of the Grand Shaft Barracks (across the Centre Road, close to the North Gate) a number of buildings were added in the 1860s to serve the whole Western Heights garrison, including a Garrison Chapel and School. A Military Hospital had already been built to the south in 1804–06; extended in the 1860s, it latterly served as a headquarters for the Royal Engineers. These garrison buildings, along with both the Grand Shaft Barracks and South Front Barracks, were almost entirely demolished in the 1960s. The Grand Shaft To assist with the movement of troops between the Heights and the town defences and harbour, Twiss made his case for building the Grand Shaft in the cliff, adjacent to the barracks parade ground: ‘...the new barracks.....are little more than 300 yards horizontally from the beach.....and about above high-water mark, but in order to communicate with them from the centre of town, on horseback the distance is nearly a mile and a half and to walk it about three-quarters of a mile, and all the roads unavoidably pass over ground more than above the barracks, besides the footpaths are so steep and chalky that a number of accidents will unavoidably happen during the wet weather and more especially after floods. I am therefore induced to recommend the construction of a shaft, with a triple staircase.... chief objective of which is the convenience and safety of troops....and may eventually be useful in sending reinforcements to troops or in affording them a secure retreat.’ Twiss's plan was approved and building went ahead. The resulting shaft was in diameter, deep with a gallery connecting the bottom of the shaft to Snargate Street, and all for under an estimated £4000. The plan entailed building two brick-lined shafts, one inside the other. In the outer would be built a triple staircase, the inner acting as a light well with ‘windows’ cut in its outer wall to illuminate the staircases. Apparently, by March 1805 only of the connecting gallery was left to dig and it is probable that the project was completed by 1807. Coast Artillery batteries In the 1850s a gun battery was built, as part of Dover's coast artillery defences, on the slope below Drop Redoubt. Known as the Drop Battery, it was designed with emplacements for eight 8-inch guns. Within ten years, however, construction of the North-East Line of fortification (extending south from the Redoubt) had blocked