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Report - - Fort Clarence - Rochester - Kent - West Casemates - January 2021 | Military Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Fort Clarence - Rochester - Kent - West Casemates - January 2021

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KentUrbanExploration

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Quick bit of history:
This is one of the many forts in Medway and construction started in 1808 and completed in 1812. The fort was built to run
from its flanking tower Medway Tower that sat on the river right through to it's other flanking tower Maidstone Tower on
Maidstone road, sadly neither of the flanking towers still exist and Maidstone tower being the one that lasted the longest
was demolished in the 1960's.
Another main part of the fort that was destroyed was the large brick archway that went over the road as a defendable gateway
across Borstal Road, this was taken down in 1924.
The other casemates of this fort (the East Casemates) which have been covered a few times now on this site, they would have
given protection down the dry ditch on the opposite side of Clarence Tower.
The main section of the fort consisted of a thin long fort with a main central tower (Clarence Tower) which still exists
as luxury apartments. The rest of the fort was once again demolished in the 1960's. Throught it's life it had many uses
including a miitary hospital from the 1830's, then a military prison and lunatic asylum, once Fort Pitt had become a
military hospital the patients were moved there from Clarence, but The fort continued as a prison after the asylum moved
and it became common place for soldiers found guilty of crimes to be flogged at the fort. Newspaper reports from the 1920’s
report soldiers being carried back after their floggings with their tunics draped over their shoulders, so bad were their
injuries that they couldn’t do them up. It was used in the first world war as a recruitment centre and in the second word
war it was used by the home guard.

Onto the Explore:
Now as like most explorers that have looked into the Medway forts we were led to believe that the only section of the
subterranean features that was left is the East Casemates, and that the West Casemates were no longer accessible. As I grew
up in the area I have constantly seen the outside of these casemates, but was always told they were refered to as a
guardhouse, and the sight of the mighty metal door always made ourselves and many other local urbexers want to have a peek
inside. Over the years many an Urbexer has tried to gain access by breaking through the outside wall, it looks like at one
point someone had managed to gain access but this has long been blocked up and not accessible. After a lot of research and
managing to find the small detail that gave it away to us, all that was left was to go out in the field and find the exact
point.
After finding the entry point and a couple of days work we managed to get inside. Once inside we could see relatively new
lighting and had the life scared out of us as there were sensors down there which switched the lights on. After a little
look around we realised we had discovered more than we had bargained for as you can see in the pictures.
This was an amazing explore and we feel privileged
to have gotten to see it, some of the features are amazing and we have
never seen them in any other fort so far.
We hope you enjoy this as our first post on here with many more to come.
We are on all the usual sites just look for our name to see more.


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KentUrbanExploration

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice to see you posting this on the forum, seen it on book face earlier, have to ask wheres the power coming from for the lights on the wall
Thank you, we have been meaning to come over to this site for a while and will continue to post on here now and get our previous explores up as well.
To be honest I didn't actually look where the power cable ran to, I would hazard a guess the end towards the tower, but as they were growing down there they may have found a powersource nearby and tapped into it? sorry I couldn't clear that up any more.
 

KentUrbanExploration

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice 1st report, very detailed. Yes Id like to know how the electric was set up too? looks like its been open a while, as a grow takes mths. Surprised this wasn't caught tbh. Nice set you've produced. Especially like this one great angle.
1618576553389.png
Thank you for that, I'm glad I did it right, I've seen a few people get moaned at for not doing it correctly so I definitely tried with it. As per my previous response, I'm afraid I didn't actually look where the wire ran too/from.
It was actually caught by the police a good few years ago it made the papers. I think thats why its all just been left there. There were a few old plants kicking about here and there, but you could tell they were a few years dead and the expiration dates on the bottles of nutrients was like a year+ out of date.
Thank you for the compliment on the pictures, I'm just starting out with photography and this is my first half decent bridge camera, so I hope I will improve as time goes on and I will learn how to light paint as well to get a few more artistic shots.
 

Calamity Jane

i see beauty in the unloved, places & things
Regular User
Thank you for that, I'm glad I did it right, I've seen a few people get moaned at for not doing it correctly so I definitely tried with it. As per my previous response, I'm afraid I didn't actually look where the wire ran too/from.
It was actually caught by the police a good few years ago it made the papers. I think thats why its all just been left there. There were a few old plants kicking about here and there, but you could tell they were a few years dead and the expiration dates on the bottles of nutrients was like a year+ out of date.
Thank you for the compliment on the pictures, I'm just starting out with photography and this is my first half decent bridge camera, so I hope I will improve as time goes on and I will learn how to light paint as well to get a few more artistic shots.
You did everything spot on, followed format and produced a good report. Deserves a well done imho. I like to encourage people in this great hobby. As for lighting its odd they still work. Another report the day after yours put a link to KL so I saw it was busted. Very professional outfit though. Again well done.
 

Melusinasdream73

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Awesome images and great info. I lived in Kent in the 1980s briefly and had family in Maidstone. I was told there's great things to explore there. I was only ten when I lived there and not a good time in our family lives so I barely saw anything that wasn't mainstream. Oddly enough none of the family knew about our several hundred years of ancestors there owing to military service and civil service families and post WW2 divorces and emigration.
I actually popped down to Canterbury last February. Had an insanely challenging week there in the hurricanes however I did find some fantastic folks who aren't related to me who knew my family and their farms so I'm hoping at some point to get down there and explore including the Roman fort and all sorts. I appreciate your inspiration and dedication. Happy Saturday everyone. Have fun
 

KentUrbanExploration

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
You did everything spot on, followed format and produced a good report. Deserves a well done imho. I like to encourage people in this great hobby. As for lighting its odd they still work. Another report the day after yours put a link to KL so I saw it was busted. Very professional outfit though. Again well done.
Thank you it's good to know were going in the right direction.
Yeah definitely weird, n a poop the pants moment when they 1st went on lol.
Yeah we thought we would skip over that side of it and let people work it out. Was a well set up place, was probably a good money spinner, was most likely the smell that gave it away.
 

KentUrbanExploration

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
This is quite interesting. Fort Clarence is the one with the school on top isn't it? Or am I mistaking it for another?
Hi, no fort clarence is the one in borstal with the main tower being converted into luxury apartments, the one with the school is Fort Pitt, which we were the ones to open up aswell,we just need to do our report on it.
 

KentUrbanExploration

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Awesome images and great info. I lived in Kent in the 1980s briefly and had family in Maidstone. I was told there's great things to explore there. I was only ten when I lived there and not a good time in our family lives so I barely saw anything that wasn't mainstream. Oddly enough none of the family knew about our several hundred years of ancestors there owing to military service and civil service families and post WW2 divorces and emigration.
I actually popped down to Canterbury last February. Had an insanely challenging week there in the hurricanes however I did find some fantastic folks who aren't related to me who knew my family and their farms so I'm hoping at some point to get down there and explore including the Roman fort and all sorts. I appreciate your inspiration and dedication. Happy Saturday everyone. Have fun
Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated. It's crazy how things always seem to loop around. There is a lot around here to explore, more reports will come of places weve already been and are going to.
Hope u enjoy future reports, happy exploring
 

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