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

Cornhill Coastguard Station

Monument Types

• COASTGUARD STATION (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• SIGNAL STATION (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

Overlooking Langdon Hole on a prominence called Cornhill was sited a coastguard station. Its' location was probably dictated by the presence of Langdon Stairs,a cliff path which would have been favoured by smugglers. The sequence of maps indicate that there was probably at least two phases in the development of the site. It began as a signal station in the 18th century as recorded in Hasted and the OS surveyor's draft maps. In the early part of the 19th century it became a Preventative Station, where a team from the Preventative Guard patrolled and guarded the stretch of coastline from St Margaret's to Dover. After 1833 it became the Coastguard Station. The ground plan shown on the tithe map for West Cliffe shows a rectaungular building with its' long side facing the sea. It is similar in plan to the coastguard buildings still extant at Birling Gap, East Dean in East Sussex. The eastern end of the Cornhill Station was probably the Chief Boatman's dwelling with the remaining part of the terrace the quarters for the coastguard men. The watch house and signal shed lay on the seaward side and the whole was enclosed with a perimeter wall. Whether the station was in use during the First World War is not known but by the 1930s the buildings appear to have been in part removed as indicated by the OS6" provisional edition. However either before or during the Second World War the coastguard buildings were pulled down and an anti-aircraft gun position was built on the site with an associated pillbox 100m to the north. It is likely that this was a heavy ani-aircraft gunposition given the structure of the shelter and the observation post shown on a 1961 oblique aerial photograph at CKS. The sites of the holdfasts for the guns were not located. Only a rectangular building platform survives on the edge of the cliff. The buildings are still recorded on current OS maps. It is probable that they were demolished as part of KCC's eyesore removal programme.(1)

<1> Nicola Bannister, 1999, Langdon Cliffs Survey (Unpublished document). SKE6595.

Sources and further reading