an 1866 report stated that the walls had been undermined by the sea. Despite protective piles being driven around the castle, it was badly affected by flooding in 1875 and 1878, creating serious fissures in the stonework. The high costs of maintaining the property, combined with its dwindling utility, encouraged the government to sell the castle to the South Eastern Railway company in 1888, who intended to turn it into a railway station. It was then sold to private owners and a small museum was created in the castle, which was sometimes opened to the public for an entry price of one penny. 20th–21st centuries The receding coast line continued to threaten Sandgate Castle, and severe storms in 1927 and 1950 undermined large parts of the castle. By the time that a new seawall was built in the early 1950s, the southern third of the castle had been entirely destroyed. In 1975, Peter and Barbara McGregor began to restore the ruins of the castle, with the support of the Department of the Environment, Kent County Council and the British Army. As part of the project, archaeological investigations were carried out between 1975 and 1979 by Edward Harris. The part of the 1806 esplanade around the northeast bastion was excavated, revealing the lower 16th-century stonework of the tower and the east side of the 1859 magazine, and a retaining wall was built to support the newly exposed walls. This created two levels in the outer bailey: a higher level on the western side, which still covered the northwest tower, and a lower one on the eastern. The keep was turned into a private residence, with a new sun room built on top of the gun platform. In 2000, Lord Geoffrey Boot and his wife acquired the castle, which is now used by Boot's company, AMT South Eastern Ltd. The castle is protected under UK law as a grade I listed building. The two 16th-century ledger books from the original construction, written by the project clerk Thomas Busshe, survive in the British Library. They are 350 pages long, and form what the historian Peter Harrington has described as the "most complete building account of any Tudor fortification". See also Castles in Great Britain and Ireland Notes References Bibliography Castles in Kent Forts in Kent Device Forts Folkestone and Hythe District Grade I listed buildings in Kent 1540 establishments in England