Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

By mid April 1941 a single-span wooden farm bridge, over the Dover, Canterbury, Whitstable Stop Line, in a field near the south-west corner of the northward extension of Canterbury Cemetery had been prepared for demolition. The bridge was probably a wartime structure erected by or on behalf to the farmer, across the new anti-tank ditch.

Monument Types

• ROADBLOCK (Modern - 1941 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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By mid April 1941 ‘two beach mines (improvised) with gelignite [had been] fitted under the centre of’ a single-span wooden farm bridge, over the Dover, Canterbury, Whitstable Stop Line, in a field near the south-west corner of the northward extension of Canterbury Cemetery. A ‘10 gallon oil drum filled with an inflammable mixture’ was kept at the site as a stand-by. There was no obvious watercourse in the vicinity of the Stop Line at this point; instead, the line here took the form of a deep anti-tank ditch. Almost certainly, therefore, the bridge will have been a wartime bridge erected by or on behalf to the farmer, c.1940, across the new anti-tank ditch. The precise location is evident on immediate post-war aerial photographs, where a track crosses the (by then infilled) ditch of the Stop Line.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : Unknown
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : Destroyed
Date of visit :

553 Field Company Royal Engineers, 01/01/41, War Diary 553 Field Company Royal Engineers 1941 (Unpublished document). SKE15513.

553 Field Company Royal Engineers, 01/01/41, War Diary 553 Field Company Royal Engineers 1941 (Unpublished document). Ske15513.

Sources and further reading