Fort Luton

The fort was ordered under the auspices of the 1859/60 Royal Commission on the Defences of the United Kingdom, but it was deleted by Parliament in an attempt to save money and divert funds to the construction of the sea forts, and the Land Front Forts of Milford Haven, Plymouth, Cork and Portsmouth/ Isle of Wight Fortresses. The 1869 'Report on the Construction Condition and Costs of Fortification' criticised the lack of landward protection for Chatham, yet it was not until 1872 that the Treasury relented and the land was purchased. Even so, it was not until 1876 that the order was given by the War Office, after approval by Parliament for construction to commence. The original design was by…

The ditch is lined with concrete on both the scarp and counterscarp faces. It has on both faces a slight batter of three degrees from the vertical. The depth varies from 25 ft. to 30 ft. maximum and the width at the base also varies, being wider on the rear (long north east to south west) face and at its narrowest on the southern and northern flanks. It is 15 ft. wide. There are no caponiers or counterscarp galleries in the ditch, the only known major British Defence work to adopt a purely passive defence posture. There is much evidence of the 1907 siege works in this ditch, three of the counter-mine shafts still survive, now mostly covered up with debris and rubbish (post 1962). Near the…