Fort Borstal

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Fort Borstal
Borstal, Kent, England
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Fort Borstal
Coordinates 51°22′14″N00°29′21″E / 51.37056°N 0.48917°E / 51.37056; 0.48917
Type Palmerston fort
Site information
OwnerPrivate
Site history
Built1885
Built by Captain Siborne, R.E.
Materials Brick and earthworks
Battles/wars World War II
Events
Official nameFort Borstal
Reference no. 1003402

Fort Borstal was built as an afterthought from the 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, by convict labour. Construction started in 1875 but was suspended in 1885. The fort was completed around 1895. it was one of a series of four forts that ringed Chatham. [1]

Contents

Fort Borstal was designed to hold the high ground southwest of Rochester, South East England. It is of polygonal design and was not originally armed. An anti-aircraft battery was based there in the Second World War. [2]

A 18 in (457 mm) gauge railway was built connecting the four Chatham ring forts of Borstal, Bridgewoods, Horstead and Luton. A rope-worked incline led west from Fort Borstal down to a gravel pit and wharf on the River Medway. About 600 yards (550 m) of track remains intact at Fort Borstal. [1]

After many years' use as a pig farm and store for the nearby Young Offenders Institution it was sold in 1991 to a company hoping to make it a museum, but that proved unsuccessful and the fort has been converted into living accommodation. There is no public access to the site.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kent</span> County of England

Kent is a county in the South East England region, the closest county to continental Europe. It borders Essex across the entire estuary of the River Thames to the north; the French department of Pas-de-Calais across the Strait of Dover to the south-east; East Sussex to the south-west; Surrey to the west and Greater London to the north-west. The county town is Maidstone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatham, Kent</span> Town in Kent, England

Chatham is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. In 2020 it had a population of 80,596.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rochester, Kent</span> Town in Kent, England

Rochester is a town in the unitary authority of Medway, in Kent, England. It is at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway, about 30 miles (50 km) from London. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rainham, Strood and Gillingham. Rochester was a city until losing its status as one in 1998 following the forming of Medway and failing to protect its status as a city. There have been ongoing campaigns to reinstate the city status for Rochester. In 2011 it had a population of 62,982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medway</span> Unitary authority area in Kent, England

Medway is a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent, South East England. Its council, Medway Council, is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is independent from Kent County Council. The borough had a population of 278,016 in 2019. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham. The borough contains the towns of Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Rochester and Strood, which are collectively known as the Medway Towns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillingham, Kent</span> Town in Kent, England

Gillingham is a town in the unitary authority area of Medway, in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. It is also the largest town in the borough of Medway. In 2020 it had a population of 108,785.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatham Dockyard</span> Former Royal Navy Dockyard in Kent

Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham; at its most extensive two-thirds of the dockyard lay in Gillingham, one-third in Chatham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Luton</span>

Fort Luton was built between 1876 and 1892 south of Chatham, Medway, South East England. It is one of the five late Victorian land front forts built to defend the overland approaches to Chatham. It is the smallest of the Chatham forts and was built near to the village of Luton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Amherst</span> Fortification in South East England

Fort Amherst, in Medway, South East England, was constructed in 1756 at the southern end of the Brompton lines of defence to protect the southeastern approaches to Chatham Dockyard and the River Medway against a French invasion. Fort Amherst is now open as a visitor attraction throughout the year with tours provided through the tunnel complex

The site of Fort Bridgewoods is on the outskirts of Rochester, Medway in the United Kingdom, next to the Rochester-Maidstone road (B2097). The site was acquired by the War Office in about 1860 to form part of a ring of forts protecting the Royal Dockyard at Chatham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Eastern and Chatham Railway</span> British railway union

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC), known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Eastern Railway (SER) and London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR), which operated between London and south-east England. Between 1899 and 1923, the SE&CR had a monopoly of railway services in Kent and to the main Channel ports for ferries to France and Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borstal, Rochester</span> Human settlement in England

Borstal is a place in the Medway unitary authority of Kent in South East England. Originally a village near Rochester, it has become absorbed by the expansion of Rochester. The youth prison at Borstal gave its name to the Borstal reform school system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SECR C class</span>

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) C Class is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive, designed by Harry Wainwright and built between 1900 and 1908. They were designed for freight duties, although occasionally used for passenger trains. They operated over the lines of the railway in London and south-east England until the early 1960s. One example was rebuilt as an S Class saddle tank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SECR H class</span>

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) H Class is a class of 0-4-4T steam locomotive originally designed for suburban passenger work, designed by Harry Wainwright in 1904. Most of the sixty-six members of the class were later equipped for push-pull working for use on rural branch lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chattenden and Upnor Railway</span> Military railway in Upnor, Kent, England (1885-1961)

The Chattenden and Upnor Railway was a narrow gauge railway serving the military barracks and depot at Upnor, Kent and associated munitions and training depots. It started life in the early 1870s as a standard-gauge railway. The 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge working began in 1885, initially in a mixed gauge formation with the standard gauge, and post circa 1903 2 ft. 6 in. gauge exclusively. In the latter form the line continued in use until the end of 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SECR D class</span>

The SECR D class is a class of 4-4-0 tender locomotives designed by Harry Wainwright for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Rochester</span>

HM Prison Rochester is a male Young Offenders Institution, founded in 1874, and located in the Borstal area of Rochester in Kent, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and is located next to HMP Cookham Wood.

The Chatham and District Light Railways Company was the originator and first operator of the electric tramway system that served Chatham and Gillingham, and was later extended into Rochester, Strood and Rainham. The system was in operation from 17 June 1902 to 30 September 1930, when it was superseded by the motorbuses of the Chatham and District Traction Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Rochester, Kent</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Horsted</span>

Fort Horsted is a scheduled monument that lies in the Horsted Valley to the South of Chatham, Kent, England. It is a late 19th-century Land Fort, and one of six constructed around Chatham and Gillingham, Kent to protect HM Dockyard Chatham from attack. Originally proposed in the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom Report, published in 1860, it and the other land defences were omitted as part of general cost cutting with only the coastal defences on the River Medway being retained and completed under the original 1860 proposals. It was not until the mid-1870s that a revised programme was accepted, which included the construction of a convict prison at Borstal, Rochester, to provide low cost labour for the construction of a line of four forts, Fort Borstal, Fort Bridgewood, Fort Horsted and Fort Luton. Its construction started in 1879 and was complete by 1889 after much delay.

References

  1. 1 2 Lyne, R.M. (1983). Military Railways in Kent. Ramsgate: North Kent Books. ISBN   0-948305-04-5.
  2. "Exploring Kent's Past". webapps.kent.gov.uk. 25 January 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2024.

Bibliography

Out Of The Shadows, A History Of Borstal Village, by Stephen Hannington, 2015. ISBN 978-0-9564677-7-5