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On the 9th September 1692, at about 2.00 in the afternoon, the Kent coast was hit by a substantial earthquake.
The Rev. Charles Elvin's Records of Walmer (1890) gives an account of Sandown Castle in the 18th and 19th centuries (picture below shows the castle depicted on a Victorian pot lid).
'A.D. 1786, the sea broke through the outer wall of the moat at Sandown,
rendering the castle 'barely habitable' and leaving behind a large accumulation of shingle. Eight years later, A.D. 1793, the encroachments of the sea were reported to have rendered that castle 'unfit for habitation'; but in consequence of the French Revolutionary War, it was put into repair, and once more garrisoned with soldiers: and later on, that is to say from an early date in the present century [19th century], it did duty as a Coastguard Station. Its last captain, Sir John Hill, of Walmer, was appointed in 1851; but the command was then honorary. [1]
In 1793 a porter named Bowles, who had tenanted the castle for almost 43 years, said that over the years he had witnessed the encroachment of the sea. The general theory at the time was that the erosion resulted after the construction of Ramsgate harbour, causing a diversion in the tides.[2]
The last captain of the castle, Sir John Hill, was Rear Admiral of the White Squadron. He was first lieutenant of the Minotaur at the battle of the Nile in 1798, and served with the army in Egypt under General Sir Ralph Abercrombie in 1801. He died in 1855 aged 81 and is commemorated by a tablet in old St Mary's church at Walmer.
Sandown Castle was still regarded as viable in 1859, even though in July it caught fire due to some careless plumbers leaving a fire unattended while repairing the leads on the ramparts. In January 1860 newly designed Armstrong breech loading guns were mounted on the castle.
On 27 December 1862 the Deal Walmer and Sandwich Telegram reports: 'Sandown Castle has suffered severely, a new strongly built sea-wall being washed down, thus giving the sea a clear passage to the moat, which has been filled with water and rendered the Castle unfit for habitation'.
The Rev. Charles Elvin continues:
'The inroads of the sea continuing, the materials of the castle were, in 1863, sold by the War Office for £565, and in the following year the central tower and upper tower and the upper part of the bastions were pulled down. Thus Sandown Castle was reduced to a heap of ruins, which from time to time, whenever a portion has been undermined and rendered dangerous by the action of the waves, have undergone further demolition; till at last little remains of the old fortress but an unsightly pile of chalk'.
In 1863 some of the stone from the castle was used to construct the abutment of Deal pier. A boat builder, John Chittenden, who died 19 January 1871 was buried in an oak coffin he had made himself from wood salvaged from the staircase near the entrance of the castle.[3] However, a substantial amount of the castle lasted for many years; a further phase of demolition occurred in 1882.
On 18 November 1882 The Illustrated London News published a set of drawings of the ruinous castle, a detail of one of the drawings shows workmen picking away at the stonework with wrecking bars (see right). Few identifiable features survive; one view shows a ruinous gatehouse, one of the smaller drawings illustrates the gallery which ran around the basement and provided access to the 32 firing loops. This phase of demolition left the seaward walls of the castle remaining, but the sea continued to undermine the structure until further action was taken in 1894. The full set of drawings can be seen in the
gallery.
On 24 February 1894 the Deal, Walmer and Sandwich Mercury reported one of the later demolition attempts:
REMOVAL OF THE OVERHANGING RUINS OF SANDOWN CASTLE
'The demolition of a considerable portion of Sandown Castle, at North Deal, was proceeded with on Wednesday [21 Feb], the blasting operations creating a great deal of interest. The work has been carried out by a small party of the 37th Field Company Royal Engineers, from Shorncliffe, under the direction of Major Kenney, R.E. Gun cotton is the explosive used, [fired by electricity from the outlines of the golf links close by]. . . Many of the inhabitants of Deal can remember when the castle was not touched by the sea, but for years past the tide has regularly flowed into the interior of the castle, filling its casemates and bastions with beach. The demolition of the castle to the ground line was commenced on July 17th, 1863. The seaward portions of the structure were considered unsafe to the public by whom the ruins were visited, and the War Office were petitioned by the Deal Town Council, and therefore, decided to demolish them. The principal part of the ruins demolished are those of two flank casemates and one central casemate facing the sea, which had undermined it. Double and triple simultaneous charges were used, some of them being very much more powerful than others, and hurling the debris to a great height, accompanied by a loud explosion, which caused a tremor for a considerable distance around. The proceedings have been watched from a distance by a large number of persons who, however, ran considerable risk. Two persons were injured - a man named Cribben having his head cut open by a missile, and another named Twyman, receiving injuries to his thigh in the same way, but, fortunately, neither proved serious. The work was continued on Thursday and the Engineers left Deal yesterday (Friday) at noon'.
The postcard (left) shows the remains of the castle in the 1920s. In recent times more of the castle was removed, and a sea wall built around what remained. In February 1983 heavy seas swept away the beach north of the ruin, exposing some of the inner walls of the moat. Further improvements to the sea defences mean there is now no outward sign of the castle.
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