Sandham Fort / Castle

In 1631, following the destruction of the first Sandown Castle by the weather, Sir John Oglander directed the construction of a temporary fort that would utilise some of the stone that was salvaged from the earlier castle. The location that was ultimately selected was only a little distance farther up the coast, and it was constructed using some somewhat innovative methods.

This was one of the first forts to be constructed in England with arrow-headed bastions. It had an entrance in the north-west curtain that was covered by a square keep adjacent to it and led onto an open courtyard.

The fort had been in poor condition, but it had lately “been put into repair at a very considerable expense to the crown,” according to Worsley’s The History of the Isle of Wight, which was published in 1781. The standard complement consisted of a master gunner and thirty troops; however, this number was recently cut down to twenty-two.Depending on the piece of historical writing you are reading, the ‘fort’ or ‘castle’ portrayed seems to have been more of a flexible feast.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandown_Castle,_Isle_of_Wight
• https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A83151092

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandown_Castle,_Isle_of_Wight
• https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A83151092