Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Lines of features are visible adjacent to a probable road block at Canterbury Gate, Sandwich, on 1942 aerial photographs. No traces of the features were visible on later 1940s RAF aerial photography. It seems likely that they are related to WWII defences and it has been suggested that they may indicate disturbed ground from a freshly laid minefield.

Monument Types

• DEFENCE WORK (Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Full description

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Lines of features are visible adjacent to a probable road block (MWX43418) at Canterbury Gate, Sandwich, on 1942 RAF vertical aerial photographs [1]. They are only visible on this sortie of photographs. They lie on the north side of Strand Street and run westwards for c.50m with a break in them at the town ditch. The features appear roughly circular, measure c.1m in diameter and are spaced at intervals of c.1m. At least five parallel lines of them are visible, spaced c.1m apart. The lines are offset resulting in a checker-board appearance. The nature of these is highly unclear as, when viewed with a Stereoscope they have no obvious sense of height or depth.

Two other examples of these features are visible on the same sortie (MWX43422, MWX43424), these are also adjacent to probable roadblocks on the main entrances to the town (MWX43421, MWX43423). With this association, it seems likely that they are related to WWII defences. It has been suggested that they may indicate disturbed ground from laying of minefields; this may explain why they are not visible on later photographs as they would have grassed over again by this point. The features could, however, equally be stacks of building material.

A transcription of the features recorded from aerial photography exists within a GIS layer held by this HER [3]. In this transcription they have been drawn as lines of anti-tank cubes as that convention is the closest visual equivalent to the appearance of these features.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2009-10, South-East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - Aerial Photographic Transcriptions (Digital archive). SWX15705.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report (Unpublished document). SKE25955.

<3> Cornwall Council Historic Environment Projects and Gloucestershire County Council, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Components 1&2: Results of NMP Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE25954.

Sources and further reading

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