Abstract
AbstractThe Grand Shaft on the Western Heights at Dover is a stair sunk through the chalk cliff to allow the passage of soldiers from the barracks within the Heights to the harbour level, 140 ft below. It was built between 1804 and 1807, and was probably designed by Brigadier-General William Twiss, Commanding Royal Engineer for the Southern Division. It is unique in England in having three helical flights spanned between concentric brick walls, but there are two Renaissance stairs whose example might have inspired Twiss. One is the stair in the Château de Chambord, built either from 1519 or from 1526, possibly from an idea of Leonardo da Vinci; the other is the Pozzo di San Patrizio at Orvieto, built between 1527 and 1537 to the design of Antonio da Sangallo the younger, and subterranean, like the Grand Shaft. There is no evidence that Twiss saw either of these stairs, but the engineers and draughtsmen of the Board of Ordnance were architecturally educated; there were published illustrations of the Pozzo ...
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