New publication: The Lower Lines, Brompton

Excavations of the 19th and 20th-century defenses of Chatham Dockyard at The Lower Lines, Brompton feature in a new Canterbury Archaeological Trust report by James Holman and Peter Kendall.

An interesting site encompassing the fortifications (including an unusual underground countermining chamber), with lots of evidence recorded for siege practices undertaken against them by the military throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Obviously, the Royal Engineers are based next door and they undertook much experimentation on the site, for example we recorded two prototype nineteenth-century electric searchlight emplacements. Something of a technological dead end, but they are early and quite interesting.

The publication is a mix of the archaeological evidence recorded by us and archival evidence kept largely by the Engineers.

The Lower Lines, Brompton is now available from Oxbow Books. Sample pages are available here