The seawall stretches for four miles from the Redoubt at Dymchurch to Littlestone. It was originally thought that the first structure was built by the Romans but nowadays it is believed that the first phase of building a manmade wall came much later. It began as a natural spit of shingle which was probably further out to sea and was strengthened by earth as man tried to protect the drained land behind it.
In the 13th century great storms pounded the coastline and in 1288 emergency work was carried out to protect Dymchurch from the sea. An area of wall, twelve feet high, was built but it is not known how long it was. Presumably this first section of wall re-enforced the shingle bank. Over the centuries the seawall was extended and by the sixteenth century it was almost as long as it is today. The wall was built using bundles of blackthorn bushes laid between wooden poles. This was packed with clay-mud which dried rock hard. The seawall was maintained constantly by gangs of men who worked hard all year round and this enabled the wall to keep the sea at bay for the next few centuries.
In the 1820s the structure was faced with rock for the first time and gradually the wall was rebuilt using concrete and ragstone, with a concave barrier to deflect the force of the waves. The seawall has continued to be maintained and raised; today we see the new improved version which was opened in July 2011.
This Martello Cache is named after Martello tower number 23. There were originally six towers in Dymchurch and this is one of three still remaining. Seventy-four towers were built between 1805 and 1812 as part of the coastal defences during the Napoleonic wars.
There is no car parking near this cache. Please don't park in the Sands Estate or Tower Estate; the roads are narrow and there is no space for parking on the sides of the roads. It is best to park either in Marine Avenue or the Redoubt Way and to walk along to the cache. There is also limited parking in Burmarsh Road and I have included the waypoint for this.