Once you saw them but now you don’t: New Tavern Fort’s vanishing 19th century earthen ramparts
As part of Gravesham Borough Council’s major ‘Great Expectations’ scheme to improve Gravesend’s Riverside Leisure Area, during 2010 an obscuring mass of bushes and vegetation was removed from the front of the 19th century earthen ramparts of New Tavern Fort. This not only dramatically increased their visibility but in doing so promoted recognition of the site as a fort. There was an understanding and an expectation that the historical views that had been re-established would be retained. Unfortunately, they have become obscured through regrowth. As the Riverside Leisure Area is an enduringly popular visitor destination, heritage exposure has a strengthened public value and this situation of going backwards is especially disappointing. Gravesham Borough Council, the owner of the fort, has been asked to consider whether it can find a way to retrieve the important visibility that has been lost.
New Tavern Fort was built in 1780 to cross its fire with Tilbury on the north bank of the Thames, so defending the river approaches to London. It was modernised on several occasions and was active until shortly before the Great War.
The importance of the fort and the rarity of some of its historical features led to the award of statutory protection. The later phases of the fort were described and discussed in Victor Smith, ‘New for Old: the development of New Tavern Fort in the Industrial Age’, Arch. Cant. CXXXIII (2013), 131-166.