Sandown Castle north of Deal was the third of the Henrician forts on the Goodwin Sands coast seized by Royalists in the 1648 Kent rising. The three castles (Sandown, Deal, Walmer) formed a defensive cluster controlling the roadstead known as the Downs, one of the most important anchorages in the Channel. The revolted Parliament ships in the Downs could resupply from these forts. Sandown was already in decay by 1648 — it was eventually destroyed by coastal erosion — but it held military value as a supply point and signal station.
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