Fort Pitt, Kent
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Fort Pitt is a
Napoleonic era The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and history of Europe, Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly (French Revoluti ...
fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...
on the high ground of the boundary between Chatham and Rochester,
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. A fort on the site was proposed as early as 1779 by Hugh Debbieg, then Chief Engineer at Chatham. In 1783 the land was purchased by the
Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence ...
and 4.5 million bricks were deposited there in preparation for construction. (Nothing immediately followed, however, and the bricks were instead used for the rebuilding of the Lines). The fort was finally built between 1805 and 1819. At that point, the Napoleonic Wars having ended, it ceased being manned as a fort and instead became an important
military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned or operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a m ...
. In the 1820s-50s it was the only General (as opposed to regimental) Military Hospital in England, and, until the opening of
Netley Hospital The Royal Victoria Hospital or Netley Hospital was a large British Military Hospital, military hospital in Netley, near Southampton, Hampshire, England. Construction started in 1856 at the suggestion of Queen Victoria but its design caused some ...
in 1863, it was considered the '' de facto'' Headquarters of the Army Medical Department. Fort Pitt Hospital closed in the 1920s, since then the surviving buildings have housed a girls'
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
.


History


The original hospital

In 1793 Chatham was one of five sites selected by the new Army Medical Board for the establishment of a General (as opposed to regimental) Hospital. Towards the end of the century an establishment of medical personnel was appointed and work was begun on the hospital building. The intention had been that the hospital would function as part of the 'Depôt of Recruits and Invalids' which had been established at Chatham in the 1770s. In June 1801, however, the Depôt was removed to Parkhurst on the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
(to be closer to
Spithead Spithead is an eastern area of the Solent and a roadstead for vessels off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast, with the Isle of Wight lying to the south-west. Spithead and the ch ...
, the usual embarkation point for troops serving overseas). The Depôt Hospital establishment went with it; so when the hospital building was finally completed, towards the end of that year, it found itself without a function. Two years later, at the start of the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
, the hospital was finally opened in an attempt to re-establish a General Hospital for the army at Chatham; but it did not prove successful (a later report by the Commissioners of Military Enquiry described the facility at that time as being fully equipped with an establishment of 'Officers, Stewards, Nurses, &c.', but 'without a single patient'). Over the next year or so, the hospital was gradually run down and it closed in April 1805; later that same year the building was turned over to barrack accommodation, and the fort was constructed around it.


The Fort

Construction of a fort on the site began in 1805, in response to renewed fears of a French invasion. Named after Prime Minister William Pitt (who had died in 1806), Fort Pitt was planned as part of the defences overlooking the
River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
: Fort Clarence, Fort Amherst and the Great Lines were visible from Fort Pitt, the whole providing a defensive ring to protect
Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham, Kent, Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham, Kent, Gillingham; at its most extens ...
from landward attack. A further concern (with the potential of invasion in mind) was to guard the approaches to
Rochester Bridge Rochester Bridge in Rochester, Medway was for centuries the lowest fixed crossing of the River Medway in South East England. There have been several generations of bridge at this spot, and the current "bridge" is in fact four separate bridg ...
, which was a key river crossing on the most direct route from the south-east coast to London. By 1813 it was more or less complete (although some works remained to be done). It has been described as a 'remarkable hybrid': it was among the very last bastioned forts to be built in England (as the style was by then obsolescent), but integrated into its form were multi-storey brick gun towers, representing the latest fashion in fortification.


Description

Fort Pitt was laid out as an irregular polygon with a
bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...
at each corner. Formed of a combination of red-brick walls and earthworks, the fort was surrounded by a deep defensive trench, beyond which was a substantial
glacis A glacis (, ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More generally, a glaci ...
. A
ravelin A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress (the curtain walls and bastions). Originally called a ''demi-lune'', after the ''lunette'', the ravelin is placed outside a castle a ...
was built across the ditch to the south (and connected to the fort by a
caponier A caponier is a type of defensive structure in a fortification. Fire from this point could cover the ditch beyond the curtain wall (fortification), curtain wall to deter any attempt to storm the wall. The word originates from the French ', meaning ...
); within the walls at this point were a pair of
cavaliers The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of England and his son Charles II of England, Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum (England), Int ...
(raised gun platforms). Placed off-centre in the middle of the fort was a substantial tower or
keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
(akin to the surviving tower at nearby Fort Clarence): three storeys high with a gun platform on its flat roof. In line with the tower to the north, projecting out from the fortification like a
hornwork A hornwork is an element of the Italian bastion system of fortification. Its face is flanked with a pair of half-bastions. It is distinguished from a crownwork, because crownworks contain full bastions at their centers. They are both outwork ...
, was a detached
blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
containing
casemated A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...
barracks with accommodation for up to 500 soldiers. This also functioned as a multi-tiered gun platform, and had a flat roof for gun emplacements. The blockhouse was outside the fort but attached to it, so as to allow the occupants to withdraw into the fort in the event of an attack; it was built on a massive scale, cut into the hillside and flanked by dry moats
revetted A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water an ...
with bricks. It dominated views of the fort from Chatham and the north. Two outlying towers were also built, one on each flank, named 'Delce' and 'Gibraltar';Howard, pp. 3-5. the former was linked to the fort by a covered way. Each were brick towers, two storeys high with magazines and stores at basement level. Built with musketry loopholes and equipped (in the case of Delce) with a pair of 18-pound
carronades A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast iron, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid- ...
, they were designed to control road access to the bridge: Delce to the west defended the approach from the south, Gibraltar to the east defended the approach from Chatham.


Armament

Until the 1820s the fort was armed with ten 18-pound
cannons A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during t ...
, twenty-two 18-pound
carronades A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast iron, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid- ...
and four 10-pound
mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a village i ...
. Its function was described in 1822 as follows:
'Fort Pitt, scarped with masonry and bastioned ..is the largest of all the works which cover Chatham, and the nearest to
the citadel The Citadel Military College of South Carolina (simply known as The Citadel) is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Established in 1842, it is the third oldest of the six senior military colleges ...
, the fire of which crosses its own. On the opposite quarter, the fire of Fort Pitt crosses that of Fort Clarence ..The flanks of Fort Pitt are provided with carronades in frames turning upon pivots to sweep the different parts of the ditch. The
gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...
of the fort presents a front of fortification, casemated with
embrasure An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of Age of Gunpowder, gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a sp ...
s, to command in reverse the town of Chatham, and the course of the Medway'.
According to the same description the central tower of the fort was described as being
'armed at the summit with two long guns to batter in front, and two carronades to protect the gorge. This was at the epoch when the rage for building
martello tower Martello towers are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand up to high (with two floors) and typica ...
s had seized the British government ..The tower in Fort Pitt is very lofty, and its object is to command at a considerable distance the brow of a hill which raises itself with an insensible slope in front of Fort Pitt'.


Invalid Depôt and General Military Hospital

The end of the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
meant that the site was not finally used as a fort, and in 1814 the soldiers garrisoning the fort were redeployed. For a brief time it was occupied by the
Royal Marine Artillery The history of the Royal Marines began on 28 October 1664 with the formation of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment. During the War of the Spanish Succession the most historic achi ...
, due to shortage of accommodation elsewhere, but in 1815 they were removed to make way for wounded from the
Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
. In 1819 the Army's Invalid Depôt was moved back from the Isle of Wight to Chatham, and Fort Pitt was repurposed as a medical establishment to treat soldiers prior to their release from service. At the same time, the nearby Fort Clarence was converted into a military
lunatic asylum The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from and eventually replace ...
. In the same year, York Hospital, Chelsea (the Army's last remaining General Hospital) was closed to serving soldiers, and Fort Pitt began to be established as Britain's principal military hospital. In 1822 the casemates were said to be 'at present inhabited by invalids, who compose the only garrison of this fortress'. The hospital building was expanded in 1823-4, with eight large wards of twenty-seven beds each providing room for over 200 patients. The H-plan hospital building was flanked by smaller blocks to the north and to the south, which served as officers' quarters. Fort Pitt also functioned as the Medical Staff Depôt: 'all candidates for commissions, and young medical officers who had just received commissions, were in the first instance sent down to Fort Pitt; partly in order that, when the exigences of the public service permitted, they might receive a certain amount of training in the special work as army surgeons, and partly also because the Staff Depôt formed a convenient place of residence for them until they could be drafted to their respective destinations'. In 1816 the Director General of the Army Medical Department, James McGrigor, had brought from Chelsea a collection of anatomical specimens and other items of interest with a view to establishing a medical museum at Fort Pitt. At the same time he endowed a library on the site, and issued instructions to the army's medical officers stationed around the globe to send six-monthly reports of prevalent diseases, treatments and various treatments which were collated at Fort Pitt and made available for analysis and study. The museum and library expanded prodigiously over the years and Fort Pitt became an important centre for the study of military and tropical medicine. (By 1851 the library had amassed a collection of 67,000 volumes, and the museum contained 41,000 specimens and numerous anatomical drawings.) In 1846 the military lunatic asylum was moved out of Fort Clarence (and away from Chatham, to the vacant Naval Hospital complex in
Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...
); the following year a smaller "asylum for insane soldiers" was opened in the north-west corner of Fort Pitt, in a former barrack block, (albeit as a place of 'observation and temporary probation' rather than one of ongoing care and treatment). By the 1850s Fort Pitt was a major military hospital, with most of the soldiers invalided to Britain from abroad assessed there prior to their discharge. This included most of the sick and wounded from the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
and the
Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...
(
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
came to Fort Pitt on three separate occasions in 1855 to visit soldiers wounded in the Crimea.)
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...
described, at that time, the process whereby 'When a ship arrives with invalids, the bedridden are carried to Fort Pitt, and the convalescents are marched to St Mary's Casemates'. (Those at Fort Pitt were under 'hospital discipline', whereas those at St Mary's were under 'a kind of regimental discipline under the
adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...
'.) During the period of the war in Crimea a total of 14,700 soldiers passed through the Central Invalid Depôt of the British Army at Chatham. At some stage the blockhouse at Fort Pitt had been converted into a 'casemate hospital' with five casemated wards. In the 1840-50s two of the casemates were appropriated for the sick women and children of the garrison, for whom it was the only hospital provision available; in the year ending March 1857, 26 sick women (and 7 infectious), 12 sick children (and 31 infectious) and 20
lying-in Lying-in is the term given to the European forms of postpartum confinement, the traditional practice involving long bed rest before and after giving birth. The term and the practice it describes are old-fashioned or archaic, but lying-in u ...
women were treated there. In 1854 psychiatric patients were returned to Fort Pitt from Yarmouth (the hospital there having been requisitioned by the Navy) and housed temporarily 'in the "pit" or casemates', a place described as being 'most unfit': 'even the temporary confinement of a lunatic, in a place so destitute of the means of ameliorating his mental condition, must materially lessen the chance of his recovery'. In 1860 Fort Pitt was selected by
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...
as the initial site for the new Army Medical School;A E W Miles, ''The Accidental Birth of Military Medicine'', page 118. Civic Books, London, 2009 however, this was only a temporary measure pending the imminent opening of a new General Military Hospital at
Netley Netley, officially Netley Abbey, is a village on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It is situated to the south-east of the city of Southampton, and flanked on one side by the ruins of Netley Abbey and on the other by the Royal Victoria Co ...
, near Southampton, which took place in 1863. Along with the Army Medical School, the museum and library were moved to Netley in 1863 and the following year the Invalid Depôt was removed from Chatham to Netley, prompting a reassessment of the function and use of Fort Pitt.


Garrison Hospital

The Army Sanitary Commissioners had in 1863 approved a proposal for the facilities at Fort Pitt to be converted into 'a Hospital for the whole of the troops of the garrison, including the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers, and the three depots battalions of infantry'. The following year additional buildings were erected 'for the reception of the whole of the troops of the garrison requiring hospital treatment'; at the same time, the old separate Garrison Hospital within the lines at Brompton was closed and its premises converted into barracks. A major expansion of the hospital at Fort Pitt was begun in 1910, necessitating the demolition of the western wings of the old H-plan hospital and also the removal of the Napoleonic-era tower/keep, to make way for a new central hospital block (which was linked to the old hospital on one side, and a new West Wing on the other). This pavilion-plan hospital extension (which contained two new operating theatres, an x-ray department and other modern facilities) opened just before the outbreak of war in 1914. In October 1914 King
George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...
and Queen Mary visited, meeting servicemen wounded in the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, including five German Naval officers held in a separate ward. At least seventy German prisoners were treated at the Fort. On recovery, they were held in the Blockhouse until the end of the war. The hospital closed in 1922; its patients were transferred to the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham.


Grammar School

In 1929 the Chatham Education Board bought the vacant Fort Pitt from the
War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...
, and the site was converted into a Girls' Technical School. The school, now known as Fort Pitt Grammar School, remains on the site and has added a number of new buildings. The neighbouring
University for the Creative Arts The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in Southern England. It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Institu ...
building occupies the old
blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
site and some of the original brickwork remains visible at the sides of the building.


Present day

The site continues to be of national historical significance and substantial sections of the ramparts are still clearly discernible. Several of the fort's original buildings have not survived above ground level: Gibraltar Tower was demolished in 1879 and Delce Tower, by then a ruin, was probably demolished shortly afterwards. The central tower, or keep, was removed in 1910 when the hospital was extended; and the blockhouse was demolished in the early 1930s, to allow the school to expand (the Rochester campus of the
University for the Creative Arts The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in Southern England. It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Institu ...
now stands on its site). Nevertheless, much of the outer walls of the fort survive including parts of the outer defences which extend into the adjacent recreation grounds to the east and west. The tunnels of the fort also survive, but are partly filled in. Furthermore, several of the old hospital buildings remain in place as part of the school. The Music House (the former 'insane asylum') in the school grounds and the “Crimea Wing” teaching block (the original Napoleonic-era hospital) are both
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
s, with some of the old hospital ward numbers still visible on the Crimea Wing's walls. Several other buildings also date to the period of use as a hospital, including the North Block (which was first erected as a temporary building to house the Army Medical School in 1860) and the West Wing of the 1914 extension (its main central block having been destroyed in a fire in 1973).


Military cemetery

The Fort Pitt Military Cemetery, created initially to serve the hospital, lies a quarter of a mile to the south of the fort by the A229 road from Rochester to Maidstone. The graves, dating from the mid-19th century onwards,Howard, pp. 13-14. include 290 of Commonwealth service personnel from the World Wars, 265 from
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, who lie in an extensive plot, and 25 from
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
who are mainly buried in a group north of that plot.


In literature

As a boy,
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
lived at 2 Ordnance Terrace, a quarter of a mile to the east of Fort Pitt, and the fort is the location of the fictional duel between Mr. Nathaniel Winkle and Dr. Slammer in his novel '' The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club''.Dickens, Charles. ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'', p 25. ''Works of Charles Dickens''. Avenel Books, 1978.


References


Howard, Joan ''Fort Pitt: Chatham's unique site: designed to protect; adapted to save; modified to educate.''
Published by Fort Pitt Grammar School, 2015. Retrieved: 21 October 2019


External links

''Paintings of Queen Victoria's visits in 1855:''
Queen Victoria's First Visit to her Wounded Soldiers in Chatham
by Jerry Barrett (
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...
)
Visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Fort Pitt Military Hospital
Watercolour by Sir John Tenniel (
Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...
) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt Forts in Medway Napoleonic war forts in England