this is reproduced below: 'Bumbard of yrone wt ii chambers oone Demy Culveryns of yrone mounted uppon carriages w1 ladells and sponges ij Sacres of yrone mounted wt ladells and sponges ij Fawcons of lrone mounted w1 ladles and sponges whereof oone broken ij Fawcons of brasse mounted w1 ladells and sponges oone Fowlers of yrone wt viij chambers whereof v of the Chambers do blowe vf Quarter slinges w1 two chambers a pece ve Double basys wt ij chambers a pece ve Single basys oone chambre a peace vf " Ibid., 21 (1546), 313--4. 22 P.S. Crowson, Tudor Foreign Policy, London, 1973, 129-30. 2' Letters and Papers, 14 (1539), 29. " Bodleian Mss. Add. D.43, fol. 10v. The comparable estimated figure for the Gravesend blockhouse was the same, for Higham £980 and Tilbury and East Tilbury, £506 at each. " Victor T.C. Smith, 'The Artillery Defences at Gravesend', Arch. Cant., lxxxix, (1974), 145-6. 26 Society of Antiquaries of London, Brander Mss 129, fol. 258v. 346 THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION Hagbusshes of yrone Haileshote peicis Handgonnes The thirty pieces of ordnance are identical with the original armament, but there is a number of other differences in detail in gun types and numbers within types. There is considerable increase in the number of small arms. In 1553, all five Thames blockhouses were ordered to be disarmed, in common with a number of fortifications in other areas. 27 If the Gravesend and Tilbury blockhouses were actually disarmed, they soon resumed their role and remained in use until well into the nineteenth century. But Milton and Higham blockhouses were demolished in 1557--8 to provide brick and stone required for repairs to the Tower of London. 28 What happened to the East Tilbury blockhouse is unclear, but it is doubtful that it was re-occupied Though shown in a map of the Thames during Armada year, 1588, 29 there is no evidence that it was prepared for use during the crisis. Its remains, however, could still be seen at low-tide as late as 1735. 30 Milton Blockhouse is included in an account of 'Queen Elizabeth's Annual Expence' which was published by Francis Peck in 1779. 31 'Milton bulwark, corn. Kancie Captaine, his wages; viz. for himfelf, 2 foldiers, 1 porter & 5 groomes; in all L. s. d. 91 5 O' Assuming that Peck correctly attributed the list to the reign of Elizabeth, it could only refer to her first year. But there is no evidence that the site again played any part in the defence of the Thames after the demolition of the blockhouse building. In Armada year, 1588, all reliance seems to have been placed on the two remaining Gravesend and Tilbury blockhouses to which outworks and 27 B.L. Royal Mss. 18.C. xxiv, fol. 361'. 2 • P.R.O. E.101/474/23, E.101/504/11. 29 Thamesis Descriptio, Anno 1588, B.L. K.6. 17. ,o I. G. Sparkes, 'East Tilbury Fortifications and Coalhouse Fort', Thurrock Local History Society's Journal, 7, (1962), 5. " Francis Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, London, 1779, I, 65. Peck quoted his source as a manuscript in the possession of Dr. Samuel Knight of Ely. 347 VICTOR T. C. SMITH a connecting boom defence may have been added. 32 No contemporary illustrations of the Thames blockhouses are known. The earliest representation seems to be a crude manuscript map of the Thames by William Bourne which can be no later than 1582 as he died in that year. 33 The Milton Blockhouse site, on the very edge of the riverbank is shown enclosed by a semi-circular line, with the curve facing inland. The Higham and East Tilbury sites are shown in a similar way, but particular attention is drawn to the Gravesend and Tilbury blockhouses which are represented conventionally as embattled structures. The latter two blockhouses are all that Bourne refers to in his book on artillery which was published in 1587, five years after his death. 34 The 1588 map by Robert Adams, 35 though more refined than the Bourne map, shows Milton and East Tilbury in the Bourne manner, though Higham is not represented at all. The Milton site is marked 'Ye Olde blockhouse'. The Adams map fortunately possesses a scale which shows the distance from the Gravesend Blockhouse to the Milton Blockhouse as 550 yds. (503 m.), conforming exactly to the distance between the Gravesend Blockhouse remains still existing and the foundations at the Canal Basin excavated by the writer. Several maps of the later river defences at Gravesend dated 1778 36 and 179537 show a semi-circular rampart and ditch just to the east of New Tavern Fort, which seems to conform in position and character with the semi-circular line in the sixteenth-century Bourne and Adams maps, but no traces of buildings are indicated on any of these maps. In 1826, however, some bricks were found within the area enclosed by the rampart when excavations were carried out to erect an obelisk to replace the Round Tree, the boundary marker of the Port of London which had blown down in a storm. The bricks were said by an observer to be similar to those of the Gravesend Blockhouse, then still standing. 3R Whether anything was found when the Canal Basin was dug earlier in that century is unclear, but the result of the excavation was to obliterate the eastern part of what remained of the landward rampart and ditch; the remaining part disappeared as a result of the construction of Canal Road and the laying out of the Gordon n A. D. Saunders, 'Tilbury Fort and the Development of Artillery Fortification in the Thames Estuary', Antiq. Journ., xl (1960), 155-6. and Ibid., note 25, 149-50. )., B.L. Sloane, 365 l. • 14 William Bourne, The Arte of Shooting in Great Ordnaunce, London, 1587. •s !bid., note 29. -'• B.L. K. Top. xvii, 16b. " P.R.O. MR 1192. -'" R.P. Cruden, op. cit. in note 10, 37, 164. 348 THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION Pleasure Gardens in 1892, when the obelisk was re-erected in the gardens. The building of Canal Road was particularly unfortunate because the recent excavations indicated that it covered a considerable area of foundations. The present situation of the blockhouse being 70 yds. (64 m.) from the river-line, is the result of gradual reclamation: first, by the deposition of large quantities of clay from the excavation of the Canal Basin39 (which had also been dumped on top of the foundations), and, then, further work from the late 1880s which led to the formation of Gordon Promenade. THE EXCAVATIONS The foundations discovered in 1973 were situated in the grassy space between Canal Road and the north-west corner of the Canal Basin. The basic stratigraphy of the site in descending order was found to consist of (a) dark topsoil surmounted by turf, (b) a thin layer of chalk, (c) a compacted layer of yellow clay with pebbles, of undated deposition, (d) thick brown clay excavated originally from the former marsh level during the cutting of the Canal Basin, and (e) a layer of brick rubble overlaid by powdered brick, which covered the chalk foundations and the Tudor marsh clay ground level. Permission was granted in 1974 to undertake further excavations which continued at intervals till 1978. The plan then revealed suggested an angle bastion facing inland and, near the Tudor river-line, a rounded bastion, presumably flanked by another to the west, of which remains might still exist under Canal Road. The latter concealed the whole of the front of the building. (Fig. 3). THE FOUNDATIONS The foundations, let into the Tudor marsh clay, consisted of a main wall (A) and a narrower dividing wall (B) forming the base of the angle-bastion, and at the junction of both walls, a sunken brick feature (C). Of the main wall all that remained was a mere chalk core standing on a substantial chalk platforrn. The brick and presumably masonry casing had been stripped from the core at the time of demolition, leaving a rubble-filled trench on either side, (Fig. 4 and Pls. I - III) suggesting that the base of the wall was 8 ft. 6 in. (2.60 m.) wide. In a number of places the core exhibited traces of a reddish mortar still adhering. The core was sectioned at one point (Pl. IV) and was found to consist of roughly-coursed chalk blocks bonded together 3• P.R.O. W044/127. 349 4 IJt • Ill • Ill • Ill • IJf • Ill , 1/1 , 11,, .... 11,, rl/• Platform SE.CTION YZ . --1::::::::=:J111111111!=::i--==:::t, ft•----t:::=====lm • ., ',., • 11 1 , 1'11 0 /lj llf • 1/11 • 1;1 l􀁮 I ,:, ",' 􀁯I ''.' ,;, J,j i•i' //q w O\􀀊 1/4!! II:! 8fownctay /its: Fig. 4. Section YZ '" ,,d-- V1'C SMITH ,oeo 5 SECTION WX Old Turri.,,/ Chalk Layer Il l • -::'. • \\1 ''!, 11,e j; .,.'%' Chalk-.,. mnntttnrumlam1t 􀀄 ... •-::::::::::ii--====--t=::=1 ft Topsoil Yellow ay • Platform • a ,,,, t '-'i Fig. 5. Section WX 350 2 m ... "' . 􀀄 't_-􀀧b-;:· _;-. -,-.,-􀀨-;;,,;-, _"'.,;.::._/._,,.:,,::.􀀩,-I, I􀁰 ,􀁱􀁲 /4'/J ,1 1 "' \\\:;: fiP .a ///􀁳 ,, 􀀂- . ' 0 . lh : VTC SMITH 1980 TIIE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCA YATION with an extremely hard cement. The platform below the core was 4 ft. 6 in. (1.37 m.) thick and its width extended only 1 ft. (0.30 m.) beyond the postulated base width of the wall. With the aid of a pump, it was possible to excavate on the outside face of the platform to a depth of 5 ft. (1.52 m.) below the water-table, although an insufficient area could be examined to determine whether the platform had been piled. The narrowness of the platform might suggest that it was. It seems that the method of construction on what had been a level marshy site, was first to excavate a wide trench on the line the wall was to take. Then was built the supporting chalk platform inside that trench, perhaps on timber piles. Next, the brick wall with a chalk core was erected on top. Finally, clay was piled back against the base of the wall to a height of about 1 ft. 6 in. (0.46 m.) above the platform. This clay, which contained a layer of compacted mortar, sloped away from the base of the wall to meet the original marsh surface. Whether the angle bastion was fronted by a ditch is uncertain. A trench was cut to some 12 ft. (3.65 m.) from it, but no trace of a ditch could be discerned. Within the building, the level was also built up with clay made up of several laminations, separated from each other by a thin membrane of chalk. This clay was covered by a thick reddish layer of compacted brick and mortar granules. The foundations of the internal wall (Fig. 5 and PI V) were at 3 ft. 6 in. (1.06 m.) narrower than the main wall but shared a similar method of construction, though the chalk core still retained five facing courses of brick, each 9½ in. x 4¼ in. x 2¼ in. (241 mm. x 109 mm. x 57 mm.) laid in English Bond. The wall of the Gravesend Blockhouse, excavated in 1975/6 was also found to have a chalk core but, unlike Milton, many courses of the brick and stone facing still survived. 40 A satisfactory explanation has not yet been found for the brick feature C, (Pl. VI) 5 ft. (1.52 m.) long and 4 ft. (1.22 m.) wide, the coursed brickwork of the sides of which had been robbed down to the chalk platform into which the feature had been let about 1 ft. 6 in. (0.46 m.). THE RUBBLE The composition of the rubble covering the foundations and interior and exterior clay surfaces was carefully examined. It was found to 40 Reported in D. Thompson and Mrs. V. Smith, 'The Excavation of the Gravesend Blockhouse, 1975-76', Arch. Cant., xciii (1977), 15􀁇77. 351 VICTOR T. C. SMITH PLATE I (Scale in feet) Co,.: of curved Section of main Wall A (Scale in feet) 352 THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION PLATE Ill. Main Wall A: Detail of Core and Wall Trench (Scale in feet) PLATE IV Section UV through Core of main Wall A (Scale in feet) 353 VICTOR T. C. SMITH PLATE V Internal Wall B, with Clay removed to reveal surviving Courses of Brick (Scale in metres) PLATE Vl Brick Feature C (Scale in feet) 354 THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION consist of a bulk of brick fragments, mostly red, chunks of mortar and chalk, some tile and a few undressed lumps of Kentish ragstone. Apart from the bricks remaining in situ in the internal wall and in feature C, only 15 whole bricks were found in the rubble. The search for serviceable materials for the repair work to the Tower of London had obviously been very thorough. Of the brick fragments, about ten per cent bore traces of a bitumen coating. Perhaps this was employed in vulnerable areas to repel water penetration. Bricks with a similar coating were found during the excavation of the nearcontemporary Camber Castle, Rye.41 Also found in the rubble was a small number of cement fragments which bore the imprint of woodgrain. These were examined by Mr. Richard Moore, of the Jodrell Laboratory, London, but the imprint was not sufficiently clear to permit a positive identification of the wood type. However, in several places above the interior clay of the bastion, linear cavities in the rubble were discovered, in one of which was found an iron nail with a small piece oif oak adhering. These cavities, which formed no definite pattern, may conceivably have resulted from the slow decay of a few timbers left behind when the building was gutted prior to demolition. The size of the cavities suggested timbers about 8-ft. (2.44 m.) lond and 5-in. (127 mm.) square. EXCAVATIONS ON GORDON PROMENADE AND IN GORDON PLEASURE GARDENS In late 1976, permission was granted by Gravesham Borough Council to excavate on the Gordon Promenade, the object being to search for any foundations to the north of Canal Road which might delimit the frontal extent of the building. At a depth of 10 ft. (3.05 m.) a very substantial flat chalk surface was encountered. It was penetrated for 2 ft. (0.61 m.), that is 4 ft. (1.22 m.) below the water table. Natural chalk, according to the results of two commercial bore-holes nearby, does not exist at this level. It must, therefore, be presumed that the chalk was an unnatural deposit; certainly on examination it appeared to have been deliberately laid. Flooding prevented detailed inspection and the discovery of its total thickness. Since the Gravesham Borough Council had wished to limit the area of the promenade under investigation, the lateral extent of the layer could not be determined. No dating evidence was discovered in the penetration of the chalk, but in a deposit of black alluvium which sealed it were found traces of building debris, much of which was water-worn. This rubble was almost certainly from the block- •• Information from the excavator, Mrs. H.S. Arthur. VICTOR T. C. SMITH house demolition as the brick and Kentish ragstone fragments parallelled those discovered in the main excavation. Also discovered in the alluvium were some fragments of human bone. The space between the alluvium and the surface was made up of the same stiff brown clay encountered above the brick rubble elsewhere in the excavation. An attempt was made to find traces of the landward rampart and ditch in the Gordon Pleasure Gardens, and trenching was carried out along the eastern boundary fence. Nothing was found, but restrictions imposed on disturbances to underground services and to the gardens themselves inhibited an exhaustive search. A trench cut along the fence by Messrs. Higgs and Hill for the Thames tidal flood defences failed to reveal any traces in section. It may be that some traces of the ditch still remain in the space between the Canal Basin and Canal Road, and it is hoped to carry out some investigations there in the future. Trenching in the north-east corner of the gardens close to the site of the Round Tree, was carried to a depth of 8 ft. (2.44 m.) but failed to reveal any building foundations or debris. The general road level at the corner of the Canal Basin was raised by 3 ft. (0.91 m.) in 1978 as part of the precautions against river flooding. At the same time, a substantial concrete counter-wall and wide earthen embankment were added along the northern and western edges of the road, while the site of the main excavation was also raised by the addition of earth. Although the contractors' trenches for the counter-walls failed to pick up the landward rampart, the probable location of the riverline prior to reclamation of the area was identified (Fig. 3), but no structural evidence beyond a scatter of brick rubble was discovered. The substantial thickness of the old road and the complex web of gas pipes and high tension cables under it made it impractical to excavate in the road before its level was raised. However, limited further excavations under the path on the south side o.f the road were possible and a further length of wall foundations was uncovered. As a result of these measures for flood protection, the chalk level found under the promenade is now 15 ft. ( 4.57 m.) below the present bank, the foundations extending under Canal Road are 9 ft. (2.74 m.) under the road surface and the foundations found during the main excavation between 3 ft. 8 in. (1.12 m.) and 5 ft. (1.52 m.) below the turf slope. THE FINDS The excavations were distinguished by a paucity of small finds. However, the lower half of a large brown-glaze jar, of early 356 TifE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION sixteenth-century date, was discovered in the rubble covering the eastern face of the angle bastion. It is illustrated in Fig. 6. Sherds of other vessels of sixteenth-century date were also found in this area. Apart from a few sherds of late-medieval, seventeenth- and nineteenth-century date in the upper part of the rubble, the only other finds were six 8-in. x ½-in. (203 mm. x 12 mm.) iron spikes having square heads and a square section. The spikes were found in the upper rubble and may be a later intrusion. The pottery is described more fully in the Appendix. The finds are at present held by the writer, but it is hoped to display them at the New Tavern Fort Museum at Gravesend. Fig. 6. Lower Part of sixteenth-century Jar (¼) (Drawn by D.B. Kelly) DISCUSSION It is unlikely that the unexcavated parts of the building will be available for investigation in the foreseeable future. Therefore, conclusions must be made on the basis of the evidence now to hand. The angle bastion design represented in the excavated foundations had not yet appeared in England in 1539/40 and the Milton basetion must be a later addition to the original blockhouse, strengthening the landward side. The original blockhouse, of uncertain plan (but conceivably D-shaped like the Gravesend and Tilbury blockhouses), lies presumably to the front under Canal Road. However, little can be said about the superstructure of the blockhouse that is not merely speculative. Perhaps some of the additional small arms mentioned in the armament list of 1547 were intended for use in the landward facing bastion. It is doubtful whether all 30 pieces of 357 VICTOR T. C. SMITH artillery mentioned in the list could have been mounted within the blockhouse building itself; some were probably intended to be fired from outside positions on either side of the blockhouse along the Tudor riverbank, which now lies under Canal Road. Such outside positions would have followed the practice adopted at both the Gravesend and Tilbury blockhouses. At some point, the rear-facing earthwork enclosing the Tilbury blockhouse was provided with embrasures for artillery. It is not known whether the Milton rampart was similarly provided. Possibly there were smaller subsidiary buildings within the area enclosed by the rampart, which were either destroyed during the formation of the Canal Basin or lie for the time being inaccessible under the flower beds of the Gordon Pleasure Gardens. Because of the limited scope of the excavation, no conclusions can be reached about the extent of any living accommodation for the garrison, but in any event, perhaps apart from the porter, the majority of the small garrison may have ordinarily lived in lodgings in Gravesend as seemed to be the case with some of the garrison of the Gravesend blockhouse. ARTILLERY FORTIFICATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY It was the rounded bastion style which dominated the design of Henry VIII's fortifications built in 1539/40 and earlier, exemplified in its fullest form in the forts at Walmer and Deal and in a more modest way in Gravesend and Tilbury blockhouses. •2 Mural rounded towers in some English castles and town defences had been adapted for the use of firearms with small key-hole shaped or circular gunports since the middle of the fourteenth century. •3 But on the Continent, particularly in Italy, and from the middle of the fifteenth century, designers showed greater inventiveness, with the result that new fortifications were less adaptations to medieval architectural tradition and more works specifically constructed with the defence and attack of artillery in mind. The same rounded form which had been a feature of earlier periods was retained, but there was a general lowering and thickening of the walls to resist shot and the provision of larger, more carefully thought-out gun-ports with a better field of fire. 44 Even in the fifteenth century these ideas do not 42 B.M. Morley, Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defence, H.M.S.O., 1976. 4 J J.R. Kenyon, 'Early Artillery Fortification in England and Wales', Fort I, (1976), 22-5. 44 J.R. Hale, 'The Early Development of the Bastion - An Italian Chronology, c. 1450- c. 1534', Europe in the late Middle Ages, London, 1965. 358 THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION seem to have been unknown in England, but it was not until Henry VIII's scheme of fortification that they were fully introduced. In 1527, Albrecht Durer published in Nuremberg a treatise on fortification, which shows works of a similar nature to those erected by Henry VIII on the English coast. 45 If the treatise did not directly influence the design of Henry's fortifications, the use of German military engineers such as Stefan von Haschenperg probably did. 46 In addition, English engineers responsible for designing the fortifications had previously served with the King's armies on the Continent and may themselves have become acquainted with contemporary Continental practice. The angular bastion, giving more effective flanking fire when part of an enceinte, was a development which succeeded the rounded bastion, and originated with Italian engineers towards the end of the fifteenth century. It did not appear in England until after the main phase of Henrician fortification had been completed in 1539-41. The bastions built in Hull in 1541 were neither round nor angular but rather akin to the form of a Gothic arch in plan, like those proposed for Guines in the Pale of Calais in the same year. The first angle bastion built in England was probably that at Sandown (1545),47 the slightly earlier bastions of Southsea Castle ( 1544 )•R having been mere salients without flanks; the Sharpnode bastions (c. 1545-7 ?t" were also without flanks but formed in a more acute angle. The earliest known fully Italianate bastion, with recessed flanks, was that at Yarmouth (1547),50 although it was rivalled in Scotland by English works at Eyemouth of about the same date. 51 In the next year, some impressive bastioned enceintes were also built by English engineers at Forthill Broughty, Lauder, Haddington and Dunglass, while the French, too, were soon constructing works in Scotland on the bastioned trace. 52 Contemporarily, English engineers were building angular bastions at Boulogne (1545)53 and at Ambleteuse (1546)54 , both garrisons on the French coastline. In " AlbrechtDilrer, Etliche underricht su Befestigung der Stett, Schloss und Flecken, Nuremberg, 1527. Reprinted with an introduction by M. Biddle, London, 1972. •• B.H. St. J. O'Neil, 'Stefan von Haschenperg, an Engineer to King Henry VIII, and his work', Archaeologia, xci (1945), 137-55 . ., J.D. Jones, 'The Building of a fort at Sandown, Isle of Wight, 1632-1636', Proc. of the Isle of Wight Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc., vi (1968), 166-83. •• A. Corney, Southsea Castle, Portsmouth City Museums, 1967. •• Information kindly supplied by J.R. Kenyon, B.A., A.LA. so S.E. Rigold, Yarmouth Castle, Isle of Wight, H.M.S.0., 1969. 51 Information kindly supplied by Dr. Marcus Merriman, of Lancaster University. " Id. Sl History of the King's Works, iii, (Part 1), London, 1975, 385. 5 • Ibid. 359 VICTOR T. C. SMITH England, further bastioned works were built at Portsmouth (precise date uncertain but probably later 1540s - early 1550s), 55 Berwick Citadel (1550), town walls (1559),56 Milton (by 1547), Harry's Walls, Scillies (c. 1551)57 and at Upnor (1559).58 From then on, the angular bastion was not superseded until the nineteenth century. As to the Milton bastion, it is unfortunate that there is no evidence to give a precise date. The only known documentary evidence of construction work following the initial phase in 153􀁷0 is the letter of May 1545, from William Burston to the Earl of Suffolk. Part of the rounded bastion excavated could have been one of the 'ij new towres of earthe' with a brick revetment, but in other respects the letter gives tantalisingly little detail of the work involved. However, the accounts mentioned earlier recorded expenditure on wages only after the reign of Henry VIII when any expense on construction work should certainly have been reflected. The period following 1552 can probably be ruled out since there is no evidence that the blockhouse was re-commissioned after its abandonment in 1553. The buildings were in any event demolished in 1557-8, and there is no indication of a later reoccupation of the site. The evidence of the accounts and William Burston's letter would certainly point to a date between 1545 and 1547 for the Milton bastion. The closest parallel is Richard Lee's water bastion at Upnor Castle built in 1559 (and there is even a similarity in the flanking rounded towers). The Upnor Castle bastion is larger than that at Milton, but the proportions are about the same. Could it be that the resemblance is no coincidence but represents a precocious development by Lee at Milton during the postulated period? It may be that new discoveries in documentary sources will throw some light on this matter. However, if the suggested date for construction is correct, then the Milton bastion must be counted among the earliest angle bastions built in England, perhaps even sharing a first place with Sandown or at least a second place after. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful to Mr. A. Welsby, B.Sc., M.I.C.E., F.I. Mun.E., M.I.H.E., Borough Technical Officer for Gravesham, and to Mr. F. J. Mepham, Parks Superintendent, for permission to exca- " A.O. Saunders, 'Hampshire Coastal Defence since the Introduction of Artillery', Arch. Journ., cxxiii (1966), 141. 50 Information supplied by Dr. Marcus Merriman. See also Iain Macivor, 'The Elizabethan Fortifications of Berwick-upon-Tweed', Antiq. Journ .. xiv (1965), 64-96. 51 B.H. St. J. O'Neil, Ancient Monuments of the Isles of Scilly, H.M.S.O., 1961. 5• A.O. Saunders, Upnor Castle, H.M.S.0., 1967. 360 THE MILTON BLOCKHOUSE: RESEARCH AND EXCAVATION vate on Council ground at the side of the Canal Basin, in the Gordon Pleasure Gardens and on Gordon Promenade. I am indebted to Messrs. Costains (Construction) Ltd., for the loan of pumping equipment vital to the excavation, and to Mr L. Mercer, for surveying the site. Messrs. Higgs and Hill (Civil Engineering) Ltd., offered every facility for the examination of their trenches for the flood defences. I should also like to record my sincere thanks to the following excavators for their steadfast support in weather conditions of unusual difficulty and severity on this permanently waterlogged site: Mr. F.K. Holder and Miss N. Egan (especially), Misses R. Ball, J. Figg, K. Mercer, S. Page, S. West, Mrs. J. Wright, and Messrs. C. Burnett, J. Crough, R. Mills, A.M.G. Ridgers, T. Shrub, F.P. Suckling, A.I.Q.S., and D.G. Thompson. I was grateful for the opportunity to discuss the results of the excavation with Mr. A.D. Saunders, M.A., F.S.A., and Mr. J.R. Kenyon, B.A., A.LA. Mr. H. Colvin, C.B.E., F.B.A., F.S.A., and Dr. M. Merriman most generously made available to me information from their respective contributions to the forthcoming volume of the History of the King's Works while Mr. D. Kelly, B.A., F.S.A., A.M.A., of Maidstone Museum, kindly drew and reported on the pottery. Lastly but not least, I must record my appreciation to Mr E.R. Green, of the Gravesend Historical Society, who first drew my attention to the possibilities of the site. 361 VICTOR T. C. SMITH APPENDIX The Pottery. D.B. Kelly, B.A., F.S.A., A.M.A. I. Lower part of a large jar with sagging base and three pulleddown fe.et with thumbnail decoration; hard, sandy tile-red ware with, in places, grey core remaining. (Fig. 6). Externally, the jar shows well-marked girth grooves and is covered with a yellowbrown glaze, which ends irregularly about 2½-in. - 3-in. (64 mm. - 76 mm.) from the base. Internally, there are the remains !.If prominent horizontal ridges, but these have mostly been pared away by a knife. This type of jar was made in the Netherlands from the late fifteenth to the first half of the sixteenth century, although it was also made in England during the same period by emigre Dutch potters. Similar vessels found at Toppings Wharf, Southwark, and assigned to the first half of the sixteenth century were probably Dutch imports. 59 Other examples from a pit at Woolwich containing kiln wasters, have been dated from the late-fifteenth to the early-sixteenth century. 60 The feet of the Milton jar look more like those from Toppings Wharf. 2. Part of a 'pricked' strap handle of a large jug; hard, sandy grey ware. Late-fifteenth to early-sixteenth century. 3. Sherd from neck of large jug, with two broad grooves below an (incomplete) flat-topped, everted rim; hard, sandy grey ware, with tile-red exterior. Also a body sherd from the same jug. Early-sixteenth century. 4. Fragment of frilled base of a large jug with traces of a lightbrown glaze. Sixteenth century. 5. Sherd from slightly sagging base of jug; smooth, hard, sandy orange-red ware with traces of grey core. Sixteenth century. 6. Sherd from mug; hard tile-red ware with very glossy, dark-brown glaze inside and out. Seventeenth century. 7. Not identifiable. Sherd with green glaze. Late medieval. ''' Harvey Sheldon, 'Excavations at Toppings and Sun Wharves, Southwark, 1970-1972', Trans. London and Middlesex Arch. Soc., xxv (1974), 76-87; fig. 39, 119-21 and fig. 40, 134-5. 60 S. Pryor and K. Blockley, 'A Seventeenth-Century Kiln Site at Woolwich', Post Medieval Archaeology, xii (1978), 43-52; fig. 7, 6. 362