Sandgate Castle

We've been aware of this site our entire lives, and it kills us that we can't go in and have a proper look. But this is a residential site now, which is both amazing and a terrible shame, so if you're walking along the seafront to have a look please be respectful.

Sandgate Castle was constructed in 1539/1540 by Henry VIII as an artillery fort. It seems strange to mention him without having to reference how he caused the downfall of a site. No, this time he was the reason for its construction (positively) in the last few years of his life. The intention was to protect England against the French and the Holy Roman Empire where tensions had begun to grow and so he devised the 'Device Programme' which effectively put in place small fortresses in the weaker parts of the coast. This castle had a central stone keep made from Kentish Ragstone, three towers, and a gatehouse. It was fitted with 142 firing points for cannons and handguns and was capable of holding four tiers of artillery.

It was a fair few years before Sandgate Castle saw any action. In the meantime it was visited by the king when he came to Folkestone in 1542, but was called to action first by his daughter, Elizabeth I in 1573. She used it to imprison Thomas Keyes when he married Lady Mary Grey behind her back.

This changed when future battles that the king had not foreseen came. Long after his lifetime, when the First English Civil War came in 1642, the castle was taken by Parliamentary forces, however when the second one came in 1648 the Royalist rebels took it. There isn't a record that the castle changed in any way during this period, but it had a lucky escape as based on previous sites we've visited one side usually slights the site so the other can't have it. It was recorded that the castle was to be left as a fort, but that it was quite outdated so it had begun to fall from favour along with its sister castles in Deal and Sandown.

Sandgate did see change during the Napoleonic Wars when the castle was redesigned. Brigadier-General William Twiss surveyed the south coast in 1804 and deemed that it would benefit more from a series of 58 new defensive towers instead of the outdated fortresses already in place. He opted to convert Sandgate Castle into a secure sea battery and so they reduced its size and turned the keep into a Martello tower. It was then armed with ten 24 pounder guns and a garrison of 40 men.

By the 17th century the castle had started to show sea damage and the receding coastline became apparent in the mid-19th century when it reached the edge of the castle walls. As the costs of repair were getting higher due to the frequency it was needed, the government decided to sell the castle in 1888. It was purchased by a railway company and then passed off into private ownership.

By the 1950s coastal erosion had gotten so bad that the southern part of the castle had been completely destroyed by the sea. What remained of the castle was renovated in 1975 by the McGregors who turned the martello tower-esque keep into a private residence.

Nowadays, the castle sits peacefully at the back of a pub and can be viewed (or what is left of it) as you walk past it when visiting the beach. Blue plaques tell you of its history but you can't go inside which is a shame as remnants of its history from different eras are still present. We wish we were lucky enough to live here, but with this housing market there is no chance. We'll settle for the benches outside overlooking the sea for now.

Haunted: 3/10

Worth the visit: 7/10

Giftshop: n/a

Ghost count: 0

Dog friendly: n/a

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