Gravesend Blockhouse (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cranes Bulwark; Le Grene

In the civil parish of Gravesham.
In the historic county of Kent.
Modern Authority of Kent.
1974 county of Kent.
Medieval County of Kent.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ64997442
Latitude 51.44463° Longitude 0.37277°

Gravesend Blockhouse has been described as a certain Artillery Fort, and also as a Chain Tower although is doubtful that it was such.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Gravesend Blockhouse, built in 1539, was situated on a "piece of land called Le Grene," to the north of the Terrace, at the west side of the Terrace Garden and Pier. It survived until 1834. Some brick walls of the blockhouse found during excavation 1973-4 are to be consolidated and made visible to the public in the riverside garden of the Berni Inn. A plan by John Romer, made in 1715, shows the full extent of the building; it had a curved front facing the river, with two angled faces on the landward side and a curved bastion on the W side. Gravesend Blockhouse was one of five built by Henry VIII on the Thames Estuary in 1539. In the 18th century, the blockhouse was converted into a magazine, and the building was demolished in the mid-19th century. The western two-thirds of the semi-circular front wall with its gunports is consolidated and displayed. The remainder of the site was under the car park to the E and road to the S. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005120, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ke379
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 413783.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) TQ 67 SW 5.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- British Library online gallery
  Discover Gravesham
  Kent History Forum
  Thames Defence Heritage
Books
- Harrington, Peter, 2007, The Castles of Henry VIII (Oxford: Osprey) p. 8, 17-18, 28, 38, 42, 44, 60
  Salter, Mike, 2000, The Castles of Kent (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 45
  Smith, Victor and Green, Eric, 2000, Defending London's River 3 - The Gravesend Blockhouse (New Tavern Fort Project in association with Gravesham Leisure)
  Saunders, Andrew, 1997, Channel Defences (London; Batsford/English Heritage) p. 49, 121
  Kent, Peter, 1988, Fortifications of East Anglia (Lavenham: Ternence Dalton)
  Saunders, A.D., 1985, Tilbury Fort Essex (London: English Heritage) p. 4
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 236
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1982, The history of the King's Works Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) (London) p. 602-3
  Smithers, David Waldron, 1980, Castles in Kent (Chatham)
  Bennett, D., 1977, A Handbook of Kent's defences from 1540 until 1945 p. 9
  Newman, John, 1969, Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (Harmondsworth) p. 303
  Cruden, R.P., 1843, The history of the town of Gravesend in the county of Kent, and of the port of London p. 161-3, 509-16 online copy
  Hasted, Edward, 1797 (2edn), The history and topographical survey of the county of Kent Vol. 3 p. 319- (slight) online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Cherry, J., 1978, 'Post-medieval Britain in 1977' Post-Medieval Archaeology Vol. 12 p. 109-10
  Thompson, D. and Smith, V., 1977, 'The excavation of the Gravesend blockhouse, 1975-76' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 93 p. 153-77 online copy
  Thompson, D.G., 1976, 'The Tudor blockhouse at the Clarendon Royal Hotel, Gravesend: interim report' Kent Archaeological review Vol. 45 p. 116-18 online copy
  Smith, V.T.C., 1974, 'The Artillery Defences at Gravesend' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 89 p. 141-168 online copy
  Crookshank, A.A., 1965, Royal Engineers Journal Vol. 23 p. 207-16
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Thamesis Descriptio Anno 1588 online copy
  Gairdner, J. and Brodie, R.H. (eds), 1896, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII Vol. 15 p. 131 no. 323, 324 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 250
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1909, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 4 p. 48, online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Kent County Council, December 2004, Kent Historic Towns Survey (Kent County Council and English Heritage) view online copy
  Saunders, A. and Smith, V., 2001, Kent's Defence Heritage Gazetteer (Kent County Council) Part 1: KD128

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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