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Monument details
| HER Number: | TR 46 NW 74 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Site of Joss Bay battery, North Foreland, Broadstairs and St. Peters |
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Summary
The Joss Bay Coastal Battery was an emergency battery comprising of two 6" guns from 1941. It replaced an earlier battery further south. It was on the site of the current Broadstairs Headworks.
| Grid Reference: | TR 4014 6980 |
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| Map Sheet: | TR46NW |
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| Parish: | BROADSTAIRS AND ST PETERS, THANET, KENT |
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Monument Types
Full description
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Joss Bay Coastal WW2 battery was an emergency battery comprising of 2 6" guns from 1941. It replaced an earlier battery further south. It was on the site of the current Broadstairs Headworks. (1)
The development and eventual dismantling of the coastal battery at Joss Bay (from 1942 to 1946) was observed through a series of aerial photographs taken during the Second World War. The earliest available photograph of the site, taken in January 1941 (2), shows the four tower structure built to hold the guns. Each pair of gun structures is linked with a V-shaped bank that has a circular bank at the tip (the function of which is unknown).
Other military features include a V-shaped slit trench behind the towers (measuring approximately 13m in length); an L-shaped slit trench and associated structure located approximately 80m west of the northerly tower; two rectangular structures each with a square hole in one end (possible gun pits) measuring approximately 6m by 4m.
To the north of the gun emplacement there are three rectangular structures (possible pillboxes), an L-shaped slit trench and a thick U-shaped bank measuring almost 6m in width with a circular gun pit cut into the bank on the bottom edge of the bank. To the south of the coastal battery there is a tall tower structure, possibly a Coastal Artillery Searchlight (CAS), measuring approximately 6m squared.
Photographs taken in May 1942 (3) show that the coastal battery towers are banked over and concealed by turf. There is a group of four small buildings located directly behind the gun emplacement that are only visible in this photograph and were probably just temporary buildings associated with the functioning of the gun emplacement, perhaps storage or for personnel. The two rectangular structures with the gun pits at one end are still visible and in between them is a square structure that has been banked up on three sides. The slit trench and structure to the west of the gun emplacement have been backfilled and dismantled. Two Nissen huts are visible lying end to end, measuring approximately 5m wide and 12m and 22m long. These structures are surrounded by a bank and there is also a short length of barbed wire present.
To the north, the U-shaped bank has been levelled and is replaced with a single structure (possible pillbox). The smaller structure to the east is gone and another one has been built to the west. The structure further south has been concealed with a turf bank, and a circular gun pit has been constructed beside it. On the cliff edge in front of the battery there is a structural element that may be an observation point. Another circular gun pit is also visible and is associated with a small structure (measuring 2m by 1.3m), and three additional slit trenches have been excavated running parallel to the coastline measuring around 3m in length and under a metre wide. The CAS is still visible in 1942. Enclosing most of these features is a vast series of barbed wire lengths and road blocks.
By April 1946 (4) the coastal battery is being dismantled. All the barbed wire has been removed and the turf banking over the large gun emplacement towers has gone revealing the individual towers and the structures that adjoin them. Several of the buildings surrounding the gun emplacement are still visible along with the tall CAS structure. The Nissen huts have been removed and all the slit trenches and gun pits are backfilled. By April 1950 (5) all the remaining structures are gone.
<1> Untitled Source, Wessex Archaeology, DBA 1997. (Unpublished document). SKE6451.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | <1> | Unpublished document: Wessex Archaeology, DBA 1997.. |
