Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The course of the Single track railway to Manston Airfield visible on aerial photographs and lidar images.

Monument Types

• RAILWAY (Modern - 1916 AD to 1926 AD)

Full description

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The course of the Single track railway to Manston Airfield is visible as cropmarks and slight earthworks on a number of aerial photographs and lidar images which have been mapped as part of the Historic England Thanet Landscape Mapping Project 2024.

The single track railway line ran from Minnis Bay across the fields to Manston Airfield. It was constructed early in 1916 for the purpose of carrying supplies, goods and aeroplane parts to the airfield by rail. The airfield was then a Royal Naval Air Service Station which had been transferred from St.Mildred’s Bay, Westgate. The line had no traditional sleepers, but was laid directly onto a cinder trackbed using in the new American flat-bottomed style.

The line ran from a long platform and a siding alongside a hanger and workshops within the airfield at Pouces (see MKE125515). It then headed north-west beside Manston Road,past Cheesemans Farm and Sparrow Castle Pumping Station, turning westwards to skirt the southern side of Quex Park, crossing Margate Hill and Acol Road. It then turned north-west again, crossing the Canterbury Road and passing through fields south-west of Birchington before joining the main North Kent line on the “up” side close to the site of the old Birchington “A” signal box (demolished in 1929), and where the footpath from Essex Gardens crosses the main line at Horsa Road. There are also cropmark traces of an curving linear heading NE towards the main line east of Gore End Farm which could be a second branch leading in from the east. The line was taken up in 1926. (1-9)

<1> Historic England Archive, 1941-1960, Historic England Archive RAF vertical aerial photographs, RAF/26J/BR194 VB 37 10-JAN-1941 (Archive). SKE57101.

<2> Environment Agency, 2017, 2019, LIDAR Environment Agency 1m DTM, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM 07-DEC-2017 (Archive). SKE57108.

<3> Next Perspectives, 2003-2021, Next Perspectives APGB orthophotography, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 05-MAY-2018 (Archive). SKE57110.

<4> Historic England Archive, 1941-1960, Historic England Archive RAF vertical aerial photographs, RAF/106G/LA/90 RP 3020 04-JAN-1945 (Archive). SKE57101.

<5> Historic England Archive, 1941-1960, Historic England Archive RAF vertical aerial photographs, RAF/58/T/3966 F21 56 02-DEC-1960 (Archive). SKE57101.

<6> Historic England Archive, 1944, Historic England Archive USAF vertical aerial photographs, US/7PH/GB/LOC286 V 5010 19-APR-1944 (Archive). SKE57114.

<7> Next Perspectives, 2003-2021, Next Perspectives APGB orthophotography, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 25-MAY-2012 (Archive). SKE57110.

<8> Historic England Archive, 1941-1960, Historic England Archive RAF vertical aerial photographs, RAF/HLA/407 V 78 28-FEB-1942 (Archive). SKE57101.

<9> Historic England Archive, 1941-1960, Historic England Archive RAF vertical aerial photographs, RAF/HLA/564 V 6013 01-JUN-1942 (Archive). SKE57101.

Sources and further reading

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