Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Four concrete emplacements forming a Cold War anti-aircraft site at Capel Farm. Said never to have been completed.

Monument Types

• HEAVY ANTI AIRCRAFT BATTERY (Abandoned, Modern - 1946 AD? to 1956 AD?)

Full description

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Near Capel Hill Farm. Battery of 4x3.7-in. AA guns. Site not mentioned in 1940s and very early 1950s lists of AA defences. Local personal comment was that the battery had never been armed. Emplacements and generating building near road survive. (1)

The Cold War Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery which lies to the east of Harty Ferry Road is thought to be an Igloo 1 site, built after the Second World War but before the demise of anti-aircraft artillery as a defence system in 1956. It was designed to house four 3.7-inch guns, but it is thought never to have been armed. The gun emplacements, surrounding ditch and associated buildings are all visible on an historic aerial photograph dated February 1953, but are not visible on 1946 aerial photography. The 1969 Ordnance Survey map depicts all the same structures and labels them as a ‘Gun Site (Disused)’. In 1983 the site was divided in two with the three emplacements to the east purchased by new owners, and by 1990 the surrounding ditch had been reconfigured to enclose only these emplacements. Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the Cold War Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery comprises four gun emplacements arranged equidistantly in a shallow arc, as well as an associated Nissen hut, a Historic England Consultation Report 29 September 2022 Page 3 of 4 standby generator building and a command post. The gun emplacements are connected by a section of concrete access track, and the three emplacements to the east are enclosed by a ditch and earth bank. The ditch is approximately 3.5m wide and 1.2m deep, and the bank is 9.5m wide and 1.5m high. On the north side of the track, adjacent to the site entrance from Harty Ferry Road, there are two areas of concrete standing, which may have been intended for mobile gun-laying radar. The structures stand to the east of Harty Ferry Road, in a field that slopes gently downwards towards the north.

DESCRIPTION: the four gun emplacements survive largely intact. Each is octagonal on plan, with walls of reinforced concrete, and measure approximately 15m across. Each emplacement has a generator room projecting from one side and a smaller crew room on the opposite side of the entrance. Four of the internal walls have covered ammunition lockers, but on the easternmost emplacement these have been demolished. Timber racking survives in some of the ammunition lockers. In the centre of the concrete floor of each emplacement spigot acceptance rings remain visible indicating the presence of central holdfasts prepared for the guns. The standby generator building is situated on the north side of the access road, approximately 65m to the north of the westernmost gun emplacement. This single-storey, rectangular building of reinforced concrete measures approximately 7.7m by 7.6m. It previously would have contained the plant which provided electricity to the guns and operational systems, making the site independent of the national power supply. The single room, entered through a double door in the east elevation, is ventilated on three walls by a series of rectangular openings just below the ceiling. The fourth, north wall had three larger openings that have since been bricked up. The door itself has been removed but the steel frame survives, with a concrete drip mould above. 23m to the west of the generator building is a Nissen hut, measuring approximately 12m by 4.6m. A second reinforced concrete building, the command post, is situated at the northern side of the field, approximately 160m to the north of the westernmost gun emplacement. This building is also single-storey and rectangular on plan, measuring approximately 13.5m by 6.5m. It has a steel-framed doorway at each end, minus the doors, and a single window opening to the south elevation which retains its steel shutters. There are concrete drip moulds above the door and window openings. A small projecting block to the north elevation probably housed a pair of toilets originally. The interior has a concrete partition wall dividing the space into two rooms, one of which would have housed the control room for the coordination of the guns. (2)

<1> Victor Smith and Ron Crowdy, Thames Gateway Assesment: Gazetteer of Defence Sites (Index). SKE6445.

<2> Historic England, 2022, Scheduling Report for Cold War Anti-Aircraft Battery, Capel Farm (Unpublished document). SKE55137.

Sources and further reading