A researcher from the University of Kent has traced stonework from Henry VIII's long-vanished Sandown Castle to a Victorian extension at Dover Castle, overturning the popular belief that Sandown simply crumbled into the sea. Christopher Moore, a specialist in hidden and lost heritage, found that the coastal Tudor fortress was instead dismantled and its stone systematically reused across the region, a discovery that reshapes understanding of how English heritage sites are physically interconnected through recycled materials.

Sandown Castle was built between 1539 and 1540 roughly eight miles northeast of Dover to defend the English coast before eventually being abandoned. Moore used historical records, including an 1883 report, and chemical analysis of stone samples to identify at least five sites containing reused Sandown masonry, most notably Eastry Union Chapel in Kent, which he believes contains "freestones" originally quarried for Norman monasteries nearly 1,000 years ago. He has also contributed a chapter on the castle's history to a newly published book and expects many more instances of its scattered stonework to be identified in future.