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

A rectangular concrete building some 200 metres to the north of Grain Road. Thought to date from 1943-4 when the nearby Fenn Street HAA battery upgraded its guns.

Summary from record TQ 87 NW 1059:

Radar site for anti-aircraft battery.

Monument Types

• COMMAND POST (Modern - 1943 AD to 1945 AD)
• RADAR STATION (Destroyed 2002, Modern - 1944 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Full description

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From the Kent's Defence Heritage survey report: "In November, 1944, four of the new-pattern 5.25-in. guns were added [to the Fenn Street HAA battery - TQ 87 NW 1023] in additional emplacements on the same site. About this date, or shortly after, a second and detached command post was built in a field 300m. NE, presumably for the 5.25-in. guns. Fenn Street continued in use into the Cold War as an ‘Igloo’ site under the air defence scheme and, presumably, lasted until the demise of anti-aircraft artillery in 1955/6. The battery itself was demolished for housing development in the 1980s, leaving the detached command post only remaining.

The command post is sited within a fruit orchard and consists of a central rectangular concrete block, flanked at either end by two pairs of smaller detached buildings.

The central block has an open element on its roof consisting of several instrument bays, including a central walled enclosure at the rear, containing an instrument pillar. The roof is accessed both externally via a wide ramp from a field to the front and internally via two doorways from the operations rooms below. The six large rooms of the latter are also accessed from two entrances to this building at its rear. The internal dividing walls of the main operations room are variously of concrete block and brick construction. One of the rooms has electrical switch gear on its wall. The larger of the rooms was for plotting purposes and its equipment would have provided an interface with radar, with which the site was equipped.

The two pairs of detached buildings on either flank consist in either case of a concrete garage like building and another rectangular and roofless structure." (1)

Description from record TQ 87 NW 1059:
Concrete constructed building for anti-aircraft radar site.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : Yes
How accessed for survey : Via public footpath.
Tourism Potential : None.
Condition : Very poor
Date of visit : 07/03/18

2020: Most of the structures have been demolished, and the only surviving feature is the western generator shelter.

Army., 01/01/43, Fixed Defences Thames and Medway. (Article in monograph). SKE14419.

Army., 01/01/43, Fixed Defences Thames and Medway. (Article in monograph). Ske14419.

MMRG, 03/07/07, AA radar site (Photograph). SKE14586.

MMRG, 03/07/07, AA radar site (Photograph). Ske14586.

1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9445.

1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9445.

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

Sources and further reading

Related records