Sergeant-Major's House Holiday Cottage, Dover Castle, UK

Dover Castle is a Grade I Listed Building owned by English Heritage who have converted two of the castle's buildings, Peverell's Tower and the Sergeant-Major's House, into "Holiday Cottages".

Rare view of Peverell's Gate

An earlier post about the Peverell's Tower holiday cottage is linked to on the left.

Also see The Unusual Design of the Sergeant-Major's House.

Introduction 

A brief description of the main photograph and the position of the Sergeant-Major's House within it:

Photo taken during Covid-19 Lockdown cycle ride, 2nd of May, 2020.

The central Keep was built in the late twelfth century by Maurice the Engineer during the reign of King Henry II.

The Keep Yard in which this "Great Tower" stands is surrounded by the flat-topped Inner Curtain Wall (Inner Bailey) that contains fourteen towers.

Two of these towers form the Palace Gate that is flying the English Heritage flag at top-right.

The Western Outer Curtain Wall runs across the bottom with Peverell's Tower (alt. Peverell's Gate) at bottom left.

Gatton Tower is right of center with Say Tower on the right-hand edge of the photo, both are truncated d-type towers.

Behind and to the left of Gatton Tower is the Georgian Sergeant-Major's House.

Peverell's Tower is a composite structure of King John (reigned 1199 - 1216) and King Henry III (reigned 1216 - 1272). The round tower with its conical roof is circa 1300 AD.

Sergeant-Major's House Holiday Cottage

English Heritage's main information page is at The Sergeant Major's House, Dover Castle, Kent.

The derivative page, Availability and Prices contains the following message:

In line with the government advice on the Coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), we’ve made the decision to close our holiday operations from Friday 20th March 2020 until Thursday 2nd July 2020.  

This is the tariff from the 2nd of July 2020 until the 15th of April 2021:

As I said in the Peverell's Gate post:

If you can afford these prices then please consider taking me along as an aging boot boy ("...the lowest-ranking male servant..") - I would do anything for such a photo opportunity 😀

Otherwise I can only look at the photos and dream...

Photo taken on the 8th of June, 2011.

The north face of the Georgian Sergeant-Major's house viewed from an earth embankment leading to Peverell's Gate.

Knight's Road and the top of the Western Outer Curtain Wall  are just below center on the right.

Originally the Garrison Battery Sergeant Major's House, it then became the home of the Custodian of the Castle.

Another view, this time showing the south face with Peverell's Tower behind and the truncated d-type Queen Mary's Tower hidden in the foliage at top-right:

Photo taken on the 27th of February, 2011.

Almost repeating myself again:

There are similar photos on the internet but none quite like this because it was taken from a normally inaccessible location below the ruins of an historic wall, not far from the Colton Gate.

Perhaps once a pathway, but now only a narrow strip of earth between the top of a steep slope and the outside of a high ancient wall, I was standing in a place that Saxon Geoguth (young warriors), and before them, Roman legionaries may once have patrolled.

The Sergeant Major's House has a separate Grade II listing to that of Dover Castle itself:

The following is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use Licence (PSI licence number C2010002016):

Building Details:

Building Name: HOUSE ADJOINING PEVERELLS TOWER Parish: DOVER District: DOVER County: KENT Postcode:

Details:

LBS Number: 177824 Grade: II Date Listed: 07/03/1974 Date Delisted: NGR: TR3246241851

Listing Text

1. 1050 DOVER CASTLE House adjoining Peverells Tower TR 3241 1/94 II 2. Late C18 (C18 = 18th Century) to early C19. 3 storeys stock brick. Hipped renewed tiled roof. 2 sashes with glazing bars intact. Rear elevation has 2 hipped dormers.

Listing NGR: TR3246241851

Source: formerly at English Heritage, now at Historic England.

Grade II: buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest".

Interior photos of the holiday cottage can be seen in this English Heritage Facebook Album.

The main (first) photograph was taken on the 2nd of May, 2020 from the New Marina Pier of the Port of Dover during a permitted Coronavirus bike ride.

Covid-19 lockdown: a cycling route map and biometrics can be seen on this Polar Flow web page.

Abridged versions of this post are also on Facebook and Twitter.