Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Hope Point Battery was originally constructed as an open earthwork battery in 1796. It housed four 24 pounder cannons. It was subsequently listed as part of Gravesend Fort. Map evidence from a chart of 1852 marks the battery as 'Old Battery House' suggesting by this time it was out of use. A public house (see TQ 77 NW 1090) is also shown in the 'Old Battery House' on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map (c.1858-1873). A large elevated earth bank behind the may be the remains of the battery. Possible site for breech-loading positions in 1905?.

Monument Types

• BATTERY (Post Medieval - 1796 AD to 1852 AD?)

Full description

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[TQ 715 788] Hope Point Battery. 1796 to house cannons and 1905 to house breech-loading positions (1). An open earthwork battery was built here in 1796 to mount four 24-pounder guns, and in a return of 1805 it was shown as being an outwork of Gravesend Fort. It does not feature in any records of the latter half of the nineteenth century, and all evidence (which is very little) points to it having been abandoned some time before 1850 (2). This monument record refers to the site of a former small coastal battery built at Lower Hope Point on Cliffe Marshes as part of the 1796 scheme of Thames Defences, centred at NGR TQ 7153 7881 (3a, 3b). In form the battery consisted of an emplacement for four mounted 24-pounder guns arranged to give a semi-circular arc of coverage facing north, with a small ammunition store located in the corner of a triangular walled area to the rear of the emplacements; the compact complex was entirely enclosed by a sub-rectangular drainage ditch (3c). The site was dismantled in 1820 (3a). Then in 1854 the small battery was repaired for conversion into the Anchor & Hope public house (uid 1533347 / TQ 77 NW 311) which was present on the same footprint (3b, 3d). The battery is labelled as ‘obsolete’ on the 1860 edition of the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map which shows the Anchor and Hope in its place (3e). The sea wall immediately adjacent to the site of the former battery was completely rebuilt and relocated further inland sometime between 1981 and 1999; during this process part of north-west stretch of ditch that used to enclose the battery complex was buried by the new sea wall (3f).
NB: Some of the background about this site given by authorities 1 & 2 has been mistakenly combined and confused with information relating to a separate early-20th century coastal battery, ‘Hope Battery’ (active from 1900, sold off in 1926) located at Hope Point about 800m to north-east of the earlier battery (uid 41709 / TQ 77 NW 33). The two battery sites were never directly connected (3).
Around 80 years after the battery had gone out of use, the surrounding land was developed by Curtis’s and Harvey Ltd into an extensive chemical explosives factory. Between November 2010 and January 2011 the remains of this factory were surveyed at 1:1000 by English Heritage as part of an in-depth analytical investigation, recorded under Event uid 1583839. The survey concluded that no physical trace of the former battery survives amongst the factory remains, but part of the ditch that enclosed it and the base of a beacon contemporary with the battery do survive and were both recorded. The survey and investigation have been published comprehensively within the English Heritage Research Report Series: report number 11-2011 (3f). (3).

A Chart of 1852 shows 'Old Battery House' at this point (4). Anchor and Hope public house (TQ 77 NW 1090) is shown in the Old Battery House' on the 1st ed OS 6 inch.(5). Site photographs (6-24). There is a large elevated earth bank behind seawall that may be remains of the battery. It stands 2m-3m high with boundary marker for Thames watermen. Flared U-shape 10m wide inshore and 20m wide at wall. (25)

<1> A Handbook of Kent's Defences 1540-1945 1977 11 (D Bennett) (OS Card Reference). SKE32801.

<2> Coast Defences of England and Wales 1974 110 (I V Hogg) (OS Card Reference). SKE39037.

<3> Saunders, Andrew, 1995, Thames fortifications during the 16th to 19th centuries (Article in monograph). SWX9358.

<4> Bullock, 1852, Gravesend Reach (Chart). SWX8140.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1858-73, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 1st Edition : 1872-1897 (Map). SWX11831.

<6> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11000.

<7> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11003.

<8> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11004.

<9> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11005.

<10> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11006.

<11> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11011.

<12> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11016.

<13> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11017.

<14> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11024.

<15> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11035.

<16> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11037.

<17> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11038.

<18> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11039.

<19> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11040.

<20> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11041.

<21> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11042.

<22> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11043.

<23> 1994, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX11062.

<24> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9466.

<25> Wessex Archaeology, 2005, North Kent Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey: Phase ll: Field Assessment Year Two Report (Unpublished document). SWX12323.

Sources and further reading