Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

GII Listed building; Small flat-roofed concrete structure. All apertures boarded up. Only (lever?) warden's post still extant. Built during WW2 of concrete and still in good condition. Loctaed beside steps from station to Folkestone Road. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Summary from record TR 34 SW 885:

Air Raid Precautions Wardens' Post

Monument Types

• AIR RAID WARDENS POST (AIR RAID WARDEN POST, Modern - 1940 AD? to 1945 AD)
• AIR RAID WARDENS POST (Modern - 1940 AD to 1944 AD)

Full description

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685/0/10022 FOLKESTONE ROAD
World War II Air Raid Wardens' Post, c.1949-40, at Dover Priory Station
The former ARP wardens' post stands in a fenced and partly walled enclosure at the side of the steps down from Folkestone Road to the approach to Dover Priory railway station. It is a small, rectangular (6 x 4m), white-painted brick building with 0.3m thick brick walls and a flat concrete roof edged with a brick parapet. The entrance and two windows (possibly enlarged post-war) are on the long front elevation of the building facing the station. Several iron brackets of unknown function are fixed to the external walls. It conforms roughly to the Home Office guidance for such posts with features designed to counter the damaging effects of blast and bomb fragmentation such as reinforced brick walls, a deep soffit to the roof, blast baffle entrance, and a flat concrete roof designed to resist the penetration of incendiary bombs. The interior has not been inspected but it is anyway unlikely that it would contain features of interest.

The voluntary ARP Wardens were set up under the 1937 ARP Act which outlined provision for ' the protection of persons and property from injury or damage in the event of hostile attack from the air'. The ARP services were activated following the Munich crisis in the Autumn of 1938. Following the appointment of Sir John Anderson as head of the ARP Department in late 1938, along with an increased urgency in the provision of civilian air raid shelters, provision of purpose built ARP posts was made. Until then ARP posts had been located in adapted suitable existing properties (where most stayed for the duration of the war). In May 1939 the ARP Department advised local authorities that they may spend £50 for protected shelters rising to £75 for larger examples. Advice was given for small flat-roofed, above ground structures but no national standard was provided and local patterns were used. ARP Wardens' posts were a vital part of Civil defence co-ordination and from them communications would have been maintained with other posts to enable early warning of raids to be given, and emergency assistance rendered in the case of attack to injured or trapped victims in nearby streets.

Dover had a major role in the Second World War as a military base and harbour, its proximity to the Continent and the cross-Channel gunfire earning this part of Kent the unenviable title 'Hellfire Corner'. Most notably, it was from Dover Castle that the Dunkirk evacuation was directed. Dover was obviously a major military target for enemy action. It received 464 high explosive bombs, 1,500 incendiaries, three parachute mines, three V1s and 2,226 high explosive shells fired by long-range guns on the French coast. Of the civilian population 216 were killed and several hundred injured. The Dover Corporation had built a number of purpose-built structures before the outbreak of war. Local research indicates that this particular example was one of 12 new posts in Dover approved in October 1939 and completed in June 1940 and is one of only two ARP posts which now survive in Dover, the other being at Pilgrims Way. After the war it served for a time as a cabbies' shelter. It is now disused.

SOURCES: M Osborne, Defending Britain (2004), 185-6; CBA, 20th Century Defences in Britain (1995), 73-4; J Coad, Dover Castle (EH guidebook, 2007); C S Dobinson, C20 Fortifications in England Vol.VIII - Civil Defence in WWII (CBA 1999).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The former ARP wardens' post off Folkestone Road, Dover, is listed, for the following principal reasons:

* as an example of an increasingly rare type of structure associated with civil defence in the Second World War;
* as a tangible reminder of the dangers faced by Dover's war time civilian population;
* as an element of the rich local grouping of military remains of all periods. (1-3)

The GIS polygon associated with this record does not represent the full extent or curtilage of the listed building but merely defines the outline of the building. For further information on the extent of the listed building please contact Dover District Council.

<1> CBA Defence of Britain Project, 1994, Defence of Britain Site Report, Pers. Comm. David Burridge, KDRG/PSG (Bibliographic reference). SKE6447.

<2> Victor Smith and Andrew Saunders, 2001, Kent's Defence Heritage, KD111 (Unpublished document). SKE6956.

<3> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

Sources and further reading