page_title: Sheerness Dockyard
section_title: Early fortification
hierarchical_section_title: Sheerness Dockyard / The first dockyard / Origins / Early fortification
caption_attribution_description: English: 17th-century stone lion from the old garrison gatehouse, on the green in front of Dockyard House (former residence of the Captain Superintendent).
context_page_description: Sheerness Dockyard also known as the Sheerness Station was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the Sheerness peninsula, at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent. It was opened in the 1660s and closed in 1960.
context_section_description: In 1666 Sir Bernard de Gomme had been engaged to strengthen the blockhouse on the northern tip of the promontory. After the Dutch raid the following year, an expanded fort was planned. The blockhouse (which became the Governor's residence) was strengthened, and encircled by a semi-circular gun battery to the north, while to the south a line of fortification was constructed, which cut off the northernmost part of Sheerness behind a flooded ditch. 
  The garrisoned fort, enclosed by walls to the west and east, took up most of this fortified area, leaving the dockyard to occupy the remaining small parcel of land north of the ditch, on the Medway side of the fort (outside its western wall). A gateway through this wall, accessed from the dockyard, provided the main entrance to the fort; the gatehouse was a prominent feature and contained a chapel on its first floor.
caption: A stone lion from the demolished 17th-century garrison gatehouse[7] sits in front of Dockyard House.
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