The Little Turf Bulwark was an earthwork artillery position, built in 1539 to protect the Downs anchorage in east Kent. Decommissioned in 1550, the site has since been lost.
History
The Little Turf Bulwark was built as a consequence of international tensions between England, France and the Holy Roman Empire in the final years of the reign of King Henry VIII. Traditionally the Crown had left coastal defences to the local lords and communities, only taking a modest role in building and maintaining fortifications, and while France and the Empire remained in conflict with one another, maritime raids were common but an actual invasion of England seemed unlikely. Modest defences, based around simple blockhouses and towers, existed in the south-west and along the Sussex coast, with a few more impressive works in the north of England, but in general the fortifications were very limited in scale.
In 1533, Henry broke with Pope Paul III in order to annul the long-standing marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon and remarry. Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and he took the annulment as a personal insult. This resulted in France and the Empire declaring an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraging the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England appeared certain. In response, Henry issued an order, called a “device”, in 1539, giving instructions for the “defence of the realm in time of invasion” and the construction of forts along the English coastline.
The Downs in east Kent were an important anchorage formed by the Goodwin Sands which gave access to Deal Beach, on which enemy soldiers could easily be landed. In response, the Crown constructed three stone castles from 1539 onwards – Walmer, Deal and Sandown – supported by a line of four earthwork forts, known as the Great Turf, the Little Turf Bulwark, the Great White Bulwark of Clay and the Walmer Bulwark, and a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) defensive ditch and bank. Collectively the project cost the Crown a total of £27,092.1Comparing early modern costs and prices with those of the modern period is challenging. £27,092 in 1539 could be equivalent to between £15.3 million and £6,960 million in 2014, depending on the price comparison used, and £174 to between £98,000 and £44 million. For comparison, the total royal expenditure on all the Device Forts across England between 1539–47 came to £376,500, with St Mawes, for example, costing £5,018, and Sandgate £5,584. £500 in 1648 could be equivalent to between £60,300 and £16.7 million.
The Little Turf Bulwark comprised an earthwork defence, accessed from the landward side with probably five firing positions for anti-ship artillery around the rampart. It was linked to the rest of the defences by a trench or a covered way that ran along the coast. It was designed by Stephen Haschenperg, a Moravian engineer retained by Henry. By 1547, the bulwark was defaced and the guns had been removed; it was formally removed from service in 1550. The site has since been lost.
Bibliography
- Biddle, Martin; Hiller, Jonathon; Scott, Ian; Streeten, Anthony (2001). Henry VIII’s Coastal Artillery Fort at Camber Castle, Rye, East Sussex: An Archaeological Structural and Historical Investigation. Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books. ISBN 0904220230.
- Elvin, Charles R. S. (1890). Records of Walmer, Together with “The Three Castles that Keep the Downs”. London, UK: Henry Gray. OCLC 4866519.
- Harrington, Peter (2007). The Castles of Henry VIII. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781472803801.
- Hale, John R. (1983). Renaissance War Studies. London, UK: Hambledon Press. ISBN 0907628176.
- Morley, B. M. (1976). Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defence. London, UK: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. ISBN 0116707771.
- Rutton, W. L. (1898). “Henry VIII’s Castles at Sandown, Deal, Walmer, Sandgate, and Camber”. Archaeologia Cantiana. 23: 24–30.
- Saunders, Andrew (1989). Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland. Liphook, UK: Beaufort. ISBN 1855120003.
- Walton, Steven A. (2010). “State Building Through Building for the State: Foreign and Domestic Expertise in Tudor Fortification”. Osiris. 25 (1): 66–84.
Attribution
The text of this page was adapted from “Walmer Castle” on the English language website Wikipedia, as the version dated 30 September 2018, and accordingly the text of this page is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Principal editors have included Hchc2009, 80.43.202.118 and Neddyseagoon, and the contributions of all editors can be found on the history tab of the Wikipedia article.