Tower 68 was sited two miles inland on Anthony's Hill (now known as St. Anthony's Hill) in order to protect the landward side of the Redoubt Fortress. As it was isolated, it was also provided with a moat, and occasionally referred to as the 'Mote Tower' or 'St. Anthony's Tower'. The hill itself was not artificial, as George Chambers wrote in East Bourne Memories in 1910:
"Writing to me under date of December 9, 1873, Mr. F.W.H. Cavendish remarked, "A very old man, who recollects the Martello Tower being built, tells me that where Anthony's Tower stands was always known as the 'Hill Field' and was much the same as it is now..." This allusion to Anthony's Hill had reference to a question which had been raised as to whether that hill was a natural or an artificial mound."
A gun position was set up a few yards from the tower, and was used during the artillery and siege experiments of the mid-1870's. Probably until the early years of the 20th century, the local Artillery Volunteers used the guns on the hill for practice against targets set afloat in the sea.
By 1881 the tower was listed in the census as unoccupied, having obviously never had any coastguard connections, and the last known tower keeper was Isaac Davies, a pensioner of the Royal Sappers and Miners, who minded the tower at the time of the 1851 Census. The tower, as with many others, had by this time become an occasional playground for local lads, one of whom recalled many years later trying to get into the tower by climbing into the moat and leaning a beam against the tower to reach the door,as the drawbridge had long gone. The beam slipped as he climbed, and he broke his arm as a result, his brother fetching help.
Another incident highlighting the danger of derelict Martello Towers was that which involved Michael Nolan, a 72-year-old Irishman who fell into the moat on February 24, 1902, whilst trying to get into the tower to shelter, and spent six days trapped until help came. Despite shouting every day, no help came until two boys found him. He suffered from exposure and was slightly frostbitten, but survived.
St. Anthony's Hill was later purchased from the War Office in 1904 by Alderman J.T. Wenham, although the tower was probably not demolished until about 1925. After experiencing problems demolishing Tower 59 in 1903, the moat was first filled in and the tower demolished down to this level. The upper part of the tower was possibly demolished by explosives being put into holes drilled in the walls, although even this method was a slow and laborious process. Much of the work was carried out using sledgehammers by the contractor who had worked on the demolition of Tower 54 at Norman's Bay, and who was later to work on the conversion of Tower 13 at Hythe, by knocking new windows through the walls. Apparently, an accident occurred during the work when a workman suffered a sledgehammer blow to the head; a man was sent to the nearest public house and brought back some brandy which was poured into the wound (and some drunk as well, no doubt!) The bottom half of the tower was built over and became the cellar of the house that is seen in the centre of the photograph above. A circular road, called The Circus, was constructed around the filled-in moat, which became the garden for the house.
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