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Some of the original railway lines can be seen in the cow-shed floor of the prison farm, which in a previous incarnation was the railway workshop. The line of a section of the track between Fort
Bridgewood and Fort Horsted can be seen from the air (for example on Google Earth), as it curves away in a
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With the development of the nuclear bomb, new protected headquarters were built at
Bridgewoods in the early 1950s. Shortly after completion Anti Aircraft Command was disbanded and the site used for Civil Defence preparation and training. In 1960 the protected headquarters became the regional HQ for
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Because of budget restraints and changing fashions in fortifications, no fixed armament was mounted; instead earthen ramps were built to enable field artillery to fire from the fort’s parapet. The fort was a radical departure from traditional design, of earth construction, with a deep dry moat
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to the fort via a branch of the EDR. This was done using a special type of locomotive called a
Handyside locomotive that could be clamped to the tracks while it hauled wagons up behind it in stages using a winch mounted on the front of the loco. The prisoners were transported along the EDR in
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radar were undertaken at the Fort in the late 1930s. With radar installed, Bridgewoods served as headquarters for anti-aircraft guns in the Thames
Estuary with the two flanking forts of Horsted and Borstal being among the most up-to-date anti-aircraft batteries in Britain.
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but a shortage of money meant only five of the original large works plus two small experimental earthen redoubts were built. Work, using convict labour, started 30 years later in 1890, but by that time the enemy it was supposed to repulse,
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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
230:) gauge railway to move building materials between the sites, called the Eastern Defences Railway (EDR), built by the Royal Engineers. Building materials were brought by barge up the
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designed to blend in with the line of the land. There were magazines and living quarters under the earthen walls. A new large prison was built on the hill above the nearby village of
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In 1975 the site was sold to a property developer who quickly demolished the fort and bunker. The site remained empty for a number of years and is now a
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deliberately mined and blew up one corner of the fort during a field exercise. With repairs undertaken the fort slipped into obscurity until trials with
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to house the workforce. It later became a prison for young offenders and gave its name to the
Borstal Institution system of correction.
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lockable carriages, accompanied by armed warders. The railway remained in use until about 1905.
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London (south) and remained in use until the early 1970s.
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It was envisaged that the line would stretch from the
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534:Out of the Shadows, A History of Borstal Village
330:"Fort Bridgewoods AAOR – Subterranea Britannica"
251:After completion and until the outbreak of the
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16:Former military facility in Medway, England
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111:Learn how and when to remove this message
573:Military railways in the United Kingdom
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280:depot. Part of the fort is also under
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303:Military Railways in Kent
568:Military history of Kent
157:is on the outskirts of
536:. Birch Leaf Books.
222:) were linked by an
141:51.35972°N 0.49444°E
45:improve this article
301:Lyne, R.M. (1983).
210:Four of the forts (
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334:www.subbrit.org.uk
218:, Bridgewoods and
60:"Fort Bridgewoods"
543:978-0-9564677-7-5
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488:Fort Horsted
483:Fort Darland
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441:(Napoleonic)
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418:Upnor Castle
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337:. Retrieved
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43:Please help
38:verification
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513:Fort Darnet
462:Outer Ring
439:Inner Ring
268:Nuclear age
236:North Downs
228:457 mm
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557:Categories
493:Fort Luton
466:Palmerston
339:17 January
288:References
278:Royal Mail
261:gun laying
247:World wars
224:18 in
132:00°29′40″E
129:51°21′35″N
71:newspapers
588:Y service
451:Fort Pitt
159:Rochester
508:Hoo Fort
404:Medieval
173:Building
220:Borstal
216:Horsted
206:Railway
200:Borstal
192:Germany
181:to the
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188:France
183:Thames
163:Medway
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92:JSTOR
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341:2024
307:ISBN
64:news
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