Grain Tower
It owed its existence to the need to protect the important dockyards at Sheerness and Chatham from a perceived French naval threat during a period of tension in the 1850s.At the time of the tower's construction, there were widespread fears that the imperial rivalry between Britain and France could result in a French invasion or naval incursion along the River Thames.[2] The Medway also had major installations, notably the Chatham Dockyard, which had been targeted to devastating effect by the Dutch during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667.[1] Its location enabled the tower's arc of fire to overlap with that of the guns at Garrison Point on the Isle of Sheppey, on the other side of the Medway.A fresh invasion scare at the end of the 1850s prompted the British government to appoint a Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, which published a far-reaching report in 1860.This required the construction of a raised concrete and stone structure on the tower's roof within which the new guns were emplaced, and a shelter was created to provide room for detachments, stores and fire control.[3] The guns remained in place through the First World War, when the Grain Tower found an additional purpose as one end of a boom defence stretching across the Medway to Sheerness.At the tower's rear, a brick and concrete barrack block standing on stilts was constructed to house the gun detachment.
Grain, KentConcretegraniteRiver MedwayMartello towersSheernessChathamcasematedtorpedo boatsSecond World WarsDeptfordWoolwich ArsenalNorth WoolwichPurfleetChatham Dockyardtargeted to devastating effectSecond Anglo-Dutch WarThamesarc of fireIsle of SheppeyashlarMartello towerNapoleonic WarsBréhon Tower68-pounder gunbarbetterifled muzzle loaderRoyal Commission on the Defence of the United KingdomGrain FortGarrison Point Fort4.7-inch quick-firing (QF) gunsboom defence6-pounder QF gunEnglish Heritagelisted buildingscheduled monumenturban explorersCrown EstateHistoric EnglandNational Heritage List for England