File:Central or French Redoubt Gateway.jpg

English: In Trafalgar Park stands the French Redoubt, also known as the Central or Frederick William Redoubt. It was part of the hastily constructed French line of defence built by a French garrison at the Cape in 1781. The VOC, fearing an attack by the British, realized that they were extremely vulnerable to an overland attack from False Bay. The line consisted of four forts stretching from Knokke (where Woodstock Railway Station stands), to the Hollandse Redoubt, the Burger Redoubt and the French Redoubt.

Five years after it was built the line fell into a poor state of repair and after the British occupation in 1795 the earthworks which connected the redoubts and the forts were restored. They helped form a defence line with the British blockhouses on Devil’s Peak. The line eventually fell into disuse in 1827 when instructions were given to demolish the forts. Fortunately, the site was proclaimed a National Monument in 1968.

The French Redoubt has earth banks and a stone entrance. There is an interesting structure in this fort, a brick kilnlike chimney, about which there has been much speculation. Theories have ranged from this being an oven in which cannon balls were heated before being fired onto the decks of wooden ships, to the suggestion that this was a miniature roast-house for the making of beer. As imaginative as the stories have been, it seems that this was a brick-kiln used for the making of bricks after the fort was de-militarised.

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