Sheerness Docks
Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey has been a crucial maritime area for almost five hundred years. Situated in the Thames Estuary, it was realised in the seventeeth century that Sheerness had great strategic importance, as a hostile naval force that could gain control of the Isle of Sheppey would then have access to the Royal Dockyard at Chatham via the River Medway and up the Thames into London itself and the vital naval dockyards of Deptford and Woolwich. Maintaining control of Sheerness was therefore recognised as being essential to the Admiralty.
During the first half of the seventeenth century Sheerness was little more than uninhabited marshland, rife with the ague, a form of malaria. Living conditions were very poor – even fresh water had to be brought in – and men working there lived on hulks (old ships). As these old hulks sank, they were infilled with earth and new ground was slowly created on which to build a dockyard.
In 1665 a party from the Admiralty, including the famous diarist Samuel Pepys, arrived at Sheerness to survey the area and begin their plans for the building of the new dockyard. Work commenced and quickly progressed, but the defences of Sheerness were not complete when an attacking Dutch fleet arrived in 1667. After a brief exchange of fire the incomplete fort at Sheerness was quickly surrendered and the Dutch proceeded up the Medway, attacking the Royal Dockyard at Chatham and leaving with the Royal Navy’s flagship, the Royal Charles. The Dutch then sailed back to Holland, destroying all the construction work that had been undertaken at Sheerness.
The embarrassment of this attack meant that reconstruction work began almost immediately, and by 1672 Sheerness Fort and the adjacent dockyard was complete.
The hulks on which the reclaimed dockyard land was built continued to rot away, and by the nineteenth century there was a danger the reclaimed land would become unstable. In 1813 a major rebuild of the yard began, using more reclaimed land which was protected from the sea behind a granite wall. The soft foundations created many major construction difficulties, but by 1823 three dry dockyards were complete. The Small Basin and Boat Basin were completed next, with the construction of ancillary buildings continuing for several years.
As the Industrial Revolution took hold and sail ships were replaced with steam, the dockyard underwent many changes to keep up with the technology of the time to ensure Sheerness maintained its vital role for the Royal Navy. Defence of the dockyard also had to be redressed, and by 1850 a gun battery was in place, followed in 1855 by a Martello-style tower and in 1877 by the completion of Garrison Point Fort.
As the nineteenth century progressed the use of the ancillary buildings changed. In 1892 a gunnery school was established in the building originally built in 1821.
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Fortifications In This Area
Garrison Upper Level
Garrison Lower Level
RNXS Port Control
Centre Bastion
Sheerness
Docks
10.10.09
Sheerness Docks PDF